It's a case of the project getting bigger than expected, multiple times, and trying to negotiate everybody's schedule. It is, in hindsight, bad that we've been teasing it in this way for so long—we're coming into apparent vaporware and "boy who cried wolf" territory.

That said, we really are close this time—just some final bits to get in place, then either wait for OpenEmu or launch ahead of them. And it's me saying it, so you better believe it.

Not sure the response you guys were expecting. I do apologize for not having had the foresight that Archive would grow into much more than just a video game databse. The fact that we are "almost ready" has been true for a very long time, but the goals and priorities have changed (and very well may change again). If you had taken the time to actually follow up with me, or check in our IRC channel (instead of just asking for status updates on this forum and being disappointed in the response), you would have found our API (which has been live for months) and a couple of projects already using the Archive. If you're disappointed in the delay, stop paying attention.

I genuinely appreciate the interest and don't want you to think that my response is in any way hostile. I've found myself falling into the same feeling of entitlement for updates or news on projects I'm interested in.

With regards to sounding "unprofessional", at no point in time should anything I do either here at MacScene of on Archive be taken as professional, serious, or grown up. MacScene and Archive are, and will always be for as long as I work on them, purely for kicks. If the lack of professionalism here (or in any of my work) bothers you; I apologize.

mossy_11 wrote:


This is absolutely true and well-written (good thing he's our head writer for Archive). We absolutely jumped the gun on hyping the project, but I would not have done it differently since about half the team came from these forums. Sorry for the hype.

Hi, is it possible to have an average price listed for each game within archive as well? It would be helpful when hunting for older games.

Thanks!

Yikes! To clarify, I wasn't making a complaint in my most recent post (although it seems I opened the door for others) and I fully understand the magnitude of the project and the lengths to which everyone involved has gone to make it happen.

Just glad I didn't miss using the Blue Key, thanks for clearing that up for me!

DookieMan wrote:


This would be useful information and we have discussed a number of ways to get at this information. I'm not sure if the best way to is to query something like eBay, or if we should be developing our own composite price based on multiple sources. One upcoming goal of the project is to provide tools for people to organize their collection of games (including some marketplace opportunities).

Anybody have an idea where to find the most useful information for this? Or any suggestions on how a video game devoted marketplace might ideally work? We've studied a couple of others and always found them to either be ghost towns or run purely as a frontend to large collections of eBay auctions.

Google Shopping lets you compared online prices. I imagine you'd be able to scrape this data and calculate an average?

I found one place that may help with figuring out average prices. Price Charting. They talk about their methodology here and on their blog.

This guy's got a crazy list of arcade machine price estimates.

I think it may be best if we try to cook up our own model, based on a composite of both multiple sources and multiple methods. I'm still puzzling over the best way to do a marketplace, though.

I think you need to feature freeze and finish up what you have, and add new features as you go along. It's probably what's caused you to delay the release so many times already, and I think people want to see the site up sooner rather than later.

Just to be clear, Archive is feature frozen, I for one made sure the scope of the 'first release' was small. That being said, yes, we have a roadmap that includes a lot of interesting potential features... setting up that foundation is never easy. A large amount of behind the scenes work that the general public wouldn't even realise has gone on and may not even appreciate over the last 6 months in particular has been completed.

This includes working with developers, making sure the API is rock-solid as well as informing various people in the industry what we are doing.

A lot of time has been sucked away the last month or so working with said developers, some of them such as OpenEmu who due to the public excitement surrounding that project, will probably hammer our API in an awesomely scary way the day it is released. Note: OpenEmu is referenced in relation to Archive as they are currently one of the big 3rd party app using our data.

The thing that is holding us up now, is actually me! (for shame!) There is some work I need to finalise and I need to beat a smaller drum now for others in the group to make sure that everything is as polished as it needs to be (website and iPhone app).

So you know... this isn't vapourware... but it is quality-ware and we work toward that as best a hobby project can so that its out, in your hands, for free, in a good shape... not as another wannabe crap gaming website. (we could have thrown up some crappy Wordpress site).

As for the teasing aspect, yeah, I can feel that pain... but its hard for some to work away quietly and see something great take shape without personal excitement and enthusiasm slipping out.

Okay, I just saw that new features were added, such as taking away the retro-only side of the site. And then there was now talk about introducing prices to each game, and thought it was going to be something else added to the to-do list of the site before it's launch.

Nah, not at all, it is a very retro-themed site! (but it cannot only have retro game data for it to be a success).
So, no worries, but the price related thing was a future feature we discussed.

We know a good amount of retro-enthusiasts are also collectors. So that kind of price-data, if possible for us to accurately acquire, is useful to them. (resale value etc.). So, thats a future feature.

Thanks for considering it. I enjoy reading about the history and background of a video game as much as the next enthusiast, but it would be very helpful when hunting for my collection. Also, I believe using eBay as a base is a good start when find a base price. As you know, eBay prices may be over exaggerated in some situations, but I don't know of a better place to compare prices. If I find a game at my local Goodwill, I usually compare it to eBay since that's the other place I can instantly find the game.

Anyway hopefully the feature will get implemented sooner of later.

Thanks!

Wish I had the time and skills to help out.
Sounds like a really great project and I know most of the guys from the forums who are contributing are top guys full of awesome ideas. Pretty sure it'll be awesome!!

Will the iPhone app be coming out the same day as the beta?

Yes.

On Twitter @archivevg

Woot! Just got email about site Blue Key test! Looks great! I can't wait for the iPhone app.

Our Blue Key members have flooded into the site, been a very exciting past twenty-four hours. We should be a week or two from our public / general launch.

Cool- wanted to link the lead article as soon as I read it, but I figured that wouldn't quite work yet.