Help required for the new BBC games archive

feedback, questions and discussion relating to www.bbcmicro.co.uk
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leenew
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by leenew »

tricky wrote:What is the plan for adding more titles?
Do you have to do it?
Is there a format that makes it a simple import task?
Not yet!
I made a list of titles that are in the STH collection and Pernod's collection that Mick is missing, but have not figured out the best way of uploading them yet.
They will first need to be made into nice SSDs which are consistent with the rest of them...
Lee
viewtopic.php?f=51&t=11468&p=148389&hil ... on#p148389
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pau1ie
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

The format that makes it a simple import task is SQL, though only Richard has taken advantage of that so far for some reason =P~

Seriously though, given the work needed to create the SSDs and screenshots, work out the metadata, decide on the categories, I don't think it is much more to write the SQL, such that I am happy to do it if nobody else wants to. I am kind of expecting I won't get them all at once, just as people have time to create the SSDs, so it won't be one massive job, just an hour here and there.
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by garfield »

Thanks for the effort on this site. Might it be possible to centre and/or crop screengrabs? Example: http://www.bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=879 is incorrectly offset to the top. On a real VDU, the the smaller mode 5 screen is centered on the screen.
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

garfield wrote:Might it be possible to centre and/or crop screengrabs?
I have updated the screenshot you mention, and I noticed a couple of others:
  • Disc046-AlienFromOuttaSpaceSTD.png
  • Disc085-AmazedKnight.png
  • SuperiorSoccer-Superior.png
Please point out any others you find which are wrong, and I will update them. Even better if you provide a replacement I will upload it.

I realised some publisher names are too long even after removing brackets, so I moved the year on to its own line. I think the buttons should now line up!

Cheers

PaulH
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pau1ie
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

Thanks to Lee we have a load of screensots updated:
  • A Disc015-GrowingPainsFistfulOfFun.jpg
  • Disc017-Repton2.jpg
  • Disc018-LodeRunnerEditSTT.jpg
  • Disc023-Ravenskull.jpg
  • Disc024-Psycastria.jpg Since Lee did the first one it seemed a shame to leave this out!
  • Disc024-Repton3P.jpg
  • Disc024-SpaceRescueSuper7.jpg
  • Disc025-JetSetWilly.jpg
  • Disc029-JetSetWillyII.jpg I did this as Lee was updating the first one!
  • Disc031-StarquakeP.jpg
  • Disc037-WarCB.jpg Note - title is W. A. R.
  • Disc038-Zenon.jpg
  • Disc040-ReturnOfTheJedi.jpg
  • Disc041-Psycastria2.jpg
  • Disc045-ReptonThruTimeP.jpg
  • Disc046-AroundTheWorldIn40ScreensP.jpg
  • Disc046-KitchenChaos.jpg
  • Disc048-ReptonInfinityEditP.jpg
  • Disc049-Pipeline.jpg
  • Disc057-InfinityD.jpg I redid this in low res mode - all high res does is narrows the viewport!
  • Disc065-TimeLapsed.jpg
  • Disc084-BBCMastermindSTD.jpg
  • Disc085-LabyrinthCVG.ssd.jpg
  • Disc094-MissionXP2.jpg
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leenew
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by leenew »

Thanks for updating these so quickly Paul.
If you play Infinity, it does have a narrow play field. So the low res one actually looks stretched horizontally... :wink:
Lee.
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simonm
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by simonm »

Hi all,
Dunno if this has already come up in the discussion, but it would be awesome to fill in some meta tags in the head section of the game pages so that when they are shared on FB theres a small description and inline image.
If it's helpful, here's a code snippet from a site where I put this in:

Code: Select all

    <meta name="description" content="{{ site.description }}">
    {% if site.meta_author %}<meta name="author" content="{{ site.meta_author }}">{% endif %}

    <!-- fb meta tags -->
    <meta property="og:url"                content="{{ page.url | replace:'index.html','' | prepend: site.url }}" />
    <meta property="og:type"               content="article" />
    <meta property="og:title"              content="{% if page.title %}{{ page.title }}{% else %}{{ site.title }}{% endif %}{% if page.team %}, by {{ page.team }}{% endif %}" />
    <meta property="og:description"        content="{{ site.description }}" />
    <meta property="og:image"              content="{% if page.img %}{{ site.url }}/content/{{ page.img }}{% else %}/img/bitshifters.png{% endif %}" />
Cheers
Simon
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pau1ie
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

simonm wrote:it would be awesome to fill in some meta tags in the head section of the game pages
Hi Simon

No, this hasn't come up before.

I don't use facebook, so I have no idea what you are on about! I have taken your code and filled it in I think. Can you take a look and give me some feedback? Does it do what you hoped?

Thanks.

PaulH
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pau1ie
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

leenew wrote:If you play Infinity, it does have a narrow play field. So the low res one actually looks stretched horizontally..
I think the low res one looks prettier because there is less black in the picture, and it is not wrong because you can play it that way.

But I don't really know - do you think I ought to use the one you originally supplied?
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leenew
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by leenew »

Hi Paul,
Use your version :D
I always load it in Hi Res mode and completely forgot you could load it in standard res mode :oops:
Cheers!
Lee.
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leenew
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by leenew »

Paul, have all the authors been uploaded? Only a few seem to be showing up.
Lee.
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pau1ie
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

leenew wrote: have all the authors been uploaded
No. I think Richard only did a few of them and wanted to do the rest from the admin console.

