Difference between revisions of "Talk:Main Page"

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== Question regarding unemulated systems ==
 
== Question regarding unemulated systems ==
 
Now that the Switch has an emulator ([https://github.com/yuzu-emu/yuzu here if you're unaware]), do we keep the little dash next to it stating there's nothing usable yet or? I don't wanna go ahead and remove it since it's not a very usable emulator yet. [[User:F0rZ3r0|F0rZ3r0]] ([[User talk:F0rZ3r0|talk]]) 08:21, 14 January 2018 (EST)
 
Now that the Switch has an emulator ([https://github.com/yuzu-emu/yuzu here if you're unaware]), do we keep the little dash next to it stating there's nothing usable yet or? I don't wanna go ahead and remove it since it's not a very usable emulator yet. [[User:F0rZ3r0|F0rZ3r0]] ([[User talk:F0rZ3r0|talk]]) 08:21, 14 January 2018 (EST)
 +
:Leave it until it starts running games.--[[User:SonofUgly|SonofUgly]] ([[User talk:SonofUgly|talk]]) 17:24, 14 January 2018 (EST)

Revision as of 22:24, 14 January 2018

Hardware emulation (e.g. FPGA) section

Many new interesting devices have been released recently, for instance MiST, RetroUSB AVS or Nt mini. I guess a new section would be really useful. Related links:

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/242970-fpga-based-videogame-system/

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/262816-its-fun-to-play-on-the-f-p-g-a/

http://my-cool-projects.blogspot.com/2016/03/emulation-vs-fpga.html

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~sedwards/papers/edwards2009retrocomputing.pdf

https://youtube.com/watch?v=CVq_jzj_u8U

https://youtube.com/watch?v=uMwBxL5ZlGw

https://youtube.com/watch?v=lGSidnlOhd4

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Sft7i6aNrYw


iOS and other platforms

There's no section for emulators that run on iOS, Blackberry, etc. I could fill that section in like the Android one, but just wondering if it's worthwhile or not.

do eet--Swarhog (talk) 15:15, 8 August 2014 (EDT)


Should we rename "mobile" on each of the system's pages to "android" since that seams to be what it is referring to and could confuse people with ios, windows phone, etc. 10 Feb 2015

You mean the table names on the main system's pages, like here? Because the Operating System(s) row lists what platform the emulator runs on. --SonofUgly (talk) 22:06, 10 February 2015 (EST)
That is correct also most mobile emulators are only developed for one os --Ember2528 (talk) 22:59, 10 February 2015 (EST)
I think listing the OS in the table is pretty clear, and the emulators listed aren't all just for Android (the majority are, but that's because most people here use Android and don't use iOS/WP8) so you'd have to remove information. I don't see how that would be beneficial. --SonofUgly (talk) 00:03, 11 February 2015 (EST)
Fair enough then, It will be left alone --Ember2528 (talk) 00:08, 11 February 2015 (EST)

Style

Could the admin change it to a nice simple darker style? It looks quite nice. It's the style of the old Wikia. - The Red Sniper.

Here's a darker style that I use: Userstyles. It's left default as a lot of people complained about the white on grey. --SonofUgly (talk) 17:54, 27 March 2014 (EDT)

Main Page Layout

Post what you want/don't want instead of changing it back and forth.

Personally don't think it should have any fixed widths.
If you want to test something, make a new page like Main Page Test 1 or take a screenshot of the preview. --SonofUgly (talk) 17:15, 26 July 2014 (EDT)

All right then. I claim Main Page Test 1 as mine. Jackos (talk) 17:25, 26 July 2014 (EDT)
It's done. I guess. --Jackos (talk) 19:03, 26 July 2014 (EDT)
Might also want to add this one, which is basically the last one you listed with the unified headers I made for the first one (uncentered). Which admittedly doesn't look too bad, but I'll leave it up to others to decide. Murrigan (talk) 17:26, 26 July 2014 (EDT)

I like the unified header one as well, but maybe do something with that picture along the lines of http://i.imgur.com/sj0R8gw.png This was the first one that changed and it just doesn't look good on my monitor http://i.imgur.com/fFhlMcu.png Special

