Anyone out there?

Thinking about updating. Is there a point? Discuss.. (or don't).

Design dead?

A month. One whole month. After all the previous 'willy-waving' statements I've made about "Oooo! Look at me! This is AWGaz and it will be updated continuously!" I've not only let myself down, but I've let my public down - and whats the first rule of showbiz? Never let down your public. *Hangs head in shame*

Apart from that - lets look at whats happened since I've not updated shall we? Diskboy has done the exact thing, after his willy-waving; nice one man, whats your excuse?

Muaddib reopened Abandonware Blog - which was great news for the 'media' side of the community, yet two things I noticed; this time it seems to of only concentrated on games, and his last update was two weeks ago. So we've got three media sources in the scene, and three social layabouts running them - great stuff. Fox take note: Now we've even got more sites on the verge of going to the much anticipated 'Abandonware Archive'.

What kicked me into gears to update was, an email I received from Poorgod (oh whats that? Yeah that's right - me and poorgod are buddies.) saying "Update the Gazette!" pasted 50 times (literally). So all death threats and hate mail go to him, for updating this site - as you visited it everyday saying to yourself "another day he hasn't updated! he's surely gotta shut-it down now? teehee!"

Getting back on course though.. I'm gay.. No seriously - remember when having the *best* design was the craze? Remember Bumbleb? That was drool material. Remember TZ and acring, NeoPickaze and his EchoRings and other sites? Those stood out. Those websites where something to aspire to, and at that stage felt like they way things would look, in years to come. So years have passed now, seven years in total - and as the par of your 'usual' design has increased in quality, it's just a tid-bit. All this talk of 'Oh, I like to keep things simplistic' it's just bullshit - you can't design THAT good so you hide behind that facade, face it. I mean, take this heap of trash as an example - do you really think I aspired to use blogspot and have this shitty layout? No. I can't design for shit - and I'm not about to embarrass myself. At the end of the day, don't get me wrong - I'm not shooting anyone down, because I appreciate everyones designs - but what happened to the 'design-nuclear-race' all those years ago?

See you next month.. (just kidding..)

Expletives and shit.

I didn't update for a shitload of time. I know. I've got a good excuse though; I tripped over the internet cable more then a month ago - and didn't realize until now. Who actually cares for my weak excuses though, the fact is I'm updating now - for which I hope will continue.

You've got to understand one thing, I'm still living in the scene of yesteryear - not saying I'm an 'elder' of the scene or anything, because I'm a second stroke third generation scener - so my plight for which you will read, probably doesn't exist now, but I might aswell proceed.

So an unspoken or actually spoken rule is the "keep the swearing on a low" every webring had or enforced this rule, even my dear rotting EchoRing - yet, isn't that just a censorship on our freedom of speech. Yeah, I hear you - the kids, we have to keep it toned down for them. But you know what, little timothy who just goes straight to the download links of your website, then presses the red 'x' at the top right afterwards - do you really think he gives a toss about the swearing or our news update box or 'about page', when in actual fact, he probably uses far more severe profanity with his 'buddys' at school, (which would probably make a sailor blush) - remember we're not living in the 60's guys, this is 2008.
And quite frankly, if this kid is under 9-10 and is surfing the internet unsupervised, it's really not my fucking job to act as a guardian for him - it's my/your site, and my/your spew - I can't be held responsible for corrupting a minors innocence with the word 'shit' or 'fuck plastered on my site, and feel sorry - once they have leeched my site dry for games - I'll make a note for myself to put net fucking nanny in the apps section next time.

Oh, and whats this - the snooty 25+ deems it highly inappropriate that I can't express myself without swear words - then just fucking leave aswell.

So, just to wrap this up - who really gives a shit?

Abandonware Archive - Part #263

I'd just like to re-hash this topic - following on from Isaac's; site. I'd like to excel on this idea and have you guys contribute if possible. Vohaul (previously of AP) had a pretty good take on this, and not forgetting DFL's - TGARL and thereafter comprehensive archive. We had Plix at AWNU and also TUOL do a mini one.

I'd really like to drum up some support on this.


Anyone on board? Talk to me sweet charlies.

DFL back in business?!

This should of been posted waaaay earlier, but I was to hung-up on my gender-bender article to of posted it. So, after embarrassing myself in a comment made on this website directed to Tom/Knyght (AP, Anarchy) for which I must apologize (only if it is true..) it looks like DFL might be back on our screens very soon!

