NEWS: Games Database

[Tom Speirs]

Spesoft is pleased to announce its latest in house project and sister site Games Database.

Games Database is a site aimed at 30+ retro video game enthusiasts, with a goal of being a repository for all available media and data relating to video games.

You will find live on line videos for thousands of games. As well as artwork, and information on games, their developers, publishers and the systems they run on. It takes a slightly different approach from existing games sites, with the data being based on emulation information, and available media currently used with emulators and front ends. It also provides media such as game manuals, system manuals and advertisements in a single site.

Visit the site at http://gamesdbase.com and please spread the word about it. Due to the amount of content, hosting is not cheap, so I would like the ad supported site to become reasonably known.

The site would not be possible without the help and development work from Ben Baker of Headsoft (http://headsoft.com.au), and tireless effort from the retrobytes portal (http://retrobytesportal.co.uk ) and emumovies (http://www.emumovies.com)

In the near future the site will be expanded to become a community and allow user interaction and contribution. Additional content is also constantly being added.

Feedback and suggestions are actively encouraged and there is a forum here: http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showforum=12

[bkenobi]

This might be a really good location to host controller files as well. There is currently no repository for a controls.dat project for consoles. If there was a wiki-esc entry where users could update the controls info (and other stuff that's not filled in), that would be spectacular. This information is usually available in the user manuals (which it sounds like you may be hosting on gamesdbase), so the information is available if people want to help enter it.

Great site already! Nice work.

[wgungfu]

Please be advised, the picture of my magnavox odyssey on your page at:

http://gamesdbase.com/system-magnavox_odyssey.aspx

Is being used in violation of the terms of my license at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Odysseye2m.png

Very specifically:

"This photo is free to use as long as credits to Martin Goldberg and/or Electronic Entertainment Museum (E2M), are maintained."

You're welcome to use it if credits are maintained, and please remove your watermark from the photo as you are not the author.

Marty

[Tom Speirs]

Please be advised, the picture of my magnavox odyssey on your page at:

http://gamesdbase.com/system-magnavox_odyssey.aspx

Is being used in violation of the terms of my license at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Odysseye2m.png

Very specifically:

"This photo is free to use as long as credits to Martin Goldberg and/or Electronic Entertainment Museum (E2M), are maintained."

You're welcome to use it if credits are maintained, and please remove your watermark from the photo as you are not the author.

Marty

I apologise I didnt realise the photo was so special. It is removed.

[wgungfu]

I apologise I didnt realise the photo was so special. It is removed.

The photo is of my personal unit from my museum display, something that a significant amount of money has been spent on. I put it up on Wikipedia via a specific license that allows people to use it but credits must be maintained. I did not say you had to take it down, just give it the proper required credit. Likewise adding your watermark to the photo as you did for the larger linked one would give people the idea that it is your photo and property when it of course is not. Again, you're welcome to use the photo if proper credits are maintained.

Additionally, your info on the page is wrong - the Magnavox Odyssey is not based on the AY-3-8500 and not released in 1976. As the first video game console, it was released in 1972 and based off of custom discrete circuitry. You're confusing it with the PONG console series starting in 1975, which was also released under the Odyssey brand - Odyssey also being a brand name for all of Magnavox's video game releases in the 70's similar to Sears with it's Tele-Games brand. And only some of the those consoles used the AY-3-8500, which is not a CPU btw. The AY-3-8500 is simply a single chip version of a full discrete circuitry unit, there is no computer running code.

Additionally, the Magnavox Odyssey can not be emulated only simulated. There is no game code in any of the games. MESS emulates the Odyssey2, which is a completely different console and is CPU driven.

[Tom Speirs]

No worries. I have no problem with it and Im sure some readers will find your post interesting. Myself and others here are mostly retro game enthusiasts. The content is more focused on the games available for retro systems. It may well be we have the wrong console picture maybe you could tell me by looking at the games we have up there?

[Draco1962]

Even more information can be found here with some exerpts (with permission) from Ralph H. Baer's book "Videogames: In The Beginning." The picture of the Odyssee from E2M shows what appears to be Mr. Baer's autograph. What a nice momento to have!

[wgungfu]

No worries. I have no problem with it and Im sure some readers will find your post interesting. Myself and others here are mostly retro game enthusiasts. The content is more focused on the games available for retro systems. It may well be we have the wrong console picture maybe you could tell me by looking at the games we have up there?

The games are right and you have the right console. Wrong CPU though, as mentioned the Odyssey does not have a CPU.

As mentioned, you might be confusing it with the subsequent Odyssey series of PONG consoles (1975-1977). The Odyssey 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 2000, 3000, and 4000. Magnavox used Odyssey as a brand name for all their video game products, hence the confusion. Even then, not all of them used the AY-3-8500. My friend David Winter's site details the internals very nicely - www.pong-story.com.

The actual follow up to the Magnavox Odyssey was of course the Magnavox Odyssey2 (1978).

Even more information can be found here with some exerpts (with permission) from Ralph H. Baer's book "Videogames: In The Beginning." The picture of the Odyssee from E2M shows what appears to be Mr. Baer's autograph. What a nice momento to have!

Yes, that's Ralph's signature. I also display the Odyssey carrying case (hard plastic case to store the Odyssey and all it's game pieces in for transport) with his signature on it. Ralph is a friend of mine, and a rather inspiring individual. At his age he's still down in his basement electronics lab almost every day working on new projects.

Marty

[Tom Speirs]

Thanks for the info Marty and again I apologise. I just sent you a free GameEx license.

[deadboy]

Is there a possibility of a bulk type file that people could DL, perhaps even as a donor service, that would allow us to add these great images and movies to our Gameex service faster than one at a time?

Edit: Or is this something I can already do if I sign up for EmuMovies full membership?

[Adultery]

You can use the Download Service Utility if you already have an EmuMovies subscription. The database is cross-linked with their artwork.

You also get the benefit of a find/match/rename feature so your artwork is appropriately named.