See, that's why fixed width is probably a good thing (admittedly I dun goof'd originally when I took that away on the original edit, of course); having it stretch to ANY width will make things look sparse. Murrigan (talk) 17:41, 26 July 2014 (EDT

A suggestion for Jackos / my 2 cents http://i.imgur.com/MU5VyUe.png Center the 'Welcome Intro' and move the threads to it's own little box, and anyway to remove all those individual 'Edit' links? -- Special

I removed the edit links. The problem I see is that more than two boxes won't work very well with lowres monitors. I know with mine it won't work. --Jackos (talk) 20:21, 26 July 2014 (EDT)
That's true about low resolutions, looks pretty much perfect now either way. -- Special

Seems like most are happy with Main Page Test 1 and we'll go with it. Does anyone have any objections to that? --SonofUgly (talk) 15:35, 27 July 2014 (EDT)

Seems fine to me. If we're going with this, is there any point keeping Template:News? It looks like it's not even being used on that page. If we do end up keeping it we could remove the title in it I guess. Murrigan (talk) 15:43, 27 July 2014 (EDT)
Keep the template. It'll be easier to edit if you guys wanna change something related to it, instead of searching through all the code already on the page. Even a template for the "Information" block would be good. --Jackos (talk) 15:48, 27 July 2014 (EDT)
Wouldn't it be better to replace that Russian news feed with something else like an EmuCR one? The Russian one is hardly up to date with current releases like PPSSPP 0.9.9 for example, may emuCR would be to spammy with all the dev builds? -- Special
EmuCR posts mostly for dev builds, so it'd be pretty cluttered. To be honest it's the best one I've seen at least (and this is a discussion that happened on the old Wikia). Murrigan (talk) 17:26, 27 July 2014 (EDT)

Assumption of "Computers" category?

There's a list under a "Computers" category. Perhaps this is known, but all video game consoles are computers. A 1978 calculator is a computer. The TVs that your parents watched when they were kids were computers(most likely). I think this is kind of differentiating people's ideas of what "computer" means, and is not a good way to describe "non-gaming purpose" computers.

This, I feel, further dumbs down the general populations' knowledge of technology by calling 'X' a computer, but then telling them their smartphone or such is a "phone, not a 'PC/computer!'"

Perhaps I should give some better replacements:

"Non-gaming computer emulators",

"Emulators for non-consoles",

"Old system emulators", or

"Emulators for non-game consoles".

What about "Personal Computers"? Most people think of desktop, multi-purpose computers when they hear this. --Swarhog (talk) 17:20, 28 July 2014 (EDT)
Seems pedantic. Sure consoles, calculators, phones, etc. are computers, but you place a phone, SNES, and personal computer/home computer/desktop PC/whatever next to each other and then ask someone to turn on the 'Computer', they're not gonna touch the phone or the SNES.
"Non-gaming computer emulators" - plenty of people gamed on their DOS computers. "Emulators for non-consoles" - even 'console' is fairly ambiguous when talking about something like the MSX or Commodore. "Old system emulators" - a SNES is an old system. "Emulators for non-game consoles" - see one and two.
They're computers.--SonofUgly (talk) 17:54, 28 July 2014 (EDT)

Ok ... how about "Other Emulators" then? A Nintendo Handheld can be just as much as a "personal computer" as an Amiga/Commodore 64 once was.

Or how about Computers/PCs, as that's what everyone calls them by? No one calls a GameBoy a personal computer. --SonofUgly (talk) 16:50, 30 July 2014 (EDT)
^ This. As the Wikipedia says "(...) The term "video game console" is used to distinguish a machine designed for consumers to use for playing video games on a separate television in contrast to arcade machines, handheld game consoles, or home computers."; Or my dictionary "games console: A small electronic device for playing computerized video games." --Jackos (talk) 17:44, 30 July 2014 (EDT)

