Calling out to Classic Irish Gamers!!!

Altheus

I'm looking for people with an interest in classic games, from Atari to Vectrex, to start a classic gaming site, not to add to the floods of news sites out there, but to put out a weekly web based magazine for classic games. I've a lot of experience within the whole emulation "5k3n3" at the minute, and have hosting etc. etc. What I'm looking for are passionate writers, designers, and ideas to be thrown around.

LoGiE

Count me in! Emulation mad me:)

ozpass

Will it feature BBC Micro's in any capacity?

Altheus

Classic BBC Micro titles such as Granny's Garden are more than welcome

If you think you can put together a good article about the BBC micro then by all means you're welcome to write about it.

LoGiE

ozpass do we really want to hear about your unholy BBC Micro fetish?;)

TinCool

I'm definitely interested in this. Count me in for anything C64 or Atari ST related. I'd love to review some of my old fav's

bugs

Count me in, so long as its in line with something relatively recent. I draw the line at playing games sub commodore era. Cos it brings back bad memories or waiting ten minutes for a game to load and it not loading.

Hmmm, i know too much about neo geo tho

Placebo

Designers ? as in web designers ?

I could design your site if you want :P
I dont get much time , but i can come up with some thing if your looking for a website in flash .


Check out one i done recently , nothing fancy http://bionic4ever.tripod.com .

Will show you another one i am working on soon .

hamster

Altheus,

I have a lot of original C64 and Amiga stuff. If you ever need scans of Zzap64 (C64) or Amiga (Amiga Format)... original reviews, pictures or scans of original game boxes just ask. I know there is a lot of this out there but if you need something specific just ask!

Altheus

I'm really happy that your all interested, but I think we'll need more MORE MORE people to put out something that caters for everyone. Here a few of the concepts I have for the 'zine.

Cover Feature - This will go into depth into a certain aspect of the whole "retro" thing.

Several Mini-Features - This will cover articles over series, a few ideas I have for these are How to Build a MAME Cabinet, and Building Arcade Controls etc.

Review Aplenty! - These can vary in size, length etc. etc. I think it would be cool to cover Saga's

Face-Off: The Grudge Matches, I think it would be v. cool if we can organise a chat with some very opininated people to discuss the like of War of the 16-Bit Machines and such and such...

Emulation Roundup: This will be a roundup of emulation news for the week.

Abandonware Roundup: As part of this idea, I'm going to strive to have companies release their games to the public domain so hopefully a catalog of released downloadable old PC/Amiga games will be available for download through the site, and there'll be tutorials on getting them to run on your modern PC.

Feel free to post more ideas, I'm soaking them all in

Altheus

Placebo -

While I will need graphic designers, I'll probably take on the task of doing the actual website myself. However we'll need some people to create the graphics for articles, ala magazines. The sheer volume of which is way to much for just me to handle. So if you're still interested....

zAbbo

Talking about content at this stage isnt really the best idea, i know you may have a vision etc. but first thing first you need a site design | Layout etc.

1. Site Structure (asp/php/html)

2. Site Design

3. Content

its a bang on idea, i suppose i could help with one or two small things if i have time.

recent webby : www.quantummobiles.com

There are a number of Content Management Packages like phpNuke etc. - which could also help.

Do i get to talk about Midnight Resistance?

Altheus

The site design and layout is all in process and will be done, and believe me, content is always more important when it comes to this sort of thing.

As for the backend, I'm developing an ASP system for it, but I think a lot of this will done offline. The idea is to recreate the magazine feel online, and probably creating a PDF version for print. I've always considered a retro mag nesscessary, but for now I'm just trying to round up the troops and get people willing to put together the content, I've got the design and structure under control.

If you would you could help a lot with the ASP/PHP end of things. I'm not never gonna use PHPNuke, I'll sooner tweak NewsPro and run things thru a text database, it's almost like using an M$ Wizard to create a website

zAbbo

So you`re running an ASP Content System running off a database yah.

Tasty!

Anyway i can offer limited help on the coding and wot not, i could mayeb get a newsletter system going(mailing list thingy)

Anyway, any screenies etc.

Expected time, wot stage are u at

Well Played btw

Altheus

Well if it were a baby, I'd say it in the stage of the egg waiting for the right sperm.... weird analogy but hey!

The make up is all there, I've got the plans for the layout however I feel this needs to be somewhat original in style and feel in order to maintain reader's interest. This isn't going to be the next RetroGames or ZD's, and definitely not an old man's Gamespot. This is going to be something that will appeal to both people who played the originals, and the new age crowd of kiddies who never had the chance to enjoy the tea break you had while waiting for Ghostbusters to load on the C64, or know what it was like to use a rectangular joypad.

