C4A - adding new mame games - updated method * no poll *

[b_o_b]

Hi all,

Until now I have requested Skeezix to add a list of games to C4A based on a monthly poll, but I have decided to stop doing that.

Reasons:

1. I want to spend the time saved with this new method on some other stuff.
2. Task was becoming a bit repetitive, so I am less motivated.  
3. Games that are most interesting for me personally can't be added or are already added

I talked to Skeezix about it and he basically told me to 'do whatever you want and the way you want to do it'.

So this is my idea

I will monthly choose the games to be added

Only the following categories can be candidates to be added to C4A (all testing methods are described in this post)

A. Games that have been fully tested by a community member and passed. Both hi-files are uploaded - so vanilla / default - and high hi-file. Banner is uploaded too.  
B. Games that haven't been tested but both hi-files are uploaded so vanilla / default - and high hi-file. *Banner will be uploaded by community member after succesful testing by me
C. Games that haven't been tested but both hi-files are uploaded so vanilla / default - and high hi-file. *Banner will not be uploaded by community member after succesful testing and requests me to do it.

So requests without hi files will not be handled.

I will choose category A games first on first come first served basis.
If there is no game in category A available I will choose a category B game and if B is not available I will choose a category C game.

If there is no Category A, B or C game there will not be any game added to C4A that month, I hope this will not happen for quite some time though. There are still tested and passed games I can choose from.

Hope this makes sense.If not let me know, also if you don't agree or you want to volunteer to take over the task - of course in that case you need to understand the testing procedure -. You can use PM or add a reply to this topic.     



 

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Can someone create an overall app too basically scan users' sd cards and look for games with high scores and post them?

 

[ekianjo]

Can someone create an overall app too basically scan users' sd cards and look for games with high scores and post them?

Why do you need that? That's what C4A does already.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

What I'm trying to say is for C4A, one has to add C4A support to each game.  The app I'm talking about is, it doesn't matter what game you play, as long as the game supports scoring, you launch this app and it would scan your pandora for all the games you play and posts the scores to the server similar to your BGS where it scans for saved games to backup.  Ah! Now that I think of it, you should create this app since you did similar stuff for BGS so b_o_b doesn't have to ask/poll for games to add to C4A 

 

[ekianjo]

What I'm trying to say is for C4A, one has to add C4A support to each game.  The app I'm talking about is, it doesn't matter what game you play, as long as the game supports scoring, you launch this app and it would scan your pandora for all the games you play and posts the scores to the server similar to your BGS where it scans for saved games to backup.  Ah! Now that I think of it, you should create this app since you did similar stuff for BGS so b_o_b doesn't have to ask/poll for games to add to C4A 

Do you understand how C4A works ? It looks for the code in the game to find where the scores are saved. It's not simple and it takes times to find that. You can't just expect to have an universal system that will work for all games released in history. For every game added in C4A there is manual work required.  

Read this : http://pandoralive.info/?p=185

 

[b_o_b]

Yes, ekianjo is right. There is room for improvement though. Testing could be more efficient if some of the manual testing was done by a program. e.g. the script from Skeezix could be made to work on the Pandora and able to mass test all hi files. Then as output it could give a list of all games passed and failed.

Folks with tons of hi files on their Pandora could then run the program and upload the successful tested hi - files and I could copy / paste the results in the excel list. 

 

[skeezix]

There was also the big design question .. if we just throw up 10,000 scores, everythign gets lost in the mud; imagine a gameroom with 10,000 games, and 30 people in it; you'd see one person here or there, and hopefulyl with luck, a clump somewhere.

I worry there is really a sweet spot for game count .. like 15 or 20 games say (arcade wise, not counting indie titles which should be kept up always, but perhaps separated into left/right halves of the website sort of thing); pick a random 15 games, plus a common 5 always present, out of a pool of 50 or whatever games. Or have the big full list, but with some X number highlighted (the "ROT" group as we'd talked about before.) Some way to funnel peopel towards a clump of games (for competition sake), while keeping the others available (for 'all time' scorers, or for vendettas, or for personal bests, etc.)

*shrug*

There is also the idea of running a small compo, and growing the base across more platforms, and lots of other ideas..

.. hard to figure out exactly what direction to go in, and what to do to keep things 'fun and busy'

Input welcome

My time is very limited unfortunately, and I have to pick and choose amongst a few hobbies and put a bit of time there, to keep from going crazy; any help is welcome (this is why I let b_o_b run the show

jeff

 

[levi]

I like the idea of the all-time list, in a kind of Twin Galaxies thing, but also having a monthly focus for Emulated games would be a good thing. I'd as a first instinct suggest not making it too big a list to focus people's energies. 10 games is over twice as many as ROT1 had every month and that worked for me, although I suppose now we have many more active players.


Also, why not have an Indie ROT as well?

 

[skeezix]

(woops, wrong thread)

 

[Kumaki]

OK, so what games got released so far that I might not know about.

I lost my link to the hi score page that had all the marquees on it...when I had to wipe my computer because of a virus.

Help, please!

Direct me to the page?

 

[levi]

Um, c4a.openpandora.org ?

 

[Kumaki]

Ummm...thanks.

 

[comradekingu]

Can someone create an overall app too basically scan users' sd cards and look for games with high scores and post them?

That would be spyware, so no.

 

[Kumaki]

Well, it would NOT be spyware if someone willingly activated said app.

And if there was a warning box before it started, with an opportunity to abort...which said exactly what it was going to do.

It would have to be an app that could only be user-activated...and also have a warning box like I mentioned otherwise, yeah, that would be spyware.

 

[levi]

Yeah, unless it was not put into the OS, or hidden in another PND I already have installed and didn't do it's work silently without user confirmation of some sort, I certainly wouldn't consider it spyware.  As far as I know no one's suggesting that it should do that either.