I'm a bit disappointed to see that nobody is getting where I'm coming from. I am aware of what most people call them, but the terminology is what I propose that we go against and come up with a new way of describing these computers without making anything contrasting/different to them as "less of a computer" in the eyes of society. When someone says their smartphone is not a computer, that's someone ignorant to what a computer is (or what defines as a computer). When we further that agenda here we are just fueling that same mindset that's wrong. This is why I said let's come up with a way of categorizing these systems in a way that doesn't reflect negatively on the view of what constitutes a computer in the other categories. Just because "everyone says 'X' things are 'Y'" doesn't mean we should stray along with common beliefs. Just consider this: Is Playstation 3 a computer? Yep. It has a microprocessor, RAM, a GPU. Does your "PC" have a microprocessor, RAM, and a GPU? Yep. Based on the latter, we can confirm that Playstation 3 is no less a computer than your desktop build ... or Gameboy Color ... or Atari even (same fundamentals, just with very limited resources). Do you consider your PS3, Vita, etc. to be "personal"? If you do, it's technically a "personal computer". This is why I'm arguing semantics here where it counts. The "PC" has no real meaning/definition ... find me one that defines what exactly makes something a "PC" and what makes it not one. People often consider "anything sitting on their desk that runs Windows" to be a PC, even though plenty of us know that OS X is compiled for the exact same architecture, has drivers for the same GPUs, and has a platform almost identical to that Windows/Linux/etc. runs on. It's just a thought, of course.

I also found this: http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/what-term-personal-computer "General operation by a single user." That tells us that the way most people think of it is not historically correct. You can research what IBM considered "PC" to mean, and how that has evolved and misled millions of people now who think "PC" constitutes form factor or don't even know what the hell it means ... just that they know it means whatever the "smarter" person tells them it means. This is why I feel that terminology matters more than bullet-biting and just using the "common" (and also wrongly believed) terminology for it.
"Ma'am, I'm afraid your son has autism." --Swarhog
This is a small niche wiki for a niche hobby, we're not changing any societal definitions, or following an agenda one way or the other. "Computer" is used to clearly categorize emulators that everyone else refers to as computer emulators so they can quickly find what they're looking for, and know what the other systems under the category are for. --SonofUgly (talk) 15:38, 2 August 2014 (EDT)
^^This, also dat autism. :/ -- Special

All right, call me autistic. I guess tossing insults is what we've come down to here, so the intelligent discussion ends now.

TODO

There's still plenty to do if you're looking for something to edit.

And just in general, adding more info to pages that need it.

I'm also in the process of marking what pages should be removed based on whether they're actually useful or not, and marking which pages are stubs (as in, need adding to). I'll be removing the ones marked for deletion within a week, so feedback would be grateful if anyone happens to think they need to stay. Murrigan (talk) 13:36, 25 October 2014 (EDT)

Someone who knows anything about SG-1000 emulation should make a page about it. There is currently a broken redirect at SG-1000 that redirects to a non-existent page. Monroe88 (talk) 23:00, 25 August 2015 (EDT)

I don't know much about SG-1000 but I created SG-1000 emulators. It would be great if someone can expand it. 66.249.82.138 01:15, 22 October 2015 (EDT)

Hello. This wiki has lots of Special:UncategorizedPages and Special:UncategorizedCategories. I'm recently working to fix some of these but there are many pages remaining. Could someone please add categories to more pages? 66.249.82.252 11:59, 6 October 2015 (EDT)

Finally reduced the Special:UncategorizedCategories to just Category:Browse (The root category which cannot be categorized) and Special:UncategorizedPages to Captcha test (which is just a test/sandbox page) 66.249.82.133 00:21, 22 October 2015 (EDT)

Is the FAQ section getting crowded?

