Sunday 24 January 2021

January 2002 - J-Who

J-Who owned the biggest Abandonware search-engine at the time: AbandonGames (AG) one of, if not the biggest forums (AbandonGames Forum) and the biggest Abandonware toplist: Best of Old Games (BOGS) it felt like he owned and formed his own corner of the Abandonware Scene. There has been an incident where moderators in the forum rebelled against J-Who (cannot recall exactly what) and it's briefly touched upon.

The Saint: Hi J-who, since the redesign of AbandonGames and the proposed redesign of BOGS, how have things been keeping up?
J-who: It hasn't been keeping up as much as I wanted it to be. Since I started going back to school, and I'm working full time, I have little to no motivation to get anything done.

The Saint: AbandonGames is a great search engine, is there anything you would change about it?
J-who: The lack of Content. Sure it may have tones of games, but hardly any of them have reviews or screenshots.

The Saint:Have you ever contemplated the fact you should recruit a team to help out at AG, surely with just two of you working at AG, things can seem a little hard with all the links that need to be added?
J-who:I have asked a few people to help, but most are too busy with their own projects, and real life. I don't trust a whole lot of people online either. I would rather be the only staff member, if something does go wrong, I know why/how it went wrong. Look at the forum, with so many admins, things are getting changed all the time, but I won't notice for awhile

The Saint:What are your current feelings towards the whole AG forum situation that went happended just a few days ago?
J-who:Mostly disapponinted in Jante. I don't understand why he would do something like this. A couple of days ago he was asking me to help out with AR by creating a script for them. This is another reason why I don't trust people online, they'll pretend to be your friend till they have what they want, then who cares about you.

The Saint: What are your goals for AG, what do you hope to accomplish with this search engine?
J-who:At first, I wanted to create the MobyGames of abandonware. I would still like to have that happen, but I have lost a fair amount of interest in doing anything online related. It seems to be more of a programming experence for me, if it wasn't for AG, I would never have learned PHP/MYsql

The Saint:What are your views on the current state of the scene? Is there anything that's really getting on your nerves?
J-who:Not too much, but then again I haven't really been paying much attention to the scene. The only thing that really gets to me is that IDSA, but I won't go there

The Saint: If you could sum up in just one word to describe AG, what would it be?
J-who:AG is to big to be described with one word :)

The Saint:If you could sum up in just one word to describe the state of the Abandonware scene, what would it be?
J-who:Boring

The Saint:What are your views on other search engines, such as Freeoldies and Abandon search and Warped rubber, if any?
J-who: Free Oldies is probably the best one out of those that you listed. I really liked Abandoned Gamez, it was only around for a week or so, till Elwood scared off the webmaster from the abandonware scene. Gangsters will always be my favorite though

The Saint: Your time in the scene has been about 2-3 years up to yet, if there is something/someone you would like to see return to the scene, that has been long gone, what would it be and why?
J-who:I've been in the scene Almost exactly 2 years, I joined last week of Dec 99, I cannot remember exactly what day though. I would really like to see Cascade Games come back, it was my favorite download site. Also AbandonwareHouse, it was a ring with the ability to go far, but the webmaster seemed to disaperar. Some people I would love to see again are Marrsy, Lavaphonix, SkinnyManbomb, G-master, GraveDigger, and last but not least St4n^6

Monday 4 January 2021

January 2002 - Jante Interview

When NeoPickaze and myself set out to create EchoRing - the idea had initially been instead of a protest ring such as Anti-TUOL, to create an Abandonware ring that we can take TUOL on with. Other members of Anti-TUOL then went to start their own projects within Abandonware or their own rings. We didn't just want an Abandonware ring, we wanted to create a 'Network' to rival TUOL's Network of sites. Being young and naive, we were full of ambition and ideas - but typical of that age, lacked the motivation to put that into practice and maintain it. One of the ideas had been 'Abandon City' thinking back, this would of been more of a rival to DFL/TAG at the time. I had 'interviewed' a number of people in the Abandonware Community and never had chance to post them, until now.

Jante was an active and likeable member of the community who owned Wasted Oldies had been part of the Abandonware Ring crew; alongside Plix, Jason and Swizzle at the time. He had been the only person to update the ring (originally it had been the biggest and 'the establishment' but at this time, it had been the second biggest behind TUOL - apparently got more hits than TUOL did, partly down to its senority and you could argue it had a better design, which had been designed by Jason) in the same year after this interview, Jante made the switch from Abandonware Ring to Abandon Places; which better suited him.

The Saint: Hi Jante, since the re-launch of AR, quite a few things have happended over there - such as staff members have come and gone and so on. Will the AR forum be back up?
Jante: We are currently trying to find a better hosting plan, but when we move, we will probably re-open a forum. Other sections.. we will add a FAQ soon.

The Saint: So, who are the current AR crew members? And what happended to Janiaspig?
Jante: Me, Keplini, Jason, Plix, Swizzle is the ones that are crew there now. Janinaspig is kinda like a last resort, if some of us can't update. I havent talked to PsOmA in a long time, so I don't know if he still wants to help us out.

The Saint:What are your current feelings towards Abandongames.com, after what has happended on the forum?
Jante: I have no bad feelings towards AG, but the forum stinks. I made some great friends at the forum, but most of them have left it now.

The Saint:What would you say Abandonware Ring's goals are?
Jante: To help people not to forget the old classics.. It's all about keeping them alive. Other than that.. i dunno.

The Saint: What are your views on the current state of the scene? Is there anything/anyone that's really getting on your nerves?
Jante: The scene hasn't been moving in any direction lately.. It's been quiet for quite some time.. Well.. If there is one, his name is Warmonger.

The Saint: If you could sum up in just one word to describe AR, what would it be?
Jante: If you count an url as a word: http://www.abandonwarering.com/crew.php <- go read the shit above the crew info. ;)

The Saint:If you could sum up in just one word to describe the state of the Abandonware scene, what would it be?
Jante: quiet

The Saint:What are your views on other big webrings, such as TUOL and APlaces?
Jante: TUOL is just one big list of sites. Some gone, some not updated in a year.. AP is great, and with the new design, im starting to love it even more.

The Saint:​ Your time spent in the scene as up to yet, if there is something/someone/somepeople you would like to see return to the scene, that has been long gone, what/who would it be and why?
Jante: I want Cascade back! Why? Because it was great, and ask others about this, they would agree.

The Saint:Last but not least, do you wreckon we will see Swizzle back at the AR, soon?
Jante: Well.. Yes, maybe he'll start updating again now that we have fixed ourselves a update system..