I know this is frequently asked question, but I wonder if anything changed. By checking Abandonia's front page, I saw a lot of low-end games, or the games that would get 1-2 points out of 10 in most computer magazines, I suggest again that we (and most importantly Kosta) rethink other computer emulation.

I suggest one (or more) of the following:

Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Apple ][
Commodore 64
Commodore Amiga
Atari ST

All of those computers have a lot of great games, but some of graphics on older ones do not look so great. Atari ST and Amiga's games look and play better then PC games of that time, but Amiga requires kickstart (which you can only buy, if you never heard of google) and Atari released ST roms.

C64 and Apple ][ might require some basic knowledge about those systems. (actually all of them require some knowledge)

There are some sites that you can use to get games for those computers, but they don't have good reviews or screen shots, and games for those systems might be lost forever.

I created the poll to, but this is not official poll made by an admin.

I gave it a good thought, and I can say that I support the idea. That would bring abandonia many more visitors and in that case, this site would become really unique (regarding to Anubis' remark that there are no sites with good reviews and screenshots of those games).

That would mean a lot of work and reorganisation, surely, but if enough members are ready and willing to help, it could work out.

Of course, if Kosta and admins give green light to that idea.

I like it, but there are allready so many sites hosting those games... We should stick to our core-business here. Abandonware DOS-games! There's still a lot of ground to cover in that area.

But: It's Kosta's call. I can imagine that Abandonia with just the DOS-games is allready a pretty costly affair to keep running... so increasing the load significantly without and fair increase in donations would be difficult. Off course, the ESA-shakeout could perhaps have caused a dip in traffic... I don't know.

It would help if people who like to learn more about emulation ask the questions or start the topic about it, so that we can help.

As for other sites hosting those games. There is no single site that has both review and download for thos games.

For example lemon c64 or amiga site has nice review and screen shots, but no downloads, while c64 site has downloads, but no review. Also most of download sites are not so standardized as we are.

As for hosting, more games for different computers will bring more trafic, and also more users, and more questions. I believe that I can help with most of troubleshooting, and if not, there are some other emulation experts that can help too. :)

And after the all, Abandonia is already emulation site, as DOSBox is emulator, same as VDMSound or DOS/Command prompt. ;)

EDIT:Added screen shot of one of the C64 games.

As much as I like the idea (Nuby, znaš da sam fanatik kad se radi o C64) - Abandonia is a site dedicated to old DOS games (the fact that we also have Windows games is already a bit weird, but at least it's still for PC).

We have both, DOS and Windows games.

But don't forget that not only PC had and used DOS. ;)

now personaly I support any emulation (including those of consoles and macs), for me it's sort of like having a different cultures author traslated for you.
But I still believe we should stick to our main goal (of course a non-pc week/month for creme de la creme would be nice, but no more. while latin might be fun, pax romanum is dead and so is C64 :D ), in fact I believe that the real future of abandonia lies with it's Reloaded section (If you still haven't seen it, I stongly recomed you do, it has some pretty fun games to look at). how many games were released for DOS in the last 5 yeras? a bit more than a dozen, and half of those are free to begin with.
so next time when you have nothing to do, consider helping out with reviews, you might find a new favorite game in the process. :ok:

Same goes with DOS. Just after Win95 it began the end of DOS.

AS for reloaded, the games, that big company offered are nice, but most of the other games I find very annoying.

Amiga games would be a welcome addition in my opinon.

Don't get me wrong - I'm all for C64 games, Amiga games, (S)NES games,... but not here. Maybe there should be something like Abandonia Emulated or something (yet another sister site)...

I guess this is a culutural thing. Being born 15 years later (1986 to be exact) I enjoy the freeware much more than its abandonware-gone-free counterparts.

That would divide more Abandonians.

No matter how nice idea for reloaded was, I don't think is good. Most of us don't have enough time to visit multiple forums, and many of us had to decide to either stay here, or move to reloaded.

Just another 'TOP' filter, where you choose between DOS or Freeware and IMHO Windows games would work much better, and we might have additional sub-forum to view instead of full forum.

Same idea would be for additional systems. Have a top filter, where you select system (DOS or all systems might be default) and then select genre or search.

Also most of the games can be cross-linked. Same game (for example defender of the crown) was done for multiple systems, so people can review and see difference between all of those systems.

