Atari Legend

[Champions_2002]

We at Atari Legend are in the process of re-designing the site, so we would like some feedback on what the people of Atari Forum would like to see on our site..

[simonsunnyboy]

Most people would check more than one box so this sort of poll seems not appropriate.

I'd use all of them but the chat option. Esp a demos section and one for menues would be extremely nice.

[Tomchi]

AL chat is so funny, everytime I go on AL page, I give a look at the chat !!!

I also cry everytime I check if the Demos button works
Demos section would be nice indeed !

Just like Ssb I would use all of them !!!

[Zorro 2]

I would like to see the Demo part open soon but Marcer was on it since 2 years, no ?

I see the next chart last year and I be so impatient to see the new wave of this website...

Brume, qd est-ce que l'on se voit ?

[StickHead]

I agree with Simon. I clicked 'Games', but demos, reviews, interviews, articles, all really useful/interesting.

[christos]

Falcon? TT? Clones? I agree with the rest. Everything is useful

[RetroGamerUK]

Well since I am the only one who has used the AL chat in weeks (up until yesterday anyhow) I think I will vote for it in the official poll just to be different.
I agree with SSB though as I would also use AL for more than one thing, I would use it for Games and Menus, maybe the odd Demo from time to time...

[Champions_2002]

So do you want to keep all the options that are on the website now.

Are there any other options you would like

[RetroGamerUK]

How about some sort of central archive of atari related events forthcoming and past such as outline, Jagfest, perhaps even non-atari only events such as retro north etc???
Available photos, personal accounts of the events etc could be put in one place??
Or at least linked from one place rather than dotted about in the forum?
I dont see any reason to remove any of the existing buttons, and I can't think of any more buttons to include.

[simonsunnyboy]

"Weltanschauung" by twh and Lotek Style is what you seek. Ask Lotek for the URL....

[b..o..b]

Great to see you're doing some work on the Atari Legend website!

First let me say I think it's a great job to run a site like AL which has a huge content and that I always considered a reliable source for Atari ST information. So kudos to the Atari Legend team.

Seeing other sites though, I do believe there is room for improvements. Because I'm not a scener or dev, my comments will probably deviate from the average interest of the in-crowd

1. Add game ratings
2. Add a scanning function as default instead of search, click on 'a', 'b' 'c' or 'd' etc to see the games beginning with that letter and make it a "Screenshot Search" without selecting it.
3. Frontpage more exciting (less scene news, more common interest news)
With common interest I mean: new homebrew, latest interview with developers, cool hardware projects, updates, retro news etc. The sceners have enough ways to exchange information and are used to communication through the forums. You could add a separate section for demos (button already exist).
4. Latest comments on the frontpage instead of reviews.
5. Better lay-out for games and comments more integrated.
6. List of the best rated games on the game page.

The content of the site is already great, and I see lots of effort has been put into making it.

Another suggestion:

Add a way to voluntary donate , show in the profile and vissible in comments who is a supporting member and spend the money wisely
Even if you don't need the money, people seem to be more involved if they have paid for something they like.

Just my 0.02 Euro. Looking forward to see the changes, wathever they will be.

[RetroGamerUK]

"Weltanschauung" by twh and Lotek Style is what you seek. Ask Lotek for the URL....

Thanks but I am not personally looking for such a thing, I just thought it may be an idea for a new "button" on AL so that those who want to look up events past and forthcoming could do so easily.
Perhaps even in English?
Anyway, its only a suggestion.

Hehe, I like bob's "donate" suggestion, would give users another thing to brag about on their signatures

[aktiv8]

As Simon Sunnyboy said, there are multiple choices people will want to pick, however I do think the amalgamation of the site with the contents of the old Pacigame and pacidemo sites would tick two of the boxes above - Demos and Menus

Of course, with more download options in place, there would perhaps have to be some sort of bandwidth limitations to reduce cost to the admins etc,

[PaulB]

The bandwidth would go through the roof! Only dedicated server hosting would do the job with at least 10gb a month bandwidth but it's very expensive.

It's a shame there aren't any Uni ftp's out there with demos and menu disks on it, then there could be direct links to the files on the ftp site.

[simonsunnyboy]

Unis pay for bandwidth too, don't expect net is free. And here in Germany atleast, the network access is normally granted for educational and scientific purposes. Other uses are implied but officially not allowed.

