pcengine-fx.com Site Re-design - UPDATED 3/9/15 (see reply 187)

[PCEngineFX]

I am happy to announce that as of 8/30/14, I have begun the dev work on a entire site remake to bring PCENGINEFX into the modern era.  I've been wanting to do this for many years now and I've finally gotten the motivation to tackle this huge undertaking.

My goals for this remake are as follows:

Remember the past, while educating the new
A lot of us here grew up with the Turbo, but new gamers are discovering classic consoles every day.  PCENGINEFX needs to be a place of both remembering what was so special about the Turbo, at the same time educating new visitors about the entire line of NEC consoles.

Get out of the Internet "graveyard"
It has been ~6 years since the last news update (and thus, I've been pretty hands-off on the site as well) and the site design is now grossly outdated (in web standards).  To bring PCENGINEFX into the modern era, I'm creating an entirely new site engine which will feature:

- Fully responsive site design for every kind of viewing experience (monitor, tablet, mobile)
- Extensive, full-site search & game/system filter engine
- Comments section and user reviews on game Hubs for more interactive experience
- Streamlined backend interface for adding content
- Much, much more...

Combine all of PCENGINEFX into one
In short, I want PCENGINEFX to be "the IGN of NEC console sites" - the ultimate goal is to combine the news and features of pcengine-fx.com with the extensive content of the PC-FX World site, Turbo Memoirs, and important forum posts into ONE mega-site.  This will not only save $$$ with web hosting/domain registration, but give everyone the NEC console experience in one unified home.  This will take a ton of work....but needs to be done.

Game "Hubs" for each released title
PCENGINEFX has lacked a database of released NEC games....this will be a BIG part of the new site, featuring all-new reviews (with a modern, multiple person review system), new LARGE game screenshots captured directly from hardware, new gameplay videos scaled to 720p, cheats (old & new!), scans, guides, walkthroughs....you name it, each game will have as many of these features as possible.

Proper coverage to HOMEBREW & HARDWARE GUIDES
The new site design will also allow me to give proper coverage to homebrew games and hardware guides that generally only get announced on the forums.  These items of interest need more exposure and PCENGINEFX will finally be able to do that.

And lastly, yes - even the forum will change and morph into something different............but I don't plan on touching the forum until the bulk of the new PCENGINEFX has been established.

I'll most likely go live with the site once all of the US HuCards/CD-ROM2/SCD games have been added, but right now really can't say when this will be yet.

That's it.  I got a shit ton of work to do, but I'm excited for it.  I'll keep you all updated as things progress.

UPDATE 11/29/2014
I've made a new YouTube channel which will host all of the new 1080p/60fps videos for the pcengine-fx.com site remake.  Following the channel will give you a good idea on my progress.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrrUmoS61-UPw-fDzSvnA4A

[BlueBMW]

No more HabboLand????

[Joe Redifer]

Good luck! I look forward to seeing whatever happens.

[VestCunt]

Sounds very exciting. Glad you're still interested in doing things with the site. I don't know if you're looking for any input, but here are the two things I'd love to see:
1) a prominent home on the new site (not just the forums) dedicated to PC-Engine homebrew, independent releases, aftermarket parts, and recent innovations. Supporting the handful of people making new games for our favorite console is the #1 thing we can do to keep the system alive and more than just another collector's checklist. Interviews, reviews, upcoming releases, lost projects, etc.
2) careful archiving of the existing forum content if the interface changes. In between shouting at each other, the PCEFX forums have amassed the largest collection of Turbo lore on the internet. It's a communal treasure created by thousands of users. Keeping the old content easily accessible and searchable is paramount. 

[esteban]

1. Remember the past, while educating the new
Most of us here grew up with the Turbo, but new gamers are discovering classic consoles every day.  PCENGINEFX needs to be a place of both remembering what was so special about the Turbo, at the same time educating new visitors about the console as well.
...
...
...
That's it.  I got a shit ton of work to do, but I'm excited for it.  I'll keep you all updated as things progress.

Awesome, good luck 

(1) I agree with your first goal...pcefx could provide an excellent experience in educating the new folks...I think visual guides/FAQs would do wonders in this area...you yourself created the exemplary NEC COMPATIBILITY GUIDE that is so easy to use because it is completely visual....all the vital information is instantly accessible...similar "visual guides" for other topics/FAQs would be super-useful.

HOWEVER, these visual guides/FAQs, if you make them, should be conceived as .html pages, not static images.

So, I would argue that your existing guide should essentially be converted to .html (you can always offer a .jpg static image "poster" of your overall design as a download...it could simply be screenshots from website that you stitch together...)


(2) give somebody the power to delete/moderate comments on all the pages of the site proper (beyond the forum itself)...you know how lame it is when stupid comments/SPAMBOTS invade good articles/content.

