And just a small update from me: the reason why I didn't update my site lately and why I'm soseldom on the forum is that I'm spending all my free time putting together the .php version of the site. That means acquiring much more content and re-review some games.

yeeeeeeeey

To conclude this topic: I'm currently uploading the downloads to the new file server. All the information how it is is already in this thread, but I can't repeat it often enough:
-PC: file size limit of 1.5 MB; affected games: many
-Amiga: file size limit of 3 MB; affected games: 2 (would be more if it wasn't for the IDSA)
-SNES: file size limit of 3 MB; affected games: 0
-Hall of Fame: file size limit of 3 MB; affected games: 0
-C64: file size limit of 3 MB; affected games: 0
-Comics: no general file size limit (because that would shut out all but the minicomics), but downloads are offered in rotation of the series; currently being offered: minicomics

Since this thread now has become useless, I'll delete it and ban everyone who has ever posted in it.

Edited by Mr Creosote at 14:51 on October, 24th 2002

Really lame post

hE'y lo'osE'R whT ki'nd OF aban'dUN'Wh'ere sig'ht isTHis?!? y'ou STInking moR'OOns doN't evE'n half any 'gA'mms to D/l!!'!! you 'suUC'K! so'me1 tolds me dis waz a' goode AbadO''nwhere 'sit, but U suc'k! U suVC'k big TIMe U' SUck sew bad /me cant e'VEn tell uHow bad u suc'k!! yo'us 'not 733't, y'ousa 70$'34!!!''''''

How about that?

(You know, this is becoming a new spam thread. )

The inconsistency is almost perfect To gain a score of 100%, you'd have to include mode apostrophes of course

hEy loosER whT kind OF abandUNWhere sight isTHis?!? you STInking moROOns doN't evEn half any gAmms to D/l!!!! you suUCK! some1 tolds me dis waz a goode AbadOnwhere sit, but U suck! U suVCk big TIMe U SUck sew bad /me cant eVEn tell uHow bad u suck!! yous not 733t, yousa 70$34!!!

That better?

I'm beggining to think this leecher business is more trouble than it's worth...

Add some cooler spelling like for example 'muh' instead of 'me' and so on and you're in

yousuckyoufreakinmofo!!!gimmemyfriggindownloadsNOW!!!

Is that more believeable?

Doesn't sound believable - you used puntuation and correct capitalization (as opposed to for example aLtErNaTiNg CaPs or completely random choice).

You suck! Gimme my d/l's!

Damn! What I wanted to hear is something like this: "you suck gimme my d/l's"

I support your decision 100%.

Tuss

My money has arrived, server has been ordered. I don't know how fast it'll be set up, so don't expect downloads to be up again tomorrow As mentioned before, there will be less downloads. For a start, I made a size limit of 1.5 MB for PC and 3 MB for Amiga, SNES and HOF (these sections are a lot less frequented and the files are downloaded a lot less, thus the difference). No limit for the C64 because the games are all tiny anyway. In theory, that would be 3 MB, too, so if anyone can show me a game for that system which is bigger, I'll implement the blocking into the script

The purpose of this is of course to decrease bandwidth usage which has grown too much, especially over the last few months. I'll watch the development for a month to see how good these (relatively randomly) chosen limits work and then reconsider to adjust them. This can be in both ways of course.

As I understood it, you just said you wanted to stay without downloads until you've finished your scripting and then decide again. To which I answered there won't be a file server until October, 10th anyway

So anyway, I'll think of some things concerning advertising (as we talked about) then.

As I told you, for now, 21st Century Oldies will stay without downloads. There are three main reasons for this:

1. Until I get a permanent visa and thus at least some job security, I am not willing to donate money to freeloaders.
2. I've got much more freedom to decide which games to add, without the downloads. With downloads, I've been getting lots of nasty e-mails about not including certain downloads, so I tried to avoid adding games that people could not download before. As a pure review site, all games would be on equal footing.
3. I am very excited about the new features on the site. Mr Creosote is very helpful trying to teach me how to handle MySQL and php. The site will be database driven, which will allow me to add lots of new content, while keeping the site structure very simple.

Considering the fact that all my downloads (with the exception of one or two) are available on other abandonware sites, I will most likely link to abandonware search sites from the game pages.

After conferring mainly with Tapuak and my host, I've decided to bring back the downloads, but not as it used to be. The traffic and thus the costs got so much out of hand lately that it is impossible for me to continue like that. For The Good Old Days, this means the following: Downloads will be restricted by size and system. For the PC section, there will be only downloads smaller than 1 or 2 MB (exact numbers aren't decided about yet), for the other sections (those being less popular and thus less bandwidth-consuming in general) a bit higher. These borders will be subject to constant changing when I see the site is still using too much or 'too little' bandwidth. Seeing that the biggest downloads were also the most popular ones, that should cut down the costs drastically.

As for the hosted sites, I've given the webmasters the choice to pay for their own bandwidth (taking advantage of the same cheap deal I have made with my host) or stay without downloads (both options a bit more complicated, but that's not important here). None of them has decided yet (or at least they didn't tell me their decisions).

Good to hear that you got your money back (or are going to... as long as you get it, tenses aren't that important )

Newest developement: my bank has claimed the money back for me and it worked, but I will only get it with next month's credit card bill - for whatever reason. It's annoying that they took the money away from me for a whole month, but I'm really tired of this, so as long as I get the money back then, I'm satisfied.

As for financing a new server for downloads, I'm not sure yet. I somehow enjoy the 'easy' situation as it is now - no worrying about money, no stupid technical questions, no legal risk. Sure, my site's average number of visitors has decreased by 50%, but who cares? Oh well - I have one more month to decide