Style inconsistencies and smaller nitpicks

[imported_cartridgeculture]

Hey! Love the project, and I don't mean to nitpick, but I think 16BA has a ton of potential, and as an OCD audiophile I've noticed a few typos and inconsistencies with past releases I'd like to mention for whatever. I understand running this website and putting out releases is probably a tough job, so if there's any way I can throw in a little work to help with the site, by all means let me know



NAME/REGION INCONSISTINCIES

-Releases Page: The Amiga release of OutRun is incorrectly labeled "Outrun"

-Releases Page: The Genesis release of OutRun is incorrectly labeled "Outrun"

-Releases Page: The release for Sonic 3D Blast is incorrectly labeled "Sonic 3D"

-Releases Page: The release for Alien Breed Special Edition 92 is incorrectly labeled as "Alien Breed SE 92"

-Alien Breed Special Edition 92: The release for Alien Breed Special Edition 92 incorrectly writes the year as "1992"

-Sonic 3D Blast: The release for Sonic 3D Blast incorrectly uses art from the PAL release

-Thunder Force IV: Omake: The release for Thunder Force IV: Omake incorrectly omits the colon and writes "Omake" as "OMAKE". As this release does not attempt to mimic any official branding (being omake), this should likely be corrected for consistency reasons.

-Various releases are still hosted in single-file-download formats, which can be easily updated.

-Various releases use faded, washed-out or poorly color-corrected release art, which can also be fixed relatively easily.

-Various releases use inconsistent versions of the 16BA release art "framework", also a very fixable issue.

-Various releases are incorrectly amended with the word "Soundtrack" in various places across the website

-Various releases have minor tagging/name issues (such as Ristar's release name incorrectly using an incorrect interpretation of the Japanese title)



PERSONAL OPINIONS

-The choice of font for 16BA release art gives off a cheap feeling, which isn't helped by their metallic gradient effect used for the Genesis releases or the overused, too-thin feeling of the standard arcade font for Amiga releases. I hate to criticize without offering a better solution, but I thought I'd bring it up for now.

-I'm a little mixed on the Sonic & Knuckles logo being used for all 16BA Genesis releases, especially when consequent Amiga releases have used the Amiga workbench "floppy" icon, which seems much more fitting and universal. I would think all 16BA release art is overdue for an overhaul in the near future.

-For reasons of simplicity and to make things just -slightly- less confusing for the average listener, I think the entire "FLAC CD" download option should be eliminated. People who sign up with FLAC are already comfortable with large filesizes, and have specifically done so because of quality loss, so offering the option to download a lossier copy at a slighty-smaller filesize likely won't click with most people. Most people go full lossless or full mp3. I'm sure it'll have its audience, but I personally see it as a case of redundancy that can be eliminated for efficiency's sake.

-I'm thrilled to see public domain Amiga games getting 16BA releases, but the "Underground/PublicDomain" title that is present on public domain Amiga release art is redundant at best and incorrect at worst. It's best left off entirely.

<i>-16BA should probably establish a style guide for future 16BA releases, including consistent release art and proper naming.</i>



MATH(S?) DRILL

The release for Math Drill (?) is incorrectly labeled as "Maths Drill", as is the corresponding release art. This is still up in the air, as properly indexing the name for an Amiga program likely never distributed physically (or at the very least, lost to modern history) is tricky, and as many Amiga programs came from PAL territories the term "Maths" plural miiiiiiiiight be used in an appropriate context somewhere. HOWEVER, the screenshot included on the art clearly displays the filename "MathDrill", as does the opening Say prompt "Thanks. Welcome to the math drill. Make your choice." This release should correctly be titled "Math Drill" unless it specifically came released in a physical box displaying the words "Maths Drill" (which is unlikely).



Heyyy, I know looking at this wall of text makes me sound bitchy, but I write all of this because I think 16BA has the potential for introducing a LOT of people to the magic of vintage FM chiptune, and want to see it succeed to its most widespread influence possible. So I'm not trying to take shots at the project or anything! All I want to do is volunteer a little of my time to help tighten things up Thanks for reading!

