View Full Version : Check out my Genesis site!
Sega-16 (http://www.got-next.com/~ken/Sega-16/Home.htm)
After weeks of work the site is finally up! I did it using Dreamweaver (I know absolutely no html) and just launched this past Tuesday. I'm still configuring the server so I can use the URL alone. That should be done in a few days.
What do you think?
marshalldylan1
06-30-2004, 08:12 PM
Nice site! There isn't too many quality Genesis sites out there. The Reviews are very in depth, and are great.
The only beef I have is the text size on the front page. That however could be just me.
Other than that, the site is pretty good. I hope to see more updates in the future, along with some more features.
classicb
06-30-2004, 08:25 PM
Great start. I got it bookmarked and will be checking back soon. Good job with the reviews. I like it when people take the time to put up screen shots. I also like the direction you're taking with the features. All in all I can see you put some time into this and I think Sega fans will enjoy.
-hellvin-
06-30-2004, 11:12 PM
This is awesome. After my NES this was my third system and the one I have enjoyed the most out of any. I love the reviews, they're long, informative, pretty spot on and the screenshots are a very nice touch. Kudos.
Policenaut
06-30-2004, 11:22 PM
I was one of the first honored to visit Melf's site, great reviews, nice looking and very informative, keep improving it !!
HellStar
06-30-2004, 11:41 PM
Nice site man!
Bookmarked :)
Awesome site!
It's cool to see a nice site give some love to the good old Genny. :)
Bookmarked. 8-)
badinsults
07-01-2004, 12:12 PM
The design is very circa 1998, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Things are well written. Although I never had a genesis, it looks like a good site.
rscaramelo
07-01-2004, 12:43 PM
Nice job.
I just picked up a couple of Genesis' recently with some games. I'm excited to start collecting it. I have some fond memories of playing it to death in college.
Roger
VinnyT
07-01-2004, 02:53 PM
What a nice site.
Can I have a job writing, if you have an open spot?
Daria
07-01-2004, 03:42 PM
Great content. Reviews are well written. You could spruce up the layout a bit, it's functional as it is but not very "pretty". Also the article where you talk about bad boxes for good games, you need bigger images of the boxes. It's hard to see them, and that should be the point of the piece. Also you might want to explain why the box sucks so badly, I was kinda curious as to what was wrong with Toe Jam and Earl and Pirates.
Yeah, as time goes on I'll be improving the look of the site. I still have a lot to learn about html and coding and such though.
You're right about the box art feature. I made the pics bigger (as big as possible without really hurting the quality) and added some text about each cover. Thanks for the comments!
Neil Koch
07-01-2004, 06:18 PM
Nice site... don't see too many with longer reviews of Genesis games.
One thing I might suggest is that you might want to seperate the review index instead of having one page with all the reviews on it. Once you get a good number of reviews, it'll get to be a pretty big page and not as surfer-friendly.
And don't worry too much about the site's look... I'd rather see someithing that's simple and has good info rather than a flashy one with nothing to say.
VinnyT
07-01-2004, 07:51 PM
The reviews page says someone could submit a review, but it doesn't say where you can. Where could you send a review?
One thing I might suggest is that you might want to seperate the review index instead of having one page with all the reviews on it. Once you get a good number of reviews, it'll get to be a pretty big page and not as surfer-friendly.
Actually, it has both! They're separated by letter and they're also all on the main reviews page. :D
The reviews page says someone could submit a review, but it doesn't say where you can. Where could you send a review?
Well, I'm having a bit of trouble getting the original "submit" button on the page to work. The link I made has my email so you can send it there. Please send it as an attachment and only submit a review for a game that isn't already up. I'll proofread it (spelling, grammar, etc) and send you the copy. Once it's approved, up it goes!
VinnyT
07-01-2004, 11:21 PM
And what would your e-mail address be?
Arqueologia_Digital
07-02-2004, 12:03 AM
Good start and good website, some reviews are very good!!!, congratulations!!!, i hope i could share some info for your site someday...
Matías
MegaDrive20XX
07-02-2004, 12:21 AM
Awesome site dude, I love the Genny all the way!
Arqueologia_Digital
07-02-2004, 12:31 AM
Oh!!!, you are from Puerto Rico!!!, why don´t you create this website or another one in spanish!!!
Saludos amigo y muy buena la web de veras!!!
Matías
And what would your e-mail address be?
ken@got-next.com :)
Crush Crawfish
07-02-2004, 03:01 AM
Very, very nice site! Those reviews are some of the best I've seen in a while! Keep up the good work.
DigitalSpace
07-03-2004, 03:36 AM
Nice! I bookmarked your site as well. Keep up the good work!
classicb
07-03-2004, 07:13 AM
i really hope this site takes off because i love the genesis and your site has a great feel to it. keep it up
Daniel Thomas
07-03-2004, 06:53 PM
It's a very good website, and you should be proud. You've obviously learned that one doesn't need a graphics-intensive site to be effective. What's important is content, content, content. That's what you should focus on, and you're doing fine with that already.
As a webmaster, your other primary concern is bandwidth, and since a sizeable number of people still use dialup (56K) connections, you need to keep your page sizes as small as possible. This is something that Dreamweaver can help you with, since it tells you the download times for various connections; I suggest keeping it at "56K," since that's your standard.