Y'see one day a couple of months ago, I was desperate to find an article from DFL - so I was typing random things into google and other alternative routes, for which I found DFL, but with a plethora of script-errors and domain-nameless - that doesn't bother me though, because if it smell like DFL and looks like DFL - it's DFL. About six weeks ago, I rang diskboy up - notified him of my discovery and tried to convince him to start it up and be a bit more active in the scene, to of which he (quite selfishly) implied that university work must come first in that instance (traitor to the scene) so I was quite disheartened. He had time to contemplate my noble words and has came to his senses.

I urge you to visit this link and throw your support by posting a comment. If your not quite sure why you should, just take a second to look in the news archive (plenty of dirt can be dished up on me from there - note to fans) and just admire the effort of not only the webbies but the fact it was a scene effort with the reviews & archives supplied.

An absolute masterpiece in my eyes. Lets show the guys that the scene isn't dead and we want DFL back.

Expose; The third lady of Abandonware.

The community as far as I’m concerned has seen three memorable female web mistresses active within it. If I have to spell out the obvious, that’d be;


Bunny
Underdogs
LisaBPW (Blue Print Ware)

The reason I put Bunny before underdogs is due to the fact, she had established her gender a good while before Underdogs admitted to doing so. Now the third one is an interesting case – we had a female webmisteres that wasn’t that really active within the scene but seemed to update her site extremely seldom, yet receive a lot of feedback from others sceners.

During the creation of EchoRing in Nov-01 – me and NeoPickaze talked up about drumming up a fake persona (remember – Anti-TUOL was still a fresh corpse and we still harboured somewhat juvenile ill feelings) so we came up with the idea of creating a scener that was female and had a low-rent quality website which was – Blue Print Ware.

Being solely a project to use against TOAR at the time, as conflicts arose with Warmonger during that period, we decided to humiliate him by manipulating the site, and see if it slipped through his vision – after a while we decided that this wouldn’t be a good idea, and to just let the flamewar die and to keep it civil. After that, the project was slipping away, so I decided to have fun with it – at this time, I hadn’t checked the email account for months – and geez, talk about you guys with your seedy infatuations – I sure am glad I ain’t no girl in the scene (and surprisingly a few emails from long-serving characters at the time). It’s amazing how many of you, was eager to ‘help’ me with the site.

Whilst this project hasn’t had any amazing results or isn’t even close to Voh’s; Oreo project – I thought it was about time to lift the lid on this little alter-ego and let it die for good. Looking back on it though – I really wish I did expand on the idea.

At least Marhasan asked if he could see my “Harry pussy” over MSN – at least I have that..

RIP BluePrintWare 2001 - 2008

How the ‘community’ could have been saved.

Abandonware Council. Plain and simple. Whilst many people shudder at the thought and in many this might sound like an uneducated proposal, this would have clearly helped, yet if not saved – the scene. The old argument of “This has already been tried and tested – you’re not adding anything new here!” is what you’ll hear when conversing about this subject. But if we look back, many of the former ‘community’ sites where actually swaying in that direction, discreetly (more notably TAG & DFL) and you know what? We actually enjoyed them, infact whole heartedly supported them.

To some thoughts of an ‘Abandonware Council’ would reflect ‘said’ person being the ‘Abandonware Mayor’ with a bunch of cronies uttering ‘We’re holier than thou.” But people, I don’t mean that as such – I mean a democratic hierarchy with a well placed infrastructure. Here is what such a proposal would mean;

Every six months a democratically elected person with a committee would be voted in.
These individuals would be in charge of initiatives such as;

-AbandonWhore
-AbandonWave
-Monthly / Annual - Abandonware-Awards
-The official Oldwarez list
-Consistently updated Abandonware FAQ
-Basic web-designers (something I advised Bobosama to do for his EchoRing members)
-A well-organized ICAS style website – something that would be a big contribution.
-A main forum.
-Obviously reviews & Interviews.

So, in retrospect – I believe this would have worked. And if this had been in place – today you’d not even be reading this pathetic excuse for a community site. Discuss.

An outbreak of oldtimers?

Recently I noticed that a former respectable figure in the abandonware scene Elwood (of TUOL & The Keep fame) had joined or is contributing to Mr. Creosotes non-stop updating; The Good Old days. This comes after quitting the scene over three years ago, whilst announcing his decision to close the biggest Abandonware ring TUOL, at the time.

