Retromags 2.0 arrives in 2013! - Now 100% FUNDED!

[E-Day]

I forgot to invoke the Christmas skin this year. Or the GamePro tribute logo for the one year anniversary of their demise. Damn!

[Areala]

Does the board software allow for queued skin changes/alterations? If so, maybe that's a possibility for this upgrade as well?

*huggles*
Areala

[Phillyman]

Does the board software allow for queued skin changes/alterations? If so, maybe that's a possibility for this upgrade as well?

*huggles*

Areala

I am not sure what you mean. It allows for multiple skins that can be applied to the entire site.

[KiwiArcader]

What would be really cool is the ability to select a skin per forum section, eg, go to an Xbox section and the skin is Xbox oriented and ditto for PlayStation or Nintendo sections etc.

[Phillyman]

What would be really cool is the ability to select a skin per forum section, eg, go to an Xbox section and the skin is Xbox oriented and ditto for PlayStation or Nintendo sections etc.

Probably possible, although when you start getting into heavy modifications like that.....

1) You need to hire a custom php coder that is familiar with this forum software

2) Each time a security release or upgrade is released for the board, it usually breaks custom mod's like that

So in the end you need to hire someone to code that feature, and then go back to them 1-2 times a year to update the mod to work with newer versions of the board. In a nutshell..... $$$

[E-Day]

I am not sure what you mean. It allows for multiple skins that can be applied to the entire site.

I think she means that you can queue up a skin to change on a certain date. For example, on December 1st, the skin automatically changes to a Christmas themed one that has been set up ahead of time, and then changes back to the normal skin automatically on January 2nd. Or in July it changes to a Nintendo Power skin for the month.

[DPsx7]

I'd have to see the new logo before agreeing. The current one works well, it's colorful and retro but without looking very dated. Maybe it's the font.

What happens if I like the old logo but still want a new darker theme?

[Areala]

I think she means that you can queue up a skin to change on a certain date. For example, on December 1st, the skin automatically changes to a Christmas themed one that has been set up ahead of time, and then changes back to the normal skin automatically on January 2nd. Or in July it changes to a Nintendo Power skin for the month.

Yeah, that's exactly what I mean. Kind of like how I can write a blog entry, but instead of posting it immediately, I can date it to post at some time in the future.

*huggles*

Areala

[E-Day]

I'd have to see the new logo before agreeing. The current one works well, it's colorful and retro but without looking very dated. Maybe it's the font.

What happens if I like the old logo but still want a new darker theme?

That is what I was going for. It's the Intellivision font with 80's style gradient shading. You can't see it at its current size, but the letters are also speckled with colour. You can see it when viewing a Thank You page at full size.

I am actually leaning towards wiping everything old from the site (including my lovely logo) if we are going to re-do and restructure the whole site. Maybe bring it back once in a blue moon for some special reason. Unless there is a way for the user to choose their own skin preference and logo preference.

[Phillyman]

Update:

Attached is an screenshot of how data will be entered into this new system. The image is what would be shown when "adding" a new record to the video game magazine database. Now keep in mind that I am going to mass import the most basic magazine information, such as....

• Category
• Magazine Title
• Issue #
• Month
• Year
• Country
• Language

So what does that mean, well for 99% of our members.....it means that when you go to "edit" a record, you will only see the fields that I underlined in green.

• Publisher
• Editor
• Summary of Contents
• Page Credits
• Cover Image

This will prevent accidental changes from being made on information we are 90% sure to be correct. This also will prevent overwhelming new members with 20 different fields to fill out when editing the database. In the end we are looking to automate what we can, and only request the information that is unknown to us. At the launch of Retromags 2.0, we will only allow the "adding" of new records by Super Moderators. Over time we will probably assign individual members to be Database Moderators of specific sections of our newly created databases.

Thoughts, Questions, Concerns?

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[Waremonger]

I have somewhere around 900 of the 1100 magazines. So once we get the database in place.....I will relink those....and then email the community to see if they can reupload the missing issues.

Give me a hollar when it's done and I'll re-upload all the magazines I've scanned. Maybe that'll get me re-motivated to start scanning again :-)

[Schloss Ritter]

I know this makes the scope more huge, but is there a chance we could eventually include the games covered in each mag and the page they are featured on?

I know this makes the scope more huge, but is there a chance we could eventually include the games covered in each mag and the page they are featured on?

[DPsx7]

I know this makes the scope more huge, but is there a chance we could eventually include the games covered in each mag and the page they are featured on?

I know this makes the scope more huge, but is there a chance we could eventually include the games covered in each mag and the page they are featured on?

That's a first. Does it count as a double post if it's IN the same post? Lol.

[Phillyman]

No but if someone posts in the same thread back to back within 5 minutes, it merges them.

[Schloss Ritter]

Yeah, I must have accidentally double posted thanks to a connection problem. Anyway, the question I asked still remains

[Areala]

I know this makes the scope more huge, but is there a chance we could eventually include the games covered in each mag and the page they are featured on?

I don't see why we couldn't. This is, after all, kind of what the Wiki was for (though my entries there usually omitted page numbers and instead chose to focus on what section each particular game appeared in (Reviews, Previews, etc...).

Putting together a database of this type is a mammoth undertaking, but its value to collectors and video game historians would be immense. I'm all for lending a hand to get it going.

*huggles*

Areala

[Phillyman]

With regards to the questions of.....

1) Will you be capturing the scores of reviewed games?

2) Will you capture what appeared in each page of the magazine?

The answer is.....we can sure as hell try

The beauty of a database is that it is meant for exactly this type of work. But I think we would need to have separate databases to capture different aspects of the magazines.

1) Magazine Database - Captures the following information for about 10,000-15,000 records.

• Magazine name
• Publisher
• Editor
• Summary of Contents
• Cover Image
• Number of Pages
• Month and Year of Release

2) The Video Game Database - Captures the following information for about 20,000-35,000 records.

• Game Name
• Platform
• Any Advertisement Images
• Synopsis of Game
• Youtube GamePlay Video
• Genre
• Country
• Publisher
• Developer

Now originally that was about where I was going to let it rest. But we could go for the gold and do the following......

Review Score Database - Captures the following information for about 120,000-210,000 records.

• Magazine Name
• Video Game Name
• Platform
• Review Type
• Review Score

Which would give you a set of records like....

MegaMan 5 | Nintendo Entertainment System | Nintendo Power Issue 44 | 3.82 out of 5 | 66%

MegaMan 6 | Nintendo Entertainment System | Nintendo Power Issue 55 | 3.65 out of 5 | 63%

Would it be pretty? Probably not.....but it would be handy!

Page Index Database - Captures the following information for about 1 MILLION records.

• Magazine Name
• Video Game Name
• Platform
• Page Number
• Type of Mention

This is where things would become crazy, because you are talking about listing out the contents of 10,000 video game magazines that contain approximately 100 pages each. Keep in mind that some pages may only mention 1 game, but many pages will mention 5-10 games (Cheat Codes, Previews, etc). This could not be contained within the magazine database, as it would be far too much information to fit in the text area along with all the other fields. Plus if you want control over being able to sort and filter this type of information....it needs to be entered in a specific way.....not just as one huge block of text. In the end it would result in something like.....

MegaMan 5 | Nintendo Entertainment System | Nintendo Power Issue 44 | Preview | Page 23

MegaMan 6 | Nintendo Entertainment System | Nintendo Power Issue 55 | Review | Page 45

So yeah, we are talking about capturing a HUGE amount of data. The hard part for me is making sure that I lay the groundwork for this system to be easy to use, and informational to our members. The other part is making sure I set it up correctly