For example the 'CRT monitors' 'CRT TVs' pages can just go into the 'Display FAQ' page because this seems pretty redundant, and the 'PSP Eboots' page seems pretty pointless as is too, I would just put a section about converting PS1 games to Eboots in the 'Ripping Games' page since we have that already, the rest of the 'PSP Eboots' page are just download links so put those in 'ROM/ISO Sites' page. Just some ideas for cleaning up the FAQs section. --Special

Sounds good to me. A few of them (the CRT links in particular) are actually already detailed and otherwise linked in the Displays page, so those should be a fairly easy job. Murrigan (talk) 12:49, 1 December 2014 (EST)

Making a clean break with a new community:

I think 4chan's /vg/ is a bad place. We should start anew. 8Chan allows you to make your own boards. I've made an Emulation board on there for us:

http://8ch.net/emulation/res/1.html

--8KhanBaron (talk) 20:16, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

Nah. This is still the emugen wiki.
This thing will blow over eventually. Until then, learn to filter. --SonofUgly (talk) 20:20, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

It's not just the Rachel thing. EmuGen used to be one of the only Generals on /vg/ that was actually what it was supposed to do. Slow and on topic. Then came the drama, the flamewars, the trolls, just all sorts of bullshit. It's not ending. That's why I just want to make a clean break. Emulation is big enough for its own board. 8khan is a niche site now, but let's see if we can make it grow.

Part of the problems are the "General" format itself. It works like an IRC chat room. Tends to be clique-y, with the same people over and over again. Identities get known. People sit and troll and wait for

A true board is better. Each thread for an actual topic or question. I'm sick of 4chan and 4chan culture. I want to make imageboards how they are supposed to be. "Anonymous" names were used to avoid forum drama. But it's just being usd as an invitation to trolling and bullshit.--8KhanBaron (talk) 20:42, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

When an emugen was created on the first 8chan bubble it was the exact same thing, people bitching and starting drama over 4chan's emugen. If 8chan got popular and the emulation board took off, it'd be the same shit. It's just how a lot of people are in the emulation community.
And 8chan just isn't big enough, you might get a few people interested and posting for a day or two, but just like the emugen thread before, and the emugen board before, interest will quickly die off.
This is a wiki from and for 4chan; if you don't like 4chan, sorry, but I don't see it changing any time soon. --SonofUgly (talk) 21:01, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

The hot pockets have become very selective in their handling of off-topic posts. Trigger them too much and they might decide that /emugen/ is just too problematic for 2015 4chan. Just a thought. --Swarhog (talk) 21:45, 27 April 2015 (EDT)

Case-insensitive search

I think case-insensitive search should get implemented here. Considering that emulator names are often a bit of a mess of letters in different cases and sometimes spelling there isn't even standardized clearly, this is a necessary change. Maybe bug ITEM-3 about this if your permissions aren't high enough, this shouldn't hurt the Game Tech Wiki either.--NOptimus (talk)

reducing the size of games while keeping them instantly playable in their respective emulators

There's a good guide for this on leddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/comments/3g933n/guide_reduce_the_size_of_your_ps2_gc_wii_x360_ds/

I think it needs to be copied to a new article here.

i think we let that fucking bullshit stay over there --YOU'RE MOM (talk) 19:04, 13 August 2015 (EDT)
Not that I'm saying it's not bullshit, but...why is it 'fucking bullshit'? It seems pretty okay to me, so is there some drawback to these approaches that makes it inappropriate for the wiki? (Which is my one go-to resource for emulation tips, by the way! I'd like to thank all the contributors.) --45.40.64.141 02:08, 14 August 2015 (EDT)
The guide neglects to mention very important things, but I don't see why an improved article wouldn't be appropriate here. Most importantly, the guide does not inform readers that some of the conversions are irreversible. Once a clean X360 .iso or DS rom gets trimmed following the instructions in the guide, it is irreversible. The data that is removed is garbage/padding data, and the game still works the same in emulators after conversion, but nonetheless it makes it an imperfect copy of the game. I have personally encountered downloads where important data such as music or video has been ripped out of the game to save space, so I understand that some are uncomfortable with removing any data at all, even if it is garbage/padding data; it is not archive-quality. The compression the guide mentions for gamecube, wii, and PS2 is perfectly reversible though. Don't know about the other systems. --Awry (talk) 01:46, 17 August 2015 (EDT)
I can understand the concerns for archival purposes, yeah. And I've encountered a few bad rips with missing video in my time, which is always annoying. Still, it seems like noting those things in the article would be enough, with those kinds of caveats and pitfalls being listed. --104.243.86.197 06:45, 17 August 2015 (EDT)