(3) Will the new forums keep all of the existing conversations? Or will we be starting from scratch? Personally, I don't want to lose access to the old conversations/threads. But that's because I have problems. 


Again, Good luck.  This is welcome news. .




(4) You should dedicate half of the new site to TG-16 Papercrafts.

[Psycho Punch]

I thought it was a January 9 post being bumped but I'm so glad I forgot that in North America month comes first. Gladly awaiting the site's revival!

(not triggered by the amazing site DildoPhile AT ALL)

[Psycho Nulltard]

(not triggered by the amazing site DildoPhile AT ALL)

Heheh, Psycho Punch.  You know, if DildoPhile played a role (no matter how small) in helping to reignite Aaron's passion for the system and drive to revamp PCEFX, then it will have contributed more to the pce/tg16 scene than I ever dreamt possible.


ADMIN SPOILER: In reality, Psycho John Moriconi had his *own* alt plans for PCEFX summarized in 2 steps: first occupy, THEN nuke it!

[esteban]

Heheh, Psycho Punch.  You know, if DoxPhile played a role (no matter how small) in helping to reignite Aaron's passion for the system and drive to revamp PCEFX, then it will have contributed more to the pce/tg16 scene than I ever dreamt possible.

'Tis trüe storie.

[PunkCryborg]

Don't date the updates right on the main screen because after a year of no new updates it becomes obviously outdated and 5 years later even worse

[esteban]

Don't date the updates right on the main screen because after a year of no new updates it becomes obviously outdated and 5 years later even worse

Yup.

[Galder]

Cool news, thumbs up!

[PCEngineFX]

No more HabboLand????

It is too early to say for sure, but most likely HabboLand will be going bye-bye.

As far as keeping the forum content - oh yes, the content for SURE will be remaining - no doubt about that.  Just expect a major theme change (at least).

esteban: That TG papercraft is AWESOME.  It will be on the site for sure

And the comment about featuring a section for TG repair/homebrew/etc. - YES - I plan on having a large area for this content on the site as well (in fact, my DUO has the low volume issue right now...).

[Joe Redifer]

WTF is HabboLand?

[TheClash603]

WTF is HabboLand?

I didnt want to be the first to say it, out of fear everyone knew and looking like an idiot.

[johnnymad]

Great news! There's already a ton of great info on this site. It definitely deserves a little TLC. Looking forward to the improvements and thanks for all the hard work and dollars you put into this site!

[FiftyQuid]

Sounds great!  Wait... you're going to keep the pink right? 

[PunkCryborg]

I like the forums colors, it fits the PCE's vibrant game colors well. The size is the main issue but I use the width hack from Nulltard so it's good now.

[BlueBMW]

I hate the habboland theme so I will be happy to see it go

[johnnymad]

I hate the habboland theme so I will be happy to see it go

Not a fan of the pink theme either. Is there any chance we can pick our own theme or have options? I've been on other forums where that's the case. Not sure now easy or difficult that is.

[PCEngineFX]

If the current theme is going, then yes the pink will be going as well.  It's again way too early to tell you what it will be right now.

[BlueBMW]

Really anything is good.  I know a lot of us werent very excited with the current color scheme but we also understand it was one of the only themes that worked correctly with the forum.

[sabre470]

Nice, look forward to see the new site

[MrFulci]

Aaron/PCEFX,

I know you have a lot of the old flyers, a few I no longer have. I have about a dozen TZD flyers, and Japan import order pages from them. They're not going anywhere, and I have most already scanned, so, let me know if you want some scans to peruse through. I'm not sure if that's anything you want on the site, though.

Nice keeping it updated. I often wondered why on the forum, the icons for settings and stuff were so hard to find. Taken a few times, over the years, to realize they are camouflaged in the banner.

[NecroPhile]

Woohoo!  'Tis good to hear of impending updates, especially for PC-FX goodies which aren't well covered elsewhere like PCE stuffs are.

[JoshTurboTrollX]

very cool, looking forward to new days!

[PCEngineFX]

Aaron/PCEFX,
I know you have a lot of the old flyers, a few I no longer have. I have about a dozen TZD flyers, and Japan import order pages from them. They're not going anywhere, and I have most already scanned, so, let me know if you want some scans to peruse through. I'm not sure if that's anything you want on the site, though.

Thank you much for the offer!   I'd love to see what you have - just email me at aaron.nanto@outlook.com and we can talk further.

[PCEngineFX]

BTW, I'll be posting updates to my Twitter account (twitter.com/pcenginefx) with hashtag #pcenginefx if you'd like to follow there as well (can't guarantee my Twitter updates will be mirrored here in the forum).

First pix......just breaking out the hardware to get back into the groove of things.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bwk0fWmCQAAPRXo.jpg

One of the requirements for me personally is to play (and if at all possible complete) each title that I have on the site.  I've actually not played every TurboGrafx game released, and have finished only a handful during my life - so what better way to start off the site remake than to get totally re-acquainted with the subject matter...

