break the new-look retro64.com

[Mike Boeh]

Hey guys, just went live with a new look for Retro64.com...
Any help in catching any bugs I missed would be appreciated :)
http://www.retro64.com

[TheMysteriousStranger]

Not really a bug, but I think the white boxes around the radio buttons of the poll look wrong.

Can't seem to break it yet, but give me time :)

[berserker]

Haven't noticed Clash'N Slash web version ;)
Do you think it might hurt it's sales there?

[Mike Boeh]

I plan to get both your web versions up there Yaroslav :-)

[HarmonicFlow]

Hi Mike,

I think the new site design is great. The new logo is really cool and fits the company name well. Great work!

[berserker]

The new logo is really cool and fits the company name well. Great work!

So who won that lovely iPod? I want to know! :)

[Greg Squire]

Mike, it looks great! I like the new logo and clean look. Here's a couple of minor things I noticed (tested with IE 6 and FireFox 1.5)

1. The Downloading page still has the old look. (the one saying "If your download doesn't start, click here.")

2. Any reason for the grey outline around the "Next" buttons, checkboxes, and radio buttons on the order page? (Only IE had the additional frame around the checkboxes and radio buttons. Firefox only had a frame around the next button)

3. The BMTMicro page has the old logo and look.

[Daniel]

Really like that shiny, glossy look!

[Mike Boeh]

Thanks Guys... I forgot to upload that download page, woops!

BMT is still working on converting the old order pages..... But I have to look into the ugly button and radio button squares...

Thanks for the feedback! :D

[arcadetown]

Very solid and better than before but still think it's too blue and cold. Perhaps add a dash of non-blue somewhere such as in the "old concepts new fun" or "computer games at retro64" bar.

[berserker]

Does anyone besides me noticed that this white bar "Computer Games at Retro64" doesn't add much but takes valuable space thus forcing visitor to scroll page down to read bottom games' descriptions?

[Mike Boeh]

Does anyone besides me noticed that this white bar "Computer Games at Retro64" doesn't add much but takes valuable space thus forcing visitor to scroll page down to read bottom games' descriptions?

Google certainly notices :)

[berserker]

Yeah, but what about moving this phrase to the white space right over blue section with "Old concepts, new fun" phrase, maybe size font down a bit to fit well?
Moving it higher to the top of the page probably will be even better for Google.

[Robert Cummings]

Mike,

Love the new look. It just works works for me. Web Buttons are slightly too futuristic - maybe experiment with just a slight more friendliness?

[jankoM]

I think having that text upthere "Computer Games at Retro64. Please choose the game you want to play." is also good by web-usability standards. At least I like to put a text that briefly answers visitor's two main questions "Where am I? What can I get here?" on the top of the pages.

maybe if you define it as <h1> in html (with same look in css) google would value it even more

[Robert Cummings]

Broken :)

The by mail link is 404 - clicked waterbugs then clicked the order by mail form and link for a 404.

[Mike Boeh]

ahhh got me :) fixed.
Broken :)

The by mail link is 404 - clicked waterbugs then clicked the order by mail form and link for a 404.

[Tom Gilleland]

On a Mac in Safari it only shows one game (which is correct I think) and five Question mark boxes for other game spots, 2 on the top row, and 3 on the bottom row. I think you want little empty white images there in place of those "empty" question mark images.

Of course you could put some Mac versions of our games in those spots... :)

Also, on a Mac the thin off-white edge on the top, left and right of the main area of the page are a little off in color with the background color. The rounded bottom left & right corners are perfect though. Probably a Mac pallete thing, not a big deal though.

Tom

[Sirrus]

Very nice and clean Mike - looks great.

[simonh]

Superb logo and new design, can't fault it.

[Curiosoft]

Hey Retro64,

I think the new site looks great. Only concern would be the slogan "Old Concepts, New Fun"...I think "concepts" should be replaced. Here are some suggestions (of course, these are only to get the ball rolling)...
"Old Ways, New Plays"
"Old fun, New run"
"Simple fun, newly done"

Maybe the rhyme stuff is a bit excessive...but hey, I think something shorter than concepts is best.

You may also want to play with the color of gray bars at the top (and possibly bottom).

Later,
Curiosoft

[soniCron]

Great new look, Mike! Very sleek and simple. (I love your partner buttons on the bottom! :))

[Mike Boeh]

Hey Retro64,

I think the new site looks great. Only concern would be the slogan "Old Concepts, New Fun"...