Category namespace issue

Category pages don't list all the articles they contain. For instance, FAQs category page lists 3 articles out of 48 the original wiki's category contained in April. --GeneralFailer (talk) 12:19, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

I've been working on fixing this but there are a lot of categories and articles that need looking at. Seems to be an issue from the backup import from when we moved from Gametech, you can fix it most of the time by doing a small edit (or even just hitting the edit button on a page and hitting save with no changes) -- Random Encounter (talk) 19:28, 7 September 2016 (UTC)

Three-wiki problem

Now that Gametech is back up, what is going to happen to Miraheze? Is one wiki or the other going to be taken down? If not, you're going to end up with three separate wikis that all show up on Google. I realize there's nothing you can do about the old Wikia one but leaving both Gametech and Miraheze up is going to be a shit show. Also, did anyone get in touch with the Gametech admin and find out why the site went down with no notice at all? The Gametech admin's comments -- Random Encounter (talk) 23:37, 16 September 2016 (EDT)

NEC Handhelds

TurboExpress has no business being on the main page. It's as much of a new "system" as the Sega Nomad or the Game Boy Player is.

Spam surge from Indian cold-callers

I know I've messaged SonOfUgly about this, but I think this wiki should be more or less restricted for the time being, like, new accounts and/or IPs should undergo probation or are restricted from performing certain actions. That or a more robust CAPTCHA and an IP address blacklist as most of them spammers come from either India or some other proxy range. Banning the latter outright might be too much, but Wikipedia has done so due to so much proxy abuse anyway. Blakegripling ph (talk) 22:21, 8 September 2017 (EDT)

I'm thinking of something more tactful in theory. Think about how useful a phone number is to a hub relating to emulation and emulators; nobody's gonna be calling emu-devs for assistance... the open-source software often includes an anti-warranty bit saying creators are not obligated to help people if they have problems with the software. So why do we need phone numbers here anyways? Why not set up a bot or an extension that tracks this kind of activity, either revert if it's done on an existing page, or delete if it's the only revision, and then just block the IP or user indefinitely? Even if they create tons of sockpuppets or switch IP addresses, its of no advantage to them simply because the act of doing it would get them blocked. If there isn't something like that that currently exists elsewhere, then we may actually have a problem. Also, the captcha in place can easily be macro'd around since it only asks two questions. We really do need something more robust. FosterHaven (talk) 00:47, 9 September 2017 (EDT)
There is that, though the kicker here is they're obfuscating phone numbers using non-standard symbols similar to regular numbers. If I am not mistaken, Wikipedia has an edit filter in place that blocks the use of such symbols on articles unless the user is well-established. Math-based and basic Q&As aren't going to cut it either for fairly obvious reasons either. Blakegripling ph (talk) 03:59, 9 September 2017 (EDT)
I also notice some of the pages were simply created by IP addresses. What's stopping us from locking that for registered users only? Taking into account the pages that are already here, if we need any more, it should probably be limited to another role like autoconfirmed. I doubt the sockpuppet accounts use emails at all. FosterHaven (talk) 04:36, 9 September 2017 (EDT)
P.S.: There's a title blacklist over at the ZDoom wiki which you might want to check out. But if you ask me, preventing them from even stepping in to begin with is better. Blakegripling ph (talk) 04:16, 9 September 2017 (EDT)
That's interesting. Speaking of other wikis, I'm surprised they're only at this one and not the miraheze backup. Could this be something to do with search results? FosterHaven (talk) 04:36, 9 September 2017 (EDT)
Not sure, though dozens of other wikis are affected by this sudden surge of faux customer support lines. On a related note I've pranked one of them once and had quite a laugh at them cussing back at a Joe Pesci soundboard I used. :P Blakegripling ph (talk) 04:47, 9 September 2017 (EDT)

Question regarding unemulated systems

Now that the Switch has an emulator (here if you're unaware), do we keep the little dash next to it stating there's nothing usable yet or? I don't wanna go ahead and remove it since it's not a very usable emulator yet. F0rZ3r0 (talk) 08:21, 14 January 2018 (EST)

Leave it until it starts running games.--SonofUgly (talk) 17:24, 14 January 2018 (EST)