Leaderboard

Looking at the games you associate with music of the day thread I thought it might be interesting to see what game soundtrack you associate with a particular PC or console. For me when I think about tha Amiga I am automatically whistling the tune of Garrison ... that awful Gauntlet rip-off but which has a stunning loading tune. Then there's Arcadia's Sidewinder track and Hybris which were also cool... and the games were much better as an added bonus. For the Atari 800 it's Thorn EMI's Computer Wars in game music and for the Atari ST it's Gauntlet 2. For the N64 it has to be Banjo Kazooie. What an intro that one had. Interstingly, I cannot think of a single standout music wise on the games I played on the PSX. Although, if you include an intro in its entirety I'd have to say that Soul Blade keeps me coming back just to watch it. Very atmospheric....

Well ..... it looks like I am at a loose end until Phillyman get's all the other esoteric mag area's sorted out anyway so I am on a hiatus until then. Probably until he gets the next release of the site software up and running actually, when we should be able to easily incorporate alternate links rather than having to add them to the description field. So at this stage I am not scanning anything new .... just taking some much needed time out with family & friends.

Just an update so you guys know what I am doing behind the scenes..... I am currently bringing things back online, I have started with the Nintendo Power section first. Now I could just go to town getting the Nintendo Power Download section back up....Or I could get everything Nintendo Power related up to date and organized. I have decided to get each publication fixed across the board....so what does that mean? 1) Find the Nintendo Power section in our Gallery, rename those cryptic names such as "np 07-06" to "Nintendo Power Issue 216" 2) Go into the Nintendo Power section in our Download Manager....and remove the broken Rapidshare and Local links. Replace the local link with a working MegaUpload link. Link the Screen shot from our Gallery to the Download Manager...and approve the file for viewing by the rest of the site. 3) Go into the back end of the website and find the Nintendo Power category for the Download Section.....and enable everyone to be able to download (since they are no longer hosted here) 4) Go into the Project Tracker and find the Nintendo Power category and make sure that statuses are set correctly. Also link the screenshot from our Gallery into each magazines status page. I know that looks like a lot of work, and for the bigger publications it will be. I will be bringing up the biggest ones first.... Nintendo Power EGM GamePro Bear with me as I get us back on our feet

So where do we go from here? Well we look at other viable options to distribute our current library of preserved magazines. Let me first say that we got off pretty easy, its been 4 years that this website has been around and this is the first violation we have received. Our hosting company would have been well within their rights to just delete this website once that violation was found. They instead gave us a warning and for that I am grateful. I want you all to keep in mind that things could have been a lot worse (ex. C&D). So lets address some of the current concerns and options...... Torrents - Ah the mighty torrent! This is how Retromags started off, 4 years ago when I put that first issue of Nintendo Power online....it was via a torrent on Mininova. The Pro's of using a torrent was that everyone shared responsibility for helping others get that file, we also got a nice traffic boost back in those days from the popularity of being on the front page of Mininova. So what were the Con's??? No one wanted to help seed the files once received. I know what your saying, but Phillyman you can surely seed them for us! Well first off I like my speedy internet connection and I would not be seeding files from 9am-11pm each night. The other issue is that I only have 1 option for a high speed ISP where I live, so if they deem that I am using too much bandwidth and terminate my service.....well thats not a chance I will take. Overall the problem is that torrents are a hit or miss....I am not sure how much success we would have with getting people to seed (without going to a private tracker) MegaUpload/Rapidshare - This option is a bit better for our needs, it allows our members to upload once and have multiple people download afterwards. But this presents a problem for people who do not have a premium account with those services. Rapidshare has seemingly become a shitty site where you get capped and files still get deleted. MegaUpload is a better choice but is still a single point of failure....basically if they see a crapload of traffic from us....they may do the same thing that my webhost did and send a violation to me. Newsgroups - This is one of my favorite ways to distribute files, but its unknown to many of you guys. Basically you have these Usenet servers that allow people to upload files and have other people download them. Once a file has been uploaded it can stay active for 6-9 months on a good premium news server. I currently use Newshosting.com for my needs and they only cost $20 a month.....at worse that would get you the entire collection of magazines. The only issue is that I would need to keep reuploading the collection every 6-9 months. Hard drive/DVD Distributing - I am only mentioning this one so that someone doesnt mention it later. Yes I could allow you guys to send me blank hard drives and payment for return postage......but I am going to be 100% honest......I am horrible at remembering things. I am even worse at organization.....so this would never work as an option. All of the above are viable options for getting the magazines distributed...so what am I thinking? The best way is whatever way needs the least interaction from me, Dont get me wrong, I love this site....but I am not always available or free to do things around here. Its better when the workload is distributed among everyone here, that way nothing falls through the cracks. Right now MegaUpload and other file services are looking very good for replacements. I also see no reason why I can not take our 72.5GB collection and split it up into 10GB chunks for distribution each month. I could upload the first 10 gigs of magazines to a Newsgroup each month and circulate through those each month. The next version of the Download Section will have some unique features that should help us out greatly..... Multiple Screenshots - We will soon be able to upload multiple screenshots for each file in the Download Section.....1 for the cover and 2-3 for the Table of Contents? Multiple Files Per Record - We will soon be able to have multiple files per record, maybe a .cbr and .pdf version for each magazine. We will see how its implemented Multiple Off Site Mirrors - We will soon be able to have multiple download links show up in the Download Section. Maybe 1 for MegaUpload, 1 for Rapidshare and 1 for some other site? I know that this site sucks right now, This weekend I will try my best to redo the Nintendo Power section and bring it up by Sunday Night. Its going to take a lot of work to redo the Download section....but if I can get a few hands to help out.....we can cut down on the time needed to accomplish it!