Yes Ibe, you're absolutely right. I am wracking my brain trying to come up with somethinng. Your suggestions are better, but not quite what I want...

[soniCron]

Old ideas, New fun!

[Bmc]

Fun Never Goes Out of Style

or

Classic Gameplay Never Goes Out of Style

[Rubs]

New look's definitely better. Looks cool! Mirrored image reflections are awesome!

Hey, did you get that grey bar idea from my site? (joking :D).

The only bugs I could notice is that there seems to be some kind of background rectangle for the whole site. It starts from almost the top and continues down to the menu. It even stretches beyond horizontal limits of the "site". So that bright rect kinda breaks the design for me. Is it supposed to be there? That's only my opinion on the other hand.

Otherwise great job! Like the new retro a lot!

[Sillysoft]

On a Mac in Safari it only shows one game (which is correct I think) and five Question mark boxes for other game spots...
Ditto for me.

Also, when downloading a Mac game it still shows the Windows "Open / Run" dialog

Attempting a Newsletter sign-up gives me: "ERROR! You forgot to fill out the 'E-mail address' field." Also, on this error page I noticed that all the template links are broken. They all lead to a different domain i.e: http://www.ymlp.com/downloads.asp

[Larry Hastings]

Old School, New Fun

[DadTimesTwo]

I like the new look. The website is missing only one thing: a new game by Mike! :)

[Mike Boeh]

Ditto for me.

Also, when downloading a Mac game it still shows the Windows "Open / Run" dialog

Attempting a Newsletter sign-up gives me: "ERROR! You forgot to fill out the 'E-mail address' field." Also, on this error page I noticed that all the template links are broken. They all lead to a different domain i.e: http://www.ymlp.com/downloads.asp

Thanks Dustin, I am on it now :)


I like the new look. The website is missing only one thing: a new game by Mike! :)


Working on that one too :)

[Sharpfish]

Site looks nice, good improvement over previous one (not that there was anything wrong with it). Brings it nicely up to date. :)

Now.. how about sharing some of those 30000 users you always seem to have live on your site at any given time ;)

[Mike Boeh]

I upped the "users online" thing to a 15 minute rolling window (from 10 minutes). So the number of users increased. The reason I put it there is marketing related- people like to know they're not alone.... Here's the code I use (it only works if you're the only site on the server and have access to the sessions directory):


/**
* Calculate the number of users online by
* counting the number of session files. Returns the
* number of users on success, or -1 on failure.
*/
define("MAX_IDLE_TIME", 15);

function getUsersOnline()
{
$count = 0;

$handle = opendir(session_save_path());
if ($handle == false) return -1;

while (($file = readdir($handle)) != false) {
if (ereg("^sess", $file))
{
if(time()- fileatime(session_save_path() . '/' . $file) < MAX_IDLE_TIME * 60)
{
$count++;
}
}
}
closedir($handle);

return $count;
}



Some people like to use a database-driven counter, but this one is a lot faster, and quite accurate....

[Sharpfish]

Thanks for the info + code Mike.. I'll maybe use it one day when there are more than 2 people live on my site at once (without one of them being me) ;)

[BinaryMoon]

Of course no one has any idea wether you're lying or not so you could always just chuck in a random number. As long as it's all server side no-one would ever know wether you were telling the truth or - I can kind of understand it being good for marketing. I would have thought there were other things you could have done that would be better though (text links for google juice etc).

The design itself is nice and clean, and first impressions don't throw up anything I would change.

[Sharpfish]

Of course no one has any idea wether you're lying or not so you could always just chuck in a random number. As long as it's all server side no-one would ever know wether you were telling the truth or - I can kind of understand it being good for marketing. I would have thought there were other things you could have done that would be better though (text links for google juice etc).

The design itself is nice and clean, and first impressions don't throw up anything I would change.

Many years ago on some throwaway freebie host I had some (trivial) websites with those free online "live" counters . I would always set them to some abitrary number to look like someone was on there, but not so high that it looked like BS. Then I thought what was the point ( I want factual data not bragging rights) - however in the case of sites that sell things it probably does work out as Mike says (pyschological safety in numbers), and in his case he has a very popular site with good rankings/seo so no need to lie. :)

[Polycount Productions]

@Retro64:
Oh nooo, you broke it!
The buttons are nice... like them verry much (hmm, I might even steal 'em ;) butbut...

#1 - There's too much gray on the back
#2 - The logo... okay it's fun - but the cute creature was sooo cute! :)
#3 - Read #1 and #2 again.

Give me back the old background & cute creature. Otherwise it's fine.