I've huge ambitions for the site and for these to be realised I really need to brainstorm with a few others to see what people really want from it.

As regards designs, there's a few I've been throwing about however the actual design will not be unveiled until opening! I also reckon I can get a lot of support from a few large scale emulation sites, so hopefully it'll get a good start,... soon!

Any ideas on names btw... Anything I think of sounds crap so far..

Ste-

I would gladly write an article on the genesis/megadrive
after playinmost of the games on the damned system
leaving my thumbs ****ed even tothis day has been the only donfall.
damn you sega and ur joypads.

anyway yeah count me in.

deadl0ck

I'd be interested also !!

If you need any help with programming etc.. on the site let me know

Altheus

I have to say I'm really happy with the response's so far. I'm in the process of building the design/concept still, but I'll be in touch with all of you who are interested as soon as I get the ball rolling.

stormkeeper

When you're up and running, if you wanted, I'll put up a link on my website in my links section, as my site primarily focuses on emulation, you would possibly get many of your intended readership (well, not including the boards ) via the link, though I'm only taking an educated guess at this point.

It's up to you if you want to or don't want to, but I just thought I'd post this anyway, to give you a helping hand.

btw, if you want to look at the site, it's at www.emulation-storm.com (the site needs lots of updating, which won't be done for a while)

(To the mods: Sorry if I'm breaking the rules, and if I am, please accept my apologies and please delete the link)

Retr0gamer

I wouldn't mind writing for the site. However I've got vast knowledge of the 8-bit and 16-bit console games but i'm not too interested in the home computers.

Altheus

Thanks in advance Kennett, that'd be v. cool.

Retr0gamer, well the idea is the people will write about what they want to so your welcome to.

What I'll do is send all the people who said they'd help out writing, a sample article of how things in the zine would be written. it is a loose guideline, but it'll give you a good idea of how the zine will read.

Just another thing in case I didnt make it clear, I dont want it to become just another emulation news site, there's plenty of them already

Site design is going well so far, but I'm still stuck for names so suggestions please!

Altheus

Well if you all checkout: http://www.milanet.ie/~andrew/godzine/

You'll see the basic structure of the magazine, I've already got a few writers and it's all going really well so far.

I'd ask you to just send me a paragraph on an aspect of retrogaming you loved and hated, just so I get an idea of what kind of writing you'd be best at.

Hope to hear from you all soon...

squishey

hmm very interesting, ASP backend, hosting......I wonder who you know who can do this? ;P

Altheus

Maybe a certain web design agency you might be thinking of, but I wouldnt want it to get in the way of my work now would I?

stormkeeper

just looked at the page... all i can say is that i look forward to seeing the first issue

deadl0ck

Have you phph / mySQL access >

I just redid my Site with phpNuke and it's the biz - very easy to install and use

Altheus

I'm not never gonna use PHPNuke, I'll sooner tweak NewsPro and run things thru a text database, it's almost like using an M$ Wizard to create a website

Heh, I've got the domain registered now, and I think sorted out hosting, perhaps I've got an ASP guy who can help out with a backend for the site, but again the important part of the site is going to be the content, and the magazine. I still aint got anything from anyone here but please do send stuff in.

deadl0ck

Fair enough.

Who's the quote from ?

Altheus

Yours truly, about 5 posts up....

deadl0ck

So you're against doing it the easy way ?

Why ?

I program all day in work - the last thing I want to do it program on my own website as well

Rev Hellfire

I suggest you use vi or maybe edlin to get that proper l33t3r than thou feeling going.

Altheus

Well I want to do it the more complicated way because I want it exactly as it needs to be, it also leaves more room for expansion in the future if we'll need it, it also leaves me a lot more headroom when it comes to designing the thing. If it does become a little too complicated I'll revert, but for now the server I'm on runs IIS and SQL Server, so I'm gonna go the ASP/SQL route, with a custom backend.

Altheus

RevHellfire: haw

It's not that I want it to be l33t, infact most of the readership wont have a bean as to how the site works. I just feel more comfortable with something I'll have a hand in designing.

It's not a l33t thing, isnt it not cool to use M$ products? :P

It may not be the easiest route to take for sure, but hey, is there ever an easy route.

super_furry

I could write some retro-reviews if you like, anything from the Atari 2600 to the Amiga.