Edit: Or wanted to make the admin console available for others to do it?
Last edited by pau1ie on Mon Oct 03, 2016 10:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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pau1ie
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

Right! I have made an attempt at a branded jsbeeb. This was much more difficult than I imagined it would be. Let me know what you think. Basically hit play, then put play.php before the question mark, e.g.

http://bbcmicro.co.uk//jsbeeb/play.php? ... 0Darts.ssd

Comments? If nobody objects in a few days I will change the play links to point at it.
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Arcadian
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by Arcadian »

Customised jsbeeb looks ideal to me! :D
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by lurkio »

Paul, thanks for all your work on the site. It's impressive and amazing!

The customised JSBeeb looks good.

Also, I was just wondering: do you think the site needs a little logo in the top right- or left-hand corner of the screen (extreme right- or left-hand side of the banner), visible at all times? Maybe the Acorn logo or preferably the dotted Beeb owl? The banner just looks a bit nondescript at the mo. Just a thought.

:?:
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by simonm »

pau1ie wrote:
simonm wrote:it would be awesome to fill in some meta tags in the head section of the game pages
Hi Simon

No, this hasn't come up before.

I don't use facebook, so I have no idea what you are on about! I have taken your code and filled it in I think. Can you take a look and give me some feedback? Does it do what you hoped?

Thanks.

PaulH
Works a treat Paul! Good job. :)
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by richardtoohey »

pau1ie wrote:
leenew wrote: have all the authors been uploaded
No. I think Richard only did a few of them and wanted to do the rest from the admin console.

Edit: Or wanted to make the admin console available for others to do it?
Been away on hols and came back to a full work inbox, so fallen behind (again.)

Did get the authors admin working, and did attach the authors file to this thread, so there should be more than a "few" authors, but certainly my plan was to get the admin working and start cleaning up from there (Lee & I & any volunteers.)

I would also like (time permitting) to start extending the admin so that new titles can be added, SSDs & screenshots uploaded, etc. so we have a team of admins who can login and add/edit/update content without needing any database work etc.

But let me look at the authors first!
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

richardtoohey wrote: there should be more than a "few" authors,
yes, sorry looking at github there are 1047 authors listed, and 551 games (i.e. 1/4 of them) have an author listed, so apologies for belittling your efforts!
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

lurkio wrote:The banner just looks a bit nondescript at the mo.
I agree. I am not a designer, so I have taken twitter bootstrap and used it pretty much as is, which looks OK but uninspiring, and very similar to lots of other sites made by geeks who can't do design! Anything I tried to theme it made the site look really bad, so I just left it as the default. On another website I worked with a proper graphics designer, and they created a theme for the website which looked amazing. It came with a set of rules so I could work out what to do. I would be very grateful if anyone with design skills could do something similar for this website. I am wary of doing things piecemeal, for example if I added the owl, should I use it as the favicon as well? But there are already sites which use the owl for the favicon, so how do we distinguish them?

As I say I think the site is crying out for anyone with graphic design skills to give it a makeover. If you have these skills, or know anyone who has these skills and would be willing to give us a design, ideally that ties in with the computer somehow I, and I suspect the whole community, would be very grateful. Until then I would prefer to leave it looking nondescript rather than try to "improve" it and it end up looking terrible!
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by lurkio »

pau1ie wrote:As I say I think the site is crying out for anyone with graphic design skills to give it a makeover.
Oh. I think the site already has a clear and user-friendly layout.

It's fast to load, and the links and the search function are responsive and quick.

I'm basically very happy with it! I wouldn't want a flashy redesign to slow it down...

:?
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by tricky »

In my three years at uni' I learn't one thing, always consider the target audience.
I like the clean look and the responsive feel and I am probably one of the target audience ;)
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pau1ie
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

I agree it shouldn't change the way the site works - I am pretty happy with the user interface, but I think a consistent palette and branding would be a big improvement.
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by flaxcottage »

Love the site. =D> :D 8)

Also I love the game 2048. However, this does not work on a master. The attached SSD corrects this, if anyone is interested. The problem was that the user-defined characters were *LOADed into &C00. That works OK for a B and a B+ but not for a Master or Compact. The simple change was to write an intermediate program to open the CHARS file and VDU23 all the characters them CHAIN"2048".

Just remembered that I didn't close the CHARS file in the loader - it works OK and you have to press BREAK when the game is over so I suppose it is OK - bad programming practice, though -sorry. Too much whisky! :? :lol:
Attachments
2048 master.zip
(4.5 KiB) Downloaded 136 times
- John

Check out the Educational Software Archive at www.flaxcottage.com
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Arcadian
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by Arcadian »

Another fan of the current, clean/white layout here!

Though as others have mentioned, it could probably do with a graphical version of the 'Complete BBC Games Archive' text at the top left, together with a little logo perhaps.
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tricky
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by tricky »

You may have already tried it, but what do you think about clicking one of the six categories unticking all the other boxes and ticking itself.
It would probably then benefit from an All/Any option without a tick box.
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pau1ie
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

What if you wanted to select two categories?
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pau1ie
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

Arcadian wrote:it could probably do with a graphical version of the 'Complete BBC Games Archive' text at the top left, together with a little logo perhaps.
OK I guess everyone is happier than I imagined they would be.

Does anyone want to put something like the above together?
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tricky
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by tricky »

pau1ie wrote:What if you wanted to select two categories?
Click one category's title and then the other's tick box.
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

tricky wrote:Click one category's title and then the other's tick box.
Ah - interesting. I'll look into it when I get a chance.
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Re: Help required for the new BBC games archive

Post by pau1ie »

flaxcottage wrote: love the game 2048. However, this does not work on a master. The attached SSD corrects this
Thanks for this. Uploaded.

I also changed the links too point at the branded play.php.
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