You have a lot of images that are far too large. Screen shots at over 20K, and game boxes at nearly 80K. That means someone with a dialup will be waiting forever, and nobody likes to wait (the average waiting time is something like 8 seconds). Thankfully, you've included the "height" and "width" parameters with the photos, so the text can appear onscreen first.
If you need a decent graphics program, I'd suggest Paint Shop Pro, which is pretty cheap and offers everything you need.
Here's another idea, one that I use myself. Put one screen shot on your review page, and then offer a link to more photos. You still get to show off those photos, but you're saving bandwidth. Just remember to mention the page size of the photos page ("click here for closeup -- 60K").
Sorry if this sounds like a college lecture. You have a fine site, and it deserves to be a success. Web design is pretty easy, actually. It's all about making everything read nice and load fast. I'm looking forward seeing this website grow.
Lemmy Kilmister
07-03-2004, 07:12 PM
I just browsed threw it for the most part. Though from what i saw i liked. I injoy that little history of wonderboy artical you wrote and the reviews. Good job.
It's a very good website, and you should be proud. You've obviously learned that one doesn't need a graphics-intensive site to be effective. What's important is content, content, content. That's what you should focus on, and you're doing fine with that already.
Thanks!
As a webmaster, your other primary concern is bandwidth, and since a sizeable number of people still use dialup (56K) connections, you need to keep your page sizes as small as possible. This is something that Dreamweaver can help you with, since it tells you the download times for various connections; I suggest keeping it at "56K," since that's your standard.
You have a lot of images that are far too large. Screen shots at over 20K, and game boxes at nearly 80K. That means someone with a dialup will be waiting forever, and nobody likes to wait (the average waiting time is something like 8 seconds). Thankfully, you've included the "height" and "width" parameters with the photos, so the text can appear onscreen first.
I just realized to save pics "save for web" in Photoshop, so they will now be much smaller. Had you not brought this up, I probably wouldn't have even thought to look for that option. Thanks again!
Daniel Thomas
07-04-2004, 05:22 PM
Well, that's good news. Optimizing graphics is vitally important to web design; you'd be surprised how many sites still don't understand that we all don't have massive T1 lines.
On Paint Shop Pro, there is a method of optimising JPEGs and GIFs. It's listed as "JPEG Optimiser" or "GIF Optimiser" under the "File - Export" menu. There should be something similar to that in Photoshop. Here, you can scale down the picture sizes as you wish.
You may also want to brighten your pictures a bit, since a black background will suck the light out of everything. But I personally prefer dark backgrounds, becasue it's much easier for reading text.
If you need any inspiration, just visit my website, which has a number of games reviews available (among other things).
Bratwurst
07-04-2004, 06:03 PM
On Paint Shop Pro, there is a method of optimising JPEGs and GIFs. It's listed as "JPEG Optimiser" or "GIF Optimiser" under the "File - Export" menu. There should be something similar to that in Photoshop. Here, you can scale down the picture sizes as you wish.
Paint Shop Pro's compression options are inferior to Adobe's. Poorer quality with JPEGS and less control on colors in GIFs.
Having said that I prefer working with Paint Shop Pro then carrying the images over to Photoshop for saving and such.
Daniel, great site! Any chance of you contributing that review for Fire Shark? :P
Daniel Thomas
07-05-2004, 04:04 AM
Daniel, great site! Any chance of you contributing that review for Fire Shark? :P
Thanks for the kind words. If you want to use my reviews and essays, I'm pretty fine with it. The one thing I would insist on, if you wanted to reprint an entire essay, is to provide a text link back to its original source. For example, for a Fire Shark review, you'd want to have this at the top of your page:
"Reprinted with permission from DanielThomas.org."
And then you'd have "DanielThomas.org" link to the original page. Pretty easy, huh? If you want to do the same for other Genesis reviews (there's Herzog Zwei, for instance), just do the same.
Glad to help out any way I can. This is almost like a fanzine timewarp, ain't it? Now what you need is a letter from Russ Perry, Jr., and you'll be enshrined.
Thanks for the contribution! I will link as you asked and won't change a thing.
Great reviews, BTW. :)
So, anyone else want to contribute? :D
VinnyT
07-07-2004, 11:39 AM
I should get atleast one to you sometime today.
I got your review and it has been posted!
Six other reviews have been posted, along with some great articles and classic commericals. Check 'em out!
classicb
07-10-2004, 12:37 AM
this is really moving along fast. I like the new stories but I would have liked to see some picutes in the Genesis and 32X stories. I think it needs something to break up the text.
great to see the frequent updates.
60 reviews have been posted!
As for the features, I wanted to add pics, but the layout didn't seem right. Let me check it again and see what can be done.
Keep that feedback coming!
The URL is active! Now you can get there directly through www.sega-16.com. The old one still works but my domain is working now.
classicb
07-21-2004, 02:26 AM
Melf good work. I've been checking in on a regular basis and there always seems to be a new review. Keep up the good work. When I get the time I'll try to write a review or two.
Genesis still my favorite system.