Then I tune into The AR yesterday and noticed that Swizzle one of the longest serving members of the community is back filling in updates, even though he is no longer head honcho there.

Proudly enough Abandonware Gazette has seen the likes of people that vanished - reappear, such as; Poorgod (Abandon X Ring), Diskboy (Diskworld, DFL), LuNaTiC (TAG, AbandonRom Paradise) & Mongy (TOAR, AbandonWAR).

Is the power of Abandonware love blooming?

Whether it is or not - I can sure say it's great to see these people return - even for a single post and in addition it's great to see, all the people that stuck around and all the new faces!

On a side note, if there was an Abandonware Awards would people support such a cause once again? Obviously it would have to be overseen by more then just one person.

New Ring! (well sorta…)

I noticed this ring a few weeks back, and as I believe it’s been around a short while. It goes by the name of ‘AbandonMarch’ and it’s predominately a Czech / Slovak orientated ring, with a select few English-written sites on the listing.

It differs quite a lot from the good old ‘conventional’ rings we are used to – as it lacks the core foundations of the fundamental things, which we expect rings to have by default! Such as; an actual rules, update & join page. Instead each member is reliant on emailing the ring-master these details. I frantically searched every page and hovered over each word, to see if I was missing a trick here – to actually find where this fellas email address is; no luck though! Perhaps I’m not looking in the right places.. so no chance of a little Q&A with the webmaster for this article.

Apart from being a member of the AR, it has a member count of 19 members – which is quite an achievement in such little time, and also has an eye-candy look to it. Soothing colours, a nice font and an AP orientated site listing (in a way..) with miniature reviews of each site. Will this be the next big ring? You tell me..


PROS:

 Clean-cut design.
 Ratings & reviews
 multilingual


CONS

 Impossible to join.
 No updates whatsoever – just a listing.
 No rules stated.


Visit AbandonMarch!

Quizzy time!

This is not a 'cheap' excuse to update this site, although I thought it would be a nice initiative to have an 'Abandonware Quiz'! To a lot of people this will seem like a doddle.

I once again apologise for the lack of activity, I have changed jobs and I'm working nights now - lack of motivation is a factor here, but I can guarantee everyone that I will not let this website die in the foreseeable future - I still have a lot of ideas for articles which I would like to get up here.

A few people have been quite confused of where I'm trying to take this little 'project'. I'm not looking to be a tabloid. I'm not trying to fill the void for DFL. I'm not trying to be the bastard child of 'Abandonware Blog'. I'm not pro-AR or pro-AP (saying that I'm not anti-AR/AP either). This is just me, no crew - attempting to write scene news & editorials (from my point of view). Although lack of news is a major factor, so I'm finding myself filling in the gaps with editorials. At the end of the day - to accomplish it being an interesting read without flaming would be a target.

Enough babbling - enjoy The Abandonware Quiz! Posting your results here would be appreciated!

I'm back to playing Gangsters: Organized Crime, which I recently purchased from Sold Out Software. So many memories of 1998!

Underdogs; every dog has it's day.

This is a real enigma for me. “This isn’t exactly news is it, genius?” I hear you screech – yeah, maybe not Sherlock – but it still confuses me. The biggest Abandonware related website, dedicated to the ‘Underdog’ games of yesteryear, which along with the AR has been the real backbone of the scene, has now gone to the dogs (excuse the pun). New Abandonware article published? Underdogs interviewed. Joined the scene? Probably through Underdogs. Lets face it, seven out of ten AW websites, use the exact same games published from Underdogs.

The design has never wowed me, neither have a majority of the reviews – yet it’s still the place to go, purely because of what it stands for and what it’s contributed. Following on from the recent youtube video published; here – whilst a nice gesture, freaks the shit out of me with the eeriness surrounding it, it’s like an obituary to a victim of a drink-drive accident.

What I don’t exactly get though, is the fact that she finds time available to update her blog regularly (and translate it – I might add), yet fails to update the actual website, or even graces her forum with a single forum post about her whereabouts. It’s not even that which gets me though – it’s the fact, that a numerous amount of people (trusted & experienced – which of whom are the actual underdoggers themselves ) have put there hands-up in favour of actually updating & maintaining this mammoth of a the website, yet have had there noble attempts fall on deaf ears or apparently out-right rejected.