Why not open a spot for donations for AL and add some bandwith? Anyway to reduce bndwidth you can limit each download to few K per second. That way leechers don't have real fun while it is ok for all other people who just download one or things when really needed.

[PaulB]

I didn't realise to be honest. I thought that because Uni's run their own servers that it may be minimal cost but obviously that's not the case.

I think the only way to go then is the donation option to improve on bandwidth and disk space. Keeping the download speed lower is a good idea SSB as it will stop people downloading things just for the sake of having it. I'd be willing to donate a few quid via Paypal too.

[aktiv8]

Yep unis pay shed loads for bandwidth. Here in the Uk its "bought" for a better choice of words from the JANET network or something along those lines anyway - It's been a while since I had to read about and write about such things

This is one of the reasons why my university blocked P2P (well attempted to - shhhh, there are many easy ways around it). Firstly to minimise protential legal matters and secondly to save hell of a lot of money on bandwidth.

This is what I said (sort of) in the earlier post however, the bandwidth limits some of the options. However, the site from my understanding always wanted at some point to host (for example) the menus etc.

Maybe games/menus/demos/whatever could be cycled on a monthly basis like Mikes Aussie site did ???

[RetroGamerUK]

What about databases of menus / demos - like the games database, with screenshots, credits etc but instead of hosting them all on AL and asking for donations why not just link people to planetemu?
The cost to support a server like has been suggested, even with download speed restricitions, would require constant funding, not just a few quid one offs...
Ask Unseen Menace what happened when he asked for "donations" to host the GBST archive....
But hey, I could be wrong
So again, perhaps it would be better to link people to Planetemu for individual downloads and then maybe offer some sort of "mass download" service of whole menu groups etc, for a "small, reasonable donation via Paypal"?
There will always be romkiddies looking to download everything and so maybe the money made from this could also prop up other aspects of the site?

[PaulB]

Another idea is to offer (similar to Mikes Atari site) is a cd full of whatever you want as long as it's available, to put on for a set fee. All profits go back to AL hosting. How many people would want this service though I can't say. Another option I guess would be advertising (which sucks).

Pointing to planetemu is a fair idea but I reckon point to the page for the download rather than the download itself or they'll get the arse about hotlinking.

[RetroGamerUK]

Another idea is to offer (similar to Mikes Atari site) is a cd full of whatever you want as long as it's available, to put on for a set fee. All profits go back to AL hosting.

If someone or some people would be willing to provide this service indefinitely and at a quick turn around time then it would work of course, but would it not be easier and better for the [holds 2 fingers up on each hand palms forward] - environment to allow the downloading of such files for a fee, perhaps charge so much per megabyte, include an "add to basket" facility etc..

Pointing to planetemu is a fair idea but I reckon point to the page for the download rather than the download itself or they'll get the arse about hotlinking.

I was thinking the same thing but couldn't put it into words
Actually, if it were me I would just send everyone to the main Planetemu page every time, and when they get stuck it's their own fault for being thick

[aktiv8]

Both ideas by Paul and RG are good ones... a CD would cover costs, but maybe time issues become involved? Certainay donations are never the most popular things, but sometimes unavoidable. Certainly advertising can help towards costs, but to put it mildly, it sucks.

Linking to Planetemu is good, but in someways perhaps goes away from what AL was described as in the past - a (downloadable) source of (all) things Atari (please correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a long day!).

However, I do think that for games/demos/menus then external linking may be the only way to keep costs down, especially as we have seen AF and AL go offline at times since the bandwidth has been exceeded for various reasons.

[Mug UK]

We're looking into the possibility of a donation button purely for the bandwidth costs. The rest of the site we do for the love of all things Atari

[bullis1]

I voted menus.

I have a question about the redesign: will the game comments be lost? The comments made over the years contain some really great information and opinions and I wouldn't want the current comments to be lost when the new design is uploaded. What will happen?

[Cyrano Jones]

Or perhaps find a decent host. The D-Bug hosts give us unlimited bandwidth.

[Klapauzius]

I have a question about the redesign: will the game comments be lost? The comments made over the years contain some really great information and opinions and I wouldn't want the current comments to be lost when the new design is uploaded. What will happen?

The game comments will certainly be transferred to the new design.

Klaz