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Post by eday2010 on Dec 18, 2007 15:26:22 GMT
How long has Sega8bit.com been around? Has it always looked the same?
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Post by anagrama on Dec 18, 2007 18:28:10 GMT
The forum's been around since the end of 2003, but it was previously attached to Shinobiman's now non-existent segamastersystem.com, which dates back to the late 90's.
sega8bit.com was created by Sinistral in 2004(?) and has been attached to this forum since Shinobiman retired his site in early 2005.
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Post by eday2010 on Dec 18, 2007 19:19:38 GMT
I was wondering if anyone has thought about giving the site a complete makeover. The content on the site is great, but the look is...well, it's not terribly attractive. It could certainly look way better. I have a few ideas swimming around in my head. Of course, it's all up to the Power That Be. I'd certainly be willing to help come up with a new look and design and all that if he was interested. I just find that the site looks a bit too "fan site-ish". I realize that that is what it is, of course, but it could look a lot cleaner and brighter  Just an idea . I feel the same way about Sega16Bit as well, obviously  |
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Post by Sinistral on Dec 18, 2007 19:30:55 GMT
Yep 2004. The site started out to be only a reviews site, but after Shiobiman discontinued SMS.com V4 there was a gap that needed to be filled. I've never claimed to be a great webmaster or have any expert degree of knowledge about web design, I learned html and some asp in college back in 1998-99ish. That’s why my web design “skills” are stuck in that time period! The bottom line is that nobody else was bothered enough to make anything better looking (yet!) If you want to come up with a new design we will certainly be willing to take a look at it and if people think it's suitable we could move to it. You have to be into it for the long haul though Me and Ian were planning on re-doing the site this year. But maybe with some extra help we can speed up the process. I think most people will agree anything that look too flashy looking is going to be a no-no. We need to keep that rugged 8-bit look  |
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Post by eday2010 on Dec 18, 2007 19:39:13 GMT
My whole idea is based on the Master System, so don't worry. I'll probably get something to you guys in the new year as a starting point for tweaks and such if you want to go ahead with a makeover. And I wouldn't bail midway through a makeover unless I was killed or in the hospital (i.e. I wouldn't just bail because I got bored  ). It could a ton of fun |
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Post by eday2010 on Dec 20, 2007 1:20:50 GMT
I'm faster than I thought! Having nothing to do at work today allowed me to create a mockup of a new home page for 8bit in Fireworks. All I have to do is document it and the ideas and ship it all off to Handy Andy to see what he thinks |
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Aypok
Sonic the Hedgehog
Posts: 2,372
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Post by Aypok on Dec 20, 2007 11:56:39 GMT
Not going to share the designs with us? :)
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Post by Sinistral on Dec 20, 2007 11:58:13 GMT
Yep, pop them up and let everyone see
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krooper13
Sonic the Hedgehog
Had it all and sold it, stupid economics.
Posts: 3,058
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Post by krooper13 on Dec 20, 2007 12:09:36 GMT
I have to say I've always liked the site's layout and design, it looks like the kind of thing Sega would have had for the Master System if the web was a marketting tool back then.
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Post by eday2010 on Dec 20, 2007 13:52:19 GMT
I will tonight. I'm going to send it to Andy to see what he thinks. Right now, I can't upload the image to my website because of the firewall at work, and the image is actual size, so it's larger than photobucket would allow. So it will have to wait until I am home. But I also think that this design is also something Sega would have done if the web was around back then. The Master System box was my inspiration, making the site look more updated and clean while keeping the 8-bittedness that it needs. |
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thund3r
Alis
Its about time.
Posts: 361
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Post by thund3r on Dec 20, 2007 14:58:39 GMT
its probably a no no, and faar to much work, but would it be possible to integrate PHPbb with the site so it has a nice layout like Atariage? Because i quite like how they catalogue each game. The only problem with this is to keep a consistant design it may require a phpbb forum? anyway its just a thought...
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Post by eday2010 on Dec 20, 2007 15:12:08 GMT
That's something Andy or Aypok would know. I know nothing about databases or fancy server side programming. And I think this site uses ASP (?), so I don't know if PHPbb would be doable. Though having the design of the forum match the site is a good idea.
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thund3r
Alis
Its about time.
Posts: 361
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Post by thund3r on Dec 20, 2007 15:18:27 GMT
I think you would need to get in contact with Proboards and sort out moving the user database over to PHP. Im not sure if you can do that with ASP and PHP though.
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Aypok
Sonic the Hedgehog
Posts: 2,372
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Post by Aypok on Dec 20, 2007 15:40:45 GMT
I seriously doubt ProBoards would co-operate with such a request, since it'd cut their traffic. Then again, they may do it for a fee...
If you were going to integrate a forum into a site, I'd suggest PunBB - I have a strong disliking of phpBB (although SMS Power! managed to do it nicely). Having said that, I quite like ProBoards...
As for the ASP/PHP thing: You could integrate a PHP forum into an ASP site (or vice-versa), but it's far from ideal. The best solution would be to either use an ASP forum or rewrite the entire Sega8bit site in PHP (*ahem*).
I should point out that I'm not suggesting any of this is a good or bad idea - merely expanding on a few of the technical aspects of such a thing.
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Post by eday2010 on Dec 20, 2007 18:53:27 GMT
Geez, and all I asked about was giving the site a new look. Now it's snowballing into a complex mish-mash of complexity |
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