[roflmao]

This is great news!

[NightWolve]

Wow, surprised to all of a sudden see the desire/motivation for this, Aaron!

You seem like you're pretty busy with life, and already juggling a lot of other hobbies/extra curricular activities with your photo and video work, etc.

Would be glad to help in whatever way needed, so lemme know! Look forward to seeing what you come up with!

[PCEngineFX]

Wow, surprised to all of a sudden see the desire/motivation for this, Aaron!

You seem like you're pretty busy with life, and already juggling a lot of other hobbies/extra curricular activities with your photo and video work, etc.

Would be glad to help in whatever way needed, so lemme know! Look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Thanks Nicolas!  I may need more help with some aspects - we'll see.

Just an update today - not ready to show off anything yet, but the foundation for the site layout is up and running on my local machine and spent all evening today working/thinking on menu design/button order (nothing too exciting).

[MrFulci]

PCEFX,

I'll contact you through e-mail in a few days, and send you screen shots showing thumbnails of what flyers I have. After that you can let me know what type of format you want them in, etc.

I had some smaller copies of a lot of these flyers in a thread around here, from between 2005-2007, I think. Those links are broken now, though.

[johnnymad]

One of the requirements for me personally is to play (and if at all possible complete) each title that I have on the site.  I've actually not played every TurboGrafx game released, and have finished only a handful during my life - so what better way to start off the site remake than to get totally re-acquainted with the subject matter...

I'm doing a similar thing. Didn't grow up on this system but I just got an Everdrive and want to play and review every game.

[PCEngineFX]

That's what I've been started doing.....never know what might be in the manual!

[johnnymad]

Good advice. I've mostly played shooters where the manual isn't needed but definitely will for other genres.

[roflmao]

Good advice. I've mostly played shooters where the manual isn't needed but definitely will for other genres.

Au contraire, there's quite a bit of variety between shooters that a lot of folks don't get when they pick up and play. 

For instance, at MGC earlier this year the Turbofest room had Gate of Thunder running and *so* many people didn't get that they could change the direction of the options by double-tapping II.

Similarly, many people don't know you can adjust the ships speed by hitting Select in multiple games.

Or that Run is your after burner in After Burner II.

The list goes on and on.  There's a lot to glean from the manuals.

[PCEngineFX]

Update 9/5: Started converting a few of the sticky Turbo repair guides into the new site design.  The name of the section may change, but right now I'm calling it the "Repair Center" which will host HTML-versions of the repair guides found on the forum.  Spent most of my time this evening figuring out the boring stuff of how I want the format/images to be presented, etc....

On the topic of other decisions I made tonight, one of them was that I'll have video reviews for EVERY text review I have on the site (just like what IGN does with their reviews - offer the review in text and video form).  I really need to stop adding features otherwise I'll never get this remake done

[BlueBMW]

One point on the repair guides....  I know for the few I wrote I linked pictures from my photobucket which is fine but maybe they should be hosted locally instead just in case I drop off the face of the earth, photobucket disappears etc.   Just a thought.

[PCEngineFX]

One point on the repair guides....  I know for the few I wrote I linked pictures from my photobucket which is fine but maybe they should be hosted locally instead just in case I drop off the face of the earth, photobucket disappears etc.   Just a thought.

Hey Blue - so yes, this is exactly the approach I'm taking for the repair section.  I'm pulling all 1st-post photos & text from each repair guide and will forever live on the site locally.

With that said, if you have updates to any guides you've done, please edit your 1st post now before I get to it

[_Paul]

For the love of Dog, merge the TG16 and PCE sections on the forum.

[Arjak]

This is going to be awesome! Can't wait to see the new site.

It's good to have you back, Aaron.

[esteban]

Update 9/5: Started converting a few of the sticky Turbo repair guides into the new site design.  The name of the section may change, but right now I'm calling it the "Repair Center" which will host HTML-versions of the repair guides found on the forum.  Spent most of my time this evening figuring out the boring stuff of how I want the format/images to be presented, etc....

On the topic of other decisions I made tonight, one of them was that I'll have video reviews for EVERY text review I have on the site (just like what IGN does with their reviews - offer the review in text and video form).  I really need to stop adding features otherwise I'll never get this remake done

You are insane! 

Playing all those games, writing text reviews, creating video reviews....you're gonna burn out and, in a few weeks, you'll be ranting about how Ballistix is a bonafide classic.

[PCEngineFX]

This is going to be awesome! Can't wait to see the new site.

It's good to have you back, Aaron.

Thanks Arjak!  Can't wait to get it done!

You are insane! 

Playing all those games, writing text reviews, creating video reviews....you're gonna burn out and, in a few weeks, you'll be ranting about how Ballistix is a bonafide classic.

