SC Retro

[Einar Saukas]

After all the time I recently wasted with a certain subject, someone suggested I should compensate by doing something different and more productive. Now I have decided to follow this advice. However ZXDB already takes a lot of my free time, so it will have to be an easy task with quick results.

Over the years, I mentioned several times that Martijn's WoS had one of my favorite site layouts. I like the way it managed to concentrate so much useful information at once, without making it feel "crowded". Of course I wouldn't expect current sites like SC and others to work that way. These new sites have responsive interfaces that work great for everyone, even on small devices. They are modern in "a good way", it would make no sense for them to go back in time. Flexibility and responsiveness should always remain the primary goal for SC... but what if SC also had an optional secondary, more retro layout?

I just proposed this idea to [mention]PeterJ[/mention] and he agreed to let me try. Developing this idea within SC, instead of creating an independent site, means I won't need to handle infrastructure (hosting, domain, database, etc) and I can go straight to development. It also means enhancing SC, instead of giving users one more site to choose.

Now I want to make it very clear that I'm not trying to compete with WoS Classic. If anyone is eager for a faithful "old WoS experience", that will be still the place to go. Also I previously offered my help to any site interested in using ZXDB, this offer extends to WoS Classic too. Moreover I just suggested to Peter that, since SC links to both original WoS and new WoS (despite everything), it's fair it must link to WoS Classic too. It fits SC's goal of integrating the entire Spectrum community without exceptions, and this should help WoS Classic since their searches are not working yet.

Also I want to make it clear that I'm not trying to compete with new WoS either. They have already left behind the old site style and moved in a different direction, so there will be no similarity. Besides, my long time offer for cooperation with them is still valid.

This will be basically a short experimental side project for me, just so I can do something different. I know nothing about HTML/CSS and I'm a terrible layout designer so feedback from everyone will be very much appreciated. I don't know if it will result in something really useful, that will be worth maintaining afterwards (that's something I expect users to tell me later), but I'm willing to try. The worst thing that can happen is wasting my time, but it wouldn't be much different than my last few weeks. What do I have to lose?

[richl]

This sounds like a great idea!

As much as I avoid posting on WOS any more, I did still use it up until it recently for searching through the archive as its old/classic layout was - for me - a lot quicker and, as you said, concentrated so much useful information at once. For example, if you did a search for "Ocean" you'd get a list of all the Ocean releases in one go, any games that had Ocean in the title and any other related information, and you could just scroll through everything on one page. Nice and quick. I'm not knocking the SC layout as it looks great (the new WOS site is just a design disaster in comparison) but when a search brings up a lot of results I'd rather be able to skip straight to the one I was looking for than have to navigate through several pages, possibly having to guess which one the result I'm looking for is on.

If there was an alternative way of displaying the search results here on SC and/or more customisation then that'd be awesome!

Incidentally, I hope I've got the right end of the stick here and have understood what your plan is as otherwise...

[Einar Saukas]

If there was an alternative way of displaying the search results here on SC and/or more customisation then that'd be awesome!

Try "advanced search" in SC homepage and select "Results layout: compact"

Incidentally, I hope I've got the right end of the stick here and have understood what your plan is

You did!

[akeley]

Fabulous idea, I've actually mentioned something similar recently. Sure, WoS Classic is quite good idea, but I'd rather use SC of course.

The modern template used on SC is just not my cup of tea, it's not actually just this site, but something I had a problem with since the whole Web 2.0 and mobile design came to rule the roost. The mobile adaptation is just a part of that, I also strongly dislike the flat design and modern colour palettes...basically all the sites look the same these days which is somewhat boring.

So any option, which would be more compact and possibly offered different visuals and style would be very welcome. I also thought a separate "dark template" could be useful, and these are actually very popular these days ([mention]PeterJ[/mention] perhaps it could be even implemented without any changes to current SC layout, its' just different colours after all)

[richl]

If there was an alternative way of displaying the search results here on SC and/or more customisation then that'd be awesome!

Try "advanced search" in SC homepage and select "Results layout: compact"

Incidentally, I hope I've got the right end of the stick here and have understood what your plan is

You did!

Thanks for that - I must be getting old! I don't know why but I somehow never really noticed the advanced search features before, I just tend to type my search in at the top Quick Search option. Probably an old habit from using WOS that's hard to kick!

And I'm glad I at least got the right end of the stick!

Looking forward to seeing what comes of your plan!

[Einar Saukas]

Here's an initial version:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/retro/4087

It should work for any game page URL from SC, just replace "entry" with "retro".

I know some fields are still missing, don't worry about it, I will take care of these details later. Next step will be adding a list of file downloads.

Feedback is welcome!

[1024MAK]

Nice idea

Two things, first, if I had a preference, I would advise against using the term “Retro”. I’m sure we can come up with a much better name. See this post for more about “retro”.

Secondly, unfortunately web sites have become like magazines and various other mainstream media. They have to change style every two to five years to “stay” “modern”. Just like the stupid fashion industry, all this does is encourage them to just copy the current trend setters so called style. And adding lots of bells and whistles with lots of images (including background images) just adds bloat.