Well, at the moment, Abandonia is so focused on DOS games, that it would be quite a distraction if we started adding amiga / c64 and other games that require special emulators. A whole new submenu category with C64 stuff (games & emulators) perhaps, but then the "utilities" section would loose its meaning and focus... I'm for the idea, but uncertain how it could be executed. Another site would seem to be the best solution I think.

I believe that it's easiest to add additional option box on the top of main page, with simple options such as PC DOS, Amiga, C64, and by selecting any of these, your links on the left side will change to selected area. (Action, adventure, strategy etc. games for each of these systems, and also utilities, programs etc.) Also your totals at the bottom would represent totals for that system, while you can have different header for different systems, so that people don't get confused.

I know this sound more confusing then what should be, and I might sketch something out to explain it, and how much changes we would need to make in DB for those changes.

Like others, I think building a new site for emulation is better. Let's leave Abandonia focus on DOS PC games.

we'll need a staff expansion than. AR allready feels like it's undersffed right now. (I don't know why, maybe it's just becasue it's new, or maybe it's just me all along, but that is the feeling I get)

I agree with Reup, abandonia should stick to the core business: pc games.

Although a sister site concept like reloaded (Abamulated?) sounds like fun :bleh:

Perambulated?

I reckon a sister site would be the only sensible way - AB is big enough already. As for AR being understaffed - it's undermembered :P

Well that's because most people are at Abandonia. I tried AR for a while (the very beginings), but it just seemed a bit to... dull :yawn:
Who knows.
That's the part I do agree with Anubis - the people would further split up (there are a few people I rarely see here ever since AR apeared).

If we should do this, we should split it to a different site. Otherwise we'll suffer the fate of HOTU. Too musch strain on one site = slooow site.

Divide et impera!
But if this emulation site would pull yet another bunch of active members away from Abandonia, we would be in a real pickle... it's allready getting pretty time-consuming for those who are active at the moment... So be sure to check out Tom's little signature!

Compromise would be to create another site, while changes in this forum can accommodate both sites and even reloaded, if we like to have all people at one spot again.

Well, how about this. Another site, but a shared forum! That way, there would be no members splitting up, and it would be easy to create two subforums under game discussions - one for emulated and other for PC games. The rest is pretty much the same anyhow.

I agree that's the best option. Is it worth moving reloaded forum back here too? Kind of missing some folks that moved there.

Other systems on Abandonia would be a great idea. There are MANY superb games on C-64, Amiga or AtariST that are unique to those platforms only. Furthermore, it would be nice to have different versions of the same game, just to compare ;)

It would be great. But it's better if Abandonia is good in one thing than if it would be bad in two things.

Hardly anyone's moved there completely (Puffin, and that's about it - and that was for pretty good reasons too) though those of us who are staff (particularly tai, who is incapable of living without a massive workload of one sort or another it seems :P) spend time there too. I'm against merging the forums - this forum feels too big to me as it is.

I like Abandonia just like it is right now!

And making another site for emulation should be a good idea.

Emulation: :ok: , all the way!

Well even she is still on Abandonia every once in a while...
We didn't loose members, but some come here so rarely nowadays - and some visit the AR so rarely... Oh well.

But I think the merging should be left completely to the AR members. If they want it - they should vote for it.

the new emulation site should have the same forum as this one. There could also be direct comparison of some games.
EXAMPLE

I suggest links, same as it's done on lemon Amiga and lemon c64. ;)

Its a little tricky. We already have some PC versions of Amiga\Commodore games. Do we need the original version?

Anyway,i like the idea. It would be nice if the Abandonia has the cool commodore classics like Ghostbusters or Movie Monster.

I would really like to see some emulator stuff on here, but only the absolutely best stuff!

I'm still new here but I like the forums a lot, I've skimmed through all of the content of Reloaded but didn't feel the same urge to revisit it (except to spam all my friends with a link to UFO2000 obviously). Some new categories in the forum (C64 emulation, Amiga emulation etc) would be nice and maybe split the main site up into DOS, C64, Amiga etc?

When you click on a link it could take you to a version of the site for that platform, so if you were in C64 you could look through the categories of adventure, strategy etc and then click back to the main site and pick a different platform, same shared forum though.

I think it would be a shame to create completely different sites as it all comes under the category of abandoned games really doesn't it? If you do decide to go for emulation I'll happily review C64 stuff till my hands drop off if that helps.