[imported_donluca]

Wall of text crits you for 294758365 character damage!



Joking, I appreciate you taking the time to write that post.



Anyway, you've just summarized one of the problem of our project: if you look at our staff you'll see that there's no one really taking care of the website as no one here is an expert in web designing.



Antares just set up the website and configured it, and that's pretty much it.



Anyway, there are some things I can take out of your wall of text and explain:



"-Sonic 3D Blast: The release for Sonic 3D Blast incorrectly uses art from the PAL release"

We choose the art we like best, it is unrelated to the region of the game.



-Various releases are still hosted in single-file-download formats, which can be easily updated.

There are several games that need to be "remastered" since our recording chain underwent several updates (and one more is coming shortly!). When I'll record and upload them again I'll fix these problems.



-Various releases use faded, washed-out or poorly color-corrected release art, which can also be fixed relatively easily.

Truepack already gave me higher quality art, what's written above still applies.



-Various releases use inconsistent versions of the 16BA release art "framework", also a very fixable issue.

Same as above.



-Various releases have minor tagging/name issues (such as Ristar's release name incorrectly using an incorrect interpretation of the Japanese title)

Same as above.



Moving onto your personal opinions, I agree that we DEFINITELY need a logo of our own, free from trademarked stuff to don't get into legal issues.



There a reason we're giving two versions of FLAC and it's that an improperly set up PC/Mac will have a negative effect on quality with high res material and there's lot of people who are not willing on keeping 96/24 huge files on their drive.

So we're giving out the master quality for those who can enjoy it (FLAC 96/24), a lossless version for everyone to enjoy (FLAC CD) and a compressed version with a widely used format to enjoy wherever and whenever you want (MP3).

Maybe we should remove the "CD" part and just call it "FLAC", so we have FLAC 96/24, FLAC and MP3 to avoid confusion.

Anyway, the Release page clearly states what each of the version is and what you should get.



About Amiga stuff you'll have to wait for Roareye, he's the one responsible for them



While I (greatly!) appreciate your efforts, I generally think about them as "minor" issues.

My main concern is on releasing games at a steady rate (which I'm sadly failing) and keeping the quality of the releases at the maximum level, which is what this project is all about.

I do believe that our community chose us for our work and not for how our website looks.



But the logo thing... that's a serious issue and I thank you for pointing that out as it means that people actually noticed this problem.



To be completely honest I tried developing a new logo but I have almost to none artistic skills. Here's what I came up with:



[img]/16bap/16bap_logo.png[/img]



Which is... well... not that good



We really need a web designer to take care of our website but that's not one of my main concern honestly.

Still, it would be awesome to have one.



Please keep on reporting on things you think can be improved, your opinion (and all of our community) is always welcome.

[imported_cartridgeculture]

Hey, thanks for the fast and super detailed response! I agree, these issues are minor nitpicks, and while you did mention some mastering issues, I believe 16BA has done an excellent job at its main purpose: To provide quality lossless releases of 16-bit video games



As for the upcoming remastering project, I think it's important to nail down a clean, aesthetically-pleasing, non-copyrighted border design for release art <i>before</i> the remastering takes place. The current borders serve their purpose, but their design could use a lot of touching up.



I really wish I was a web designer! I can possibly see about throwing a few clever logo ideas together but, like you said, that's not the biggest concern right now. I highly doubt there's any way I can help to increase the rate 16BA releases get put out, but if there is, I'd love to lend a hand.



Thanks again for taking the time to respond so thoroughly and read through another relatively long post, and thanks for all the awesome releases!

[imported_donluca]

No problem, you're very welcome!



Also, if you have any idea on the border and other artistic stuff, please write them here so Truepack can see them and act accordingly.



Besides, you can take a look at the original thread where we discussed about the covers here:



/16bap/forum/the-16-bit-audiophile-project-group5/suggestions-forum12/custom-covers-for-project-thread925/



there were other ideas, maybe you can pick one and see if there's any way to improve them



See ya around!



EDIT: ugh, just realized most of the pics are gone. Oh well...