Hence I find people’s use of the word modern to be strange. Who buys a car that needs a bigger engine to drag a car that is a lot heavier than the car it replaces, just to do the same journey at the same speed, but consuming more fuel?

I would apply the same principles to web sites. Why do we have to download more bloat, to get no more information than the web site that it replaces?

Hence, in a lot of contexts, the word “modern” is equal to the word “fashion” as far as I am concerned.

Sorry about the rant

I do look forward to seeing what you do with this idea

Mark

[Einar Saukas]

I see no problem with the word "retro". It's short and summarizes this idea quite well.

But if anyone has a better idea, please post it here!

[8BitAG]

SC Lite

[PeterJ]

SC Lite

Nice!

[1024MAK]

SC Lite

Love it

Mark

[utz]

Here's an initial version:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/retro/4087

It should work for any game page URL from SC, just replace "entry" with "retro".

I know some fields are still missing, don't worry about it, I will take care of these details later. Next step will be adding a list of file downloads.

Feedback is welcome!

I'm already liking this a lot! Think this has a good chance of becoming my preferred layout. Don't have much to suggest, than perhaps a tiny bit more spacing between text lines.

Also +1 to [mention]8BitAG[/mention]'s suggestion. I'm rather allergic to the word "retro".

[Ralf]

If I could ask for a feature

I'd really love to have a search engine which displays several game screens in a row.
Something that existed on old WOS and exists on sites like Lemon64:



I often used to search through several hundreds of games to find something. It's really comfortable if you have to go through 10 pages
instead of 50.

[Einar Saukas]

OK, I have enabled both links for now, so we can decide later:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/retro/176
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/lite/176

There's now a list of playable files for each game. You can also play online tapes that use standard loaders.

Next I will add a list of the remaining download files.

[Ralf]

Also +1 to @8BitAG's suggestion. I'm rather allergic to the word "retro".

I don't get why you guys don't like word "retro".

Personally I have no problem with calling myself and my interests retro, oldschool and vintage

And people seem generally to like this words too. Especially "vintage" although I had to explain more then once to women that
it applies not only for clothes

EDIT: Einar, sorry for littering your thread.

[Nienn Heskil]

Oh hell yea.

Now if that logo/menu area can also be made smaller... let's say about 2-3 times from the current size... if at all possible.

[Einar Saukas]

EDIT: Einar, sorry for littering your thread.

I don't mind at all. I'm enjoying the light tone in this thread

[Einar Saukas]

If I could ask for a feature

I'd really love to have a search engine which displays several game screens in a row.
Something that existed on old WOS and exists on sites like Lemon64:



I often used to search through several hundreds of games to find something. It's really comfortable if you have to go through 10 pages
instead of 50.

This is a good idea for SC advanced searches. This way, it can be useful for the entire site (not just retro view). Also this way the SC team will take care of implementing it for us, I won't have to do it myself


EDIT: Perhaps additional "Results layout" options like "compact load screens" and "compact run screens"?

[Einar Saukas]

Now if that logo/menu area can also be made smaller... let's say about 2-3 times from the current size... if at all possible.

I like this idea.

Please can you (or someone else) propose a new layout for this area? I'm terrible at web design

[utz]

Also +1 to @8BitAG's suggestion. I'm rather allergic to the word "retro".

I don't get why you guys don't like word "retro".

Personally I have no problem with calling myself and my interests retro, oldschool and vintage

And people seem generally to like this words too. Especially "vintage" although I had to explain more then once to women that
it applies not only for clothes

EDIT: Einar, sorry for littering your thread.

"Oldschool" and "vintage" I don't mind. I dislike "retro" specifically because of two reasons. First of all "retro" is too much of a hype nowadays. Everything and their mum are retro nowadays. 10 year old consoles are retro nowadays. The layout that Einar is creating isn't retro at all to me, it's simply making good use of screen space, so imo it's all about usability and user experience. Second, for me "retro" carries a strong connotation of "looking back" or "living in the past". For me, Spectrum is more than that. Spectrum is my daily driver for making music, and the music I make with it has little connection to the sound of the 80s, for example. So I don't consider my Spectrum retro, to me it's a perfectly up-to-date music instrument. Of course there's the nostalgia and all that, but there's also all the efforts to push the limits in the demoscene, doing stuff that certainly didn't happen back in the 80s. Not sure if that makes sense?

[Andre Leao]

Maravilha Einar

[Einar Saukas]

In the meantime...

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/retro/1261
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/lite/1261

It's now displaying all files for each game. It's starting to look like a real site...

[Einar Saukas]

Maravilha Einar

Obrigado!

[cmal]

Nice work Einar! I like this layout. It's compact and renders quickly. Retro or lite - I'm indifferent.

[Nienn Heskil]

Now if that logo/menu area can also be made smaller... let's say about 2-3 times from the current size... if at all possible.

I like this idea.

Please can you (or someone else) propose a new layout for this area? I'm terrible at web design

I didn't have a clear idea when I wrote that, but maybe something like this:

V1


V2


V3