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!