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 ^^.