More than 2 screenshots?

[clebin]

Has there ever been discussion of adding more than the two screenshots (loading + in-game) to game listings?

The current limit I guess is historical from the WOS days, but it would be nice to see more parts of a game as other archive sites do. Most games would benefit, but especially those multi-part games like Ocean's movie licenses, Agent X, etc. Also those featuring mini-games like Frankie Goes to Hollywood where, the terraced street doesn't give any idea as to the arty weirdness within.

I realise it's a shed-load of work and it would take years for a decent number of games to be represented this way... but a worthwhile aspiration?

[Morkin]

Yep, it's been suggested before and you can submit multiple ones.

I'd imagine Spectrum Computing and most other sites using the same source are set up to show just one screen in search results (which kind of makes sense).

I reckon it'd be good for some games - one example is Eureka!, whose entry currently shows the mini-game rather than the adventure (the main part!).

[Einar Saukas]

Has there ever been discussion of adding more than the two screenshots (loading + in-game) to game listings?

The current limit I guess is historical from the WOS days

There's no limit. See for instance this.

It's recommended to upload more screenshots when a game contains a large variety of screens. This was explained here.

[R-Tape]

Yep multiple screens have been possible for ages, but at SC the extra ones are only visible at the bottom under additional file downloads. Here's a snippet from the help page.

If you think a particular game has so much variation that only one in-game screen won't be enough to represent it, you can create more screenshots named "0030296-run-2.scr", "0030296-run-3.scr", etc. Just please avoid repetitive nearly-identical screens, and make sure the most representative screen is stored first since it's the screen that will be displayed in game lists. A good example of varied screenshots is Pets vs Aliens Prologue.

[IMO] it's not worth expending a lot of effort on extra screens, and there is usually a link to a full game map at Pav's site if you want to explore further. Not to say that there aren't examples where extra screenshots are needed to give a proper taster, but it should be carefully considered and rare. Extra flab & complexity for not much benefit. [/IMO]

[Lee Bee]

I'm just glad you don't have to click some tiny circular button to get the second image to (slowly) appear, like you do at WOS!

Though I'd definitely be in favour of more screenshots, perhaps with smaller borders, to allow more room. Ideally, you need at least a couple of in-game shots to really get a sense of what the game looks like overall, or how much variety it contains. Some games have bags of screen variety, and only showing 4 images kind of does them a disservice.

[clebin]

Thanks Morkin, Einar and R-Tape for the info and humouring me when the info was so readily available. I assumed it wasn't supported since SC doesn't use the extra images...

I must disagree on the entertainment value, R-Tape (I won't try to speak abut the archival side). I'll happily wile away a few hours browsing through screenshots of games I don't know, or even games that I do.

The map link is a good suggestion but seeing the layout is a bit like reading an adventure solution. It's a bit of a spoiler if you're deciding whether to play something or not and IMO takes away some of the magic, so I tend to avoid it unless I'm really stuck or I know the game well already.

On Lee Bee's presentation suggestion, I like Atarimania's carousel (plus it has some funky Atari logo prev/next buttons). Something like that would be ace.