Contemporary reviews are always welcome, but they cannot replace current reviews. There is no real way to add them to TGOD directly currently (though if necessary, that could be arranged easily). From a legal point of view, I don't see any bigger problem than there is already concerning the games themselves.

I just had an idea for the 1993 era! I have got some issues of a rather obscure gaming magazine called PC Review. I own two issues from 1993 and a special issue from January 1994 with the "Best 100 PC games of the last 18 moths". Somehow I always wanted to scan them and make them available to a broader public. I could either scan some reviews and add them to games which are already on this site or open up some new ones with a transcription of the texts. Could be a nice contemporary voice form the past!
Allthough I do see some problems: Legal issues (the publisher vanished somehwere about 1995, so they are technically abandoned) and them beeing only in German (which means they should be translated).

I don't want to spoil the whole thing publicly in advance, but let's say that this will be a part of the overall angle.

Well I think this still stems from the beginning or rather the heights of the abandonware movement, where games from the mid 90ies where not yet old enough to be "abandoned".


Since some of my all time favourites (like Thief and Fallout 2) come to my mind, when thinking about 1998, I guess I could take care of it. Still, 1988 would also be nice.



That would be Indie-Games?

If you look at the curve between 1980 and 1993, it is pretty much linear growth. 1986 has got 'too many' games, which I would explain with the first games for new systems like the Atari ST and the Amiga appearing and therefore being available on top of the still thriving C64. 1988 has got 'too few' – can't explain this. 1990 has got 'too many' again. That could be related to 199x being an important psychological barrier for many. 1991 'too few' as already discussed (but if you scale down 1990 a bit due to the 199x factor, not that much) and the 1992 peak obviously comes from the theme.

What I always found much more interesting is the drastic drop after 1994. Subtracting the text adventures and other odd freeware games, there is basically nothing from that time on the site! There is no slowly shrinking curve, but it just hits rock bottom right down from its very peak.


Sure, no problem with any encouragement scheme from my side, but I think the first step still has to be to make the theme more visible to casual visitors in the first place. If people don't know there is a theme, they can't stick to it. Problem is that fewer and fewer people actually come through the front page, so even more prominent news won't help everyone.


I can take 1983, no problem. I'm much more worried about 1998

By the way, in an act of defiance, I have a short special about the least popular option in mind for February

Well even if you ignore the maximum at 1992, 1991 has 40% less games than 1993, a third less than 1994 and a fourth less than 1990. I guess the strong early 90ies come from the fact, that a majority of the gamers on this site had their "Good old Days" back then. But why the weak 1991? A change in gaming consoles? Lack of creative games? New graphics and no one had the hardware? Statistical noise?


I guess picking two to three years would be the way to go. We could also open up the remaining year(s) for single submissions from non-regulars and spontaneus reviews. Allthoug I am not sure, how to make that appealing. Probably by awarding a bonus point for sticking to the theme?


Could be done, as long as I don't have to do only 1983.

Keep in mind that this year, with 30+ games from 1992 having been newly added, makes the 1991 gap appear much more significant than it originally developed.


It would also be an option to alternate just between 1983 and 1998. Or go three updates a month, with one for 1983, 1988 and 1998 each, under the assumption that since we've just seen a lot of 1992, 1993 would just be 'more of the same'. If we are three active people, we could even say everyone takes the lead for one specific year (which of course does not rule out contributions/collaborations by/with others).

Hey, that's quite fascinating! I wonder why there is such a significant gap in 1991 (and a somewhat smaller at 1988).

Looking at that graph, strengthening the weaker 80ies or the late 90ies doesn't seem to be a bad idea after all.

I'm actually quite surprised, because I usually expect this kind of poll to turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Meaning that I would have expected the vast majority of the votes to be in favour of the time frame already represented most strongly on the site; for the simple reason that due to certain years already being stronger on the site, it should attract people mainly interested in those times. That might actually be the case for the silent majority, but quite frankly, I don't care much about the silent people. Attached, a chart showing the current distribution of games on the site by year (taken from the internal stats pages).


The only thing I can really think of right now without risking to offend two of our 14 visitors would be to go like this:
1983 – 1988 – 1993 – 1998 – 1983 – 1988 – …
That kind of thing would beg for weekly updates again, though, because four years – four weeks (i.e. each year once a month).

Weeeell... two more votes for 25 years, turn a halfblind eye at it and it could almost be a gaussian distribution.

On a more serious note: At least there seems to be a consensus that there should be a theme, and that it shouldn't be indie games. Since the collected votes for the year-related updates clearly outweigh the random "theme" and there are almost no suggestions for particular themes, the 19XX theme seems the way to go. The question is: Which one?

So, this poll actually gets less conclusive over time. I will let it run until the end of the year. Having two months break is a good idea (especially considering the site anniversary is coming up at the end of February). Final decisions can therefore be taken early next year (though any thoughts are also welcome until then).

As for visibility, think having a small graphical item representing the theme used in every related newspost would be a good idea.Helps recognition. It was not really an issue when we started with 1992, but now that we've got a lot of other updates as well, we should try to distinguish it more.

Hmm... yes that makes sense. Some time to plan and gather material could be usefull.

Two months? I don't know. It's for two reasons, first so we can rest of it, obviously, otherwise it stops being a change in the schedule. But also I think that starting a theme as soon as the previous finished makes it harder for people to notice that something new has started.

You mean some weeks/months with no themed reviews? How long did you have in mind?


I agree with that. Allthough it also depends on the question of how many people are willing to participate (and how much). Personally, I guess realistically I could write a review a month (somewhat depending on the actual theme).

I think we should first have a rest time between themes. The problem also is that weekly thematic updates end being tiring, and I still think you, Creo, was the one who worked the most to keep it up.

I think that what we can do is setting a two updates minimum per month. After these two are prepared depending of how much time everybody has the number can be increased to three or four.

Frequency is another open question. We have been going weekly, which is a good goal, though I am honestly at my limit. What about the availability of you guys?

Well I can think of the one or the other review (or article) to almost any topic. As stated above 1983 wouldn't be my top picking, but that shouldn't keep me from trying. So count me in!



+ More variety, agrees with widely spread poll results
-- waters down the themes

Depending on the theme you could also combine them in some cases (e.g. year 1983 would go along with e.g. fantasy theme)

Also: Since "Year 19XX" seems rather popular (compared to a simple "theme") we could alternate between all four years. I think this could work either over the whole year (changing every three months) or review by review (and jumping back to 1983 after a review from 1998).

I think overlapping themes is not a good idea. Also 1983 is a bit far from my usual years, I wasn't even born back then. But can also be a nice chance to check some of those games, also I may not know many of those game, but I have at least played some of the Atari games of that age, so I can recognize a few, which would help to start.

Well, the "result" will finally (obviously) be dictated by what the actice people are willing and able to commit to… that's why I'm asking. Especially since the participation in the poll (in spite of strong nagging) is hardly conclusive.

What I also see as an option is having more than one theme running (e.g. two themes, each with half the current frequency). Good or bad idea?