Obviously being an investment banker and running such a high-volume website and forum, it must of took it’s toll on Sarinee over the years – which, in all fairness is more then expected. Yesteryear saw this young-pup of a website run around and bark, but now its more of a symbol, a symbol which has turned into a malnourished old-dog – nothing stays on top forever though, as other young-pups are introduced, most notably Abandonia which is slowly creeping up and turning into the new epicentre of Abandonware.

What was once a bustling HOTU forum, has the whiff of rotting setting in. It’s only really a matter of time, when you’ll visit this old beaut, and its domain will be hijacked (once again) and this time, it sadly will not be renewed.

My life. Games. The community.

In no way, will I sway this website into a self obsessed or self infatuated, ego-massage biography about myself, but with the lack of news in the scene (Abandonware Gazette - is going to be harder work then I presumed.) I thought perhaps I’d put some oil on the wheels. Before I start, I must apologize for the lack of activity on my side – I must reiterate that this will not be common practise – just had an unexpectedly crazy past week. I’m working on new material as you read this.

As a first pit stop, I’d like to give you some insight into who I am. My name is Vincent, I currently work for a large restaurant chain for the past four years, as a Payroll Supervisor. I will soon leave that life of misery, to pursue Law studies in September. I’m also due to get married next year. Furthermore I’m from the UK, but I’m half Cypriot. And Diskboy is my cousin in real life.

My first computer was a Commodore 64 which I have my many fond memories of, my second computer being an Amiga 500 – which really was a turning point for me, when I truly learned my love & fascination for games. I then went onto own a string of consoles, and my last one being a purchase I made last week, which was overdue – a Nintendo Wii. Although I’ve bought this fancy console, and games with over exaggerated willy-waving graphics – I’ve played it for a mere few hours, and I’ve put it down and got on my PC and have found myself playing Abandonware Games instead, which in retrospect I can’t help feeling that I’ve just wasted a shitload of money.

I joined the scene in June 2000, and in all honesty the games I was determined to find, was Heimdall & Monkey Island. Somewhere along the lines I joined a few forums, made a few websites, met new people, the rest is history. I was 15 then . I’m 23 now. At one point I became more indulged in the ‘community’ that I actually became less interested in the actual games. At the end of the day, I sit back and think “It’s all about the games” but it’s not just that; it’s speaking with the people on the same wave length, that have that ideal aswell.

I’d be really interested to find out about how & why you stumbled across Abandonware.

Let's start.

For my first article I was planning on doing an onslaught of the current state of Abandonware Rings, and going into lengthy detail how I felt they was being neglected; then I contemplated and fished around the ‘scene’ and thought; Wait a minute, I should really appreciate that we have these two rings left. And even though these two rings aren’t living up to the quality they used to, they’re still being updated and they are still pretty much enforcing the rules they have – so back the fuck off.

My reason for becoming active in the scene again, was due to the fact I met up with a friend after twelve years, and we began to go into hours of conversation about the old games that we used to play – as sad as that might sound, I must admit it did trigger off a sense of nostalgia for me.

Arriving back here is like being new to the scene, people that I considered to be my clique of the scene (Hah! Remember when there was cliques?) have all gone, I’ve got three people from the community on my MSN list, opposed to the thirty I used to have – I have no sites, and a majority of the new blood here, who lets face it run the scene now, won’t even know / remember me. It’s like going back to school, only ten years after. So two ways this site could sway, a quirky community based site, or a barrage of ramblings from a has-been.

But my question is this; and this has probably been beaten on the head so many times, it could be classified as ridiculous, but (and here goes); Where the fuck is everyone? Sure the scene is giving birth to a lot more fantastic and quality-focused download sites, yet it seems communication with each other, is down to a shoutbox on said website. I mean, I’ll go to the forums that I actually know and have recently found, and the second last ‘topic’ was from August 2007 or something. Furthermore another interesting question; people that are still involved with Abandonware, does this not bother you, or just seem normal?

New Era.

Greetings.

With the demise of; AWNU, DFL and our recent saviour Abandonware Blog - all being closed down, I've took it upon myself to lead-on, where they unfortunately ended.

Abandonware Gazette, will take a different approach on the scene though, with more thought-provoking, cutting edge, and updated articles of the AW scene, will make it that more entertaining to read.

"What are you babbling on about, what Abandonware scene? It's completely dead!"

I hear you scream! It's not absolutely dead - and with the entrance of the Gazette, I hope to establish a congregation of people, right here - as to be totally honest, at the momment there isn't anywhere else decent, to actually communicate. (In the AW scene)


Thanks for listening & stay tuned.


-The Saint