Transcribers needed? + Database discussion

[16bitsOfHerbert]

Hi!

I'm a new member here at retromags. By starting a wikipedia video game article I ended up here, and realized how valuable a database with video game magazine article information would be for us wikipedians. Therefore I would love to transcribe some magazines.

Firstly, I wonder if there is any need for transcribers, i.e. someone that puts notes about articles in a database. If the new database (described here: http://community.retromags.com/topic/8311-retromags-20-arrives-in-2013-now-100-funded/#.UPUu-SftWSo) is on its way, there is maybe no point in starting now, as the work needed to port it to the new database maybe would be even greater than transcribing. So how is the Database progress going?

Secondly, I have some database experience myself and would like to propose a SQL database schema (modified slightly from the posted one):

Retromags SQL Database Schema Proposal

Magazines - This is used for Magazine information, not about specific issues.

id (key)

name

country

editor

publisher

Issues - (Often) used in conjunction with Magazines table.

magazine_id (key)

issue_number (key)

year

month

contents_summary

cover_page_link

download_link

Games

id (key)

genre (necessary?)

country (necessary?)

publisher_id

release_date

youtube_video

game_synopsis

Quotes from the reviews of the time it was released (NP, GamePro, EGM, etc)

Note about the Games table: Ratings are not needed in Games table because of Articles table.

Articles - Would often be used to find information about which magazine issues hold information about a specific game. Highly valuable for wikipedians ^^.

game_id (The id of the game in the article)

magazine_id (The id of the magazine the article is in)

issue (The issue of the magazine)

page (The page in the magazine the article starts on)

rating (The rating in the article, or mean of rating in percent)

quote (One quote from the article)

Publishers

id (key)

name

Advertisement_scans

game_id

link

Game_names - Used since games can have different names (e.g. Contra III: The Alien Wars, Contra Spirits, Super Probotector). Makes the schema much more searchable.

game_id

name

At first, this database design may seem overly complicated, but there are some advantages over the posted one:

• More searchable.
• Less redundancy (Saves space).
• Still highly usable due to the SQL JOIN.
• Less room for spelling mistakes, due to no names being keys.

Probably the database schema being worked on looks more like this instead of the one posted.

Please criticize and point out mistakes, I can take it.

Thirdly, I'm looking for a scan of Game Player's 41, June 1994 ^^.

[E-Day]

You should contact Phillyman through private message, as he is the one implementing the databases.

As for Game Players, I don't think anyone has that issue. No one has scanned it yet. Phillyman might have it though; he has boxes and boxes of magazines laying around his home and work!

[DPsx7]

Dammit! I have April 94 and July 94. So close. I never had a sub, instead a friend gave me a few stacks when he was cleaning out. Have plenty of later ones though.

*Well that's weird. I wanted to see what mags you might have been missing but the games, mags, and guides tabs at the top don't work. The page doesn't change. The gallery, forums, and other tabs are fine though.

[Areala]

GP June 1994 has Earthworm Jim on the cover, right? I'll look through the stacks and see if I have it.

*huggles*
Areala

[KiwiArcader]

Dammit! I have April 94 and July 94. So close. I never had a sub, instead a friend gave me a few stacks when he was cleaning out. Have plenty of later ones though.

*Well that's weird. I wanted to see what mags you might have been missing but the games, mags, and guides tabs at the top don't work. The page doesn't change. The gallery, forums, and other tabs are fine though.

Yeah .... navigation is a bit borked. Just click on one of the latest submissions and it takes to the page

[16bitsOfHerbert]

Dammit! I have April 94 and July 94. So close. I never had a sub, instead a friend gave me a few stacks when he was cleaning out. Have plenty of later ones though.

*Well that's weird. I wanted to see what mags you might have been missing but the games, mags, and guides tabs at the top don't work. The page doesn't change. The gallery, forums, and other tabs are fine though.

Or you can try this link: http://community.retromags.com/files/

None of them seems to be uploaded already.

The tabs doesn't work for me either. I believe it has to do with the events described in the beginning of this post: http://community.retromags.com/topic/8311-retromags-20-arrives-in-2013-now-100-funded/#.UPZ23iftWSo and will maybe be fixed soon.

[16bitsOfHerbert]

GP June 1994 has Earthworm Jim on the cover, right? I'll look through the stacks and see if I have it.

*huggles*

Areala

I cannot find any front cover for that issue, but it's possible. If the Earthworm Jim one isn't #41, you should still upload it anyway. #41 will be used for a video game Wikipedia article.

[Areala]

Sadly my scanner isn't working so even if I find it I can't upload anything. If I found it though, I could post it to someone else for them to scan. No luck yet...

*huggles*
Areala

[Phillyman]

Hello 16bitsOfHerbert,

We are creating the custom databases via the forum software that is used by this website. I am pretty sure that it can handle everything above, it's just going to be tricky to call fields from relational databases into the page template for the database. This is why I need to hire someone familiar with Invision Power Board and the module IP.Content. The only issue I can see in the above schema is how we would handle magazines that changed publishing companies? Nintendo Power was handled by Nintendo up until around 2006, and then went to Future Publishing.

As far as the gaming database, some of the information is there only for reference. While we don't "need" to put in the genre or country information, but it may come in handy down the line. Once we start getting information from Japanese magazines.....some of that information will only pertain to games that were released in Japan. The genre field will be just used for sorting and filtering search results. I hope to have it where users can go into the game database and choose "Super Nintendo" and "RPG" and only see the games that meet that criteria.


Just to show the complexity of pulling information out of the database and into a webpage using PHP,,,,,,

<table class='ipb_table'>
	<tr class='header'>
	<th scope='col' style='width: 25%'> </th>
		<th scope='col' style='width: 45%'> </th>
	</tr>
		{parse striping="maps" classes="row1,row2"}
		<foreach loop="$records as $r">
			<tr>
				<td>
					{$r['field_16']}
				</td>
				<td>
						{$r['field_17']}
				</td>
			</tr>
		</foreach>
</table>
<br />

[DPsx7]

That link works. How up to date are those lists? At first I was going to say I've a lot that isn't scanned, a couple early Game Players, all of PSM past issue 11, and I think I had some Dreamcast mags, but then thought they might not be there because of your '99 cutoff if that's still in effect.

[16bitsOfHerbert]

Hello 16bitsOfHerbert,

We are creating the custom databases via the forum software that is used by this website. I am pretty sure that it can handle everything above, it's just going to be tricky to call fields from relational databases into the page template for the database. This is why I need to hire someone familiar with Invision Power Board and the module IP.Content. The only issue I can see in the above schema is how we would handle magazines that changed publishing companies? Nintendo Power was handled by Nintendo up until around 2006, and then went to Future Publishing.

As far as the gaming database, some of the information is there only for reference. While we don't "need" to put in the genre or country information, but it may come in handy down the line. Once we start getting information from Japanese magazines.....some of that information will only pertain to games that were released in Japan. The genre field will be just used for sorting and filtering search results. I hope to have it where users can go into the game database and choose "Super Nintendo" and "RPG" and only see the games that meet that criteria.

Just to show the complexity of pulling information out of the database and into a webpage using PHP,,,,,,

<table class='ipb_table'>
	<tr class='header'>
	<th scope='col' style='width: 25%'> </th>
		<th scope='col' style='width: 45%'> </th>
	</tr>
		{parse striping="maps" classes="row1,row2"}
		<foreach loop="$records as $r">
			<tr>
				<td>
					{$r['field_16']}
				</td>
				<td>
						{$r['field_17']}
				</td>
			</tr>
		</foreach>
</table>
<br />

Sounds great! Tell me when you need a transcriber.