Yeah, some may think that doing all of this is crazy for such a old console, but if I'm going to be remaking the site, I'm going to put high standards on myself to deliver top quality content.

For example, game screenshots - I've put a minimum requirement of 8 screenshots to be available per-game and each screenshot has to show proper variety, scene layout, action and story.  For just Aero Blasters alone, I captured ~200 screenshots and hand picked out the very best to be in the gallery page for the game.

This will be the level of detail I'll be going through with all aspects of the site - I have a friend who is helping out as well, so at least some of the work will be shared between us.

When it stops being fun, I'll let you guys know....

[jtucci31]

You are insane! 

Playing all those games, writing text reviews, creating video reviews....you're gonna burn out and, in a few weeks, you'll be ranting about how Ballistix is a bonafide classic.

Yeah, some may think that doing all of this is crazy for such a old console, but if I'm going to be remaking the site, I'm going to put high standards on myself to deliver top quality content.

For example, game screenshots - I've put a minimum requirement of 8 screenshots to be available per-game and each screenshot has to show proper variety, scene layout, action and story.  For just Aero Blasters alone, I captured ~200 screenshots and hand picked out the very best to be in the gallery page for the game.

This will be the level of detail I'll be going through with all aspects of the site - I have a friend who is helping out as well, so at least some of the work will be shared between us.

When it stops being fun, I'll let you guys know....

This sounds great. I wish you the best of luck! I'm really looking forward to all of it

[jlued686]

This sounds like everything I've ever wanted in a Turbo-site. Can't wait to see the results!

[FiftyQuid]

Do you need help with anything?

[PCEngineFX]

Do you need help with anything?

Yes, but I plan on posting up some content requests in a new thread (I'll keep this thread for update progress).

[M1Savage]

This is very good news. Excited to see what you have in store for us!

[esteban]

You are insane! 

Playing all those games, writing text reviews, creating video reviews....you're gonna burn out and, in a few weeks, you'll be ranting about how Ballistix is a bonafide classic.

Yeah, some may think that doing all of this is crazy for such a old console, but if I'm going to be remaking the site, I'm going to put high standards on myself to deliver top quality content.

For example, game screenshots - I've put a minimum requirement of 8 screenshots to be available per-game and each screenshot has to show proper variety, scene layout, action and story.  For just Aero Blasters alone, I captured ~200 screenshots and hand picked out the very best to be in the gallery page for the game.

This will be the level of detail I'll be going through with all aspects of the site - I have a friend who is helping out as well, so at least some of the work will be shared between us.

When it stops being fun, I'll let you guys know....

I want to hug you right now  .

You just raised the bar.

I'm sure you have considered this, but I have to put it out there...

Since folks are using phones, tablets to browse sites...is the re-design going to be sensitive to the needs of small touch screens?

For example: navigation links should be easy to hit with finger, without fear of hitting the wrong link.

Sadly, I have been too lazy to fix these things, myself, but I think I'll try to address them in the next few months (maybe by increasing size of text links and increasing space between links).

[PCEngineFX]

You are insane! 

Playing all those games, writing text reviews, creating video reviews....you're gonna burn out and, in a few weeks, you'll be ranting about how Ballistix is a bonafide classic.

Yeah, some may think that doing all of this is crazy for such a old console, but if I'm going to be remaking the site, I'm going to put high standards on myself to deliver top quality content.

For example, game screenshots - I've put a minimum requirement of 8 screenshots to be available per-game and each screenshot has to show proper variety, scene layout, action and story.  For just Aero Blasters alone, I captured ~200 screenshots and hand picked out the very best to be in the gallery page for the game.

This will be the level of detail I'll be going through with all aspects of the site - I have a friend who is helping out as well, so at least some of the work will be shared between us.

When it stops being fun, I'll let you guys know....

I want to hug you right now  .

You just raised the bar.

I'm sure you have considered this, but I have to put it out there...

Since folks are using phones, tablets to browse sites...is the re-design going to be sensitive to the needs of small touch screens?

For example: navigation links should be easy to hit with finger, without fear of hitting the wrong link.

Sadly, I have been too lazy to fix these things, myself, but I think I'll try to address them in the next few months (maybe by increasing size of text links and increasing space between links).

Yes, I've set the bar very, very high...time will tell if I set it TOO high for myself though!

To answer your question - yes, the site will be fully resolution-responsive - site assets are being made for resolutions up to 1920 wide and dynamically resize/re-order as the resolution goes down - should look great on a tablet and even on a smartphone.

[BlueBMW]

I meant to ask also... What plans as far as a chat room / shoutbox are concerned?   I know many of us use the one over at sunteam pauls backup site but we dont get much new traffic there since few know its even active.  Just curious what the plans are in that regard.  We have gotten used to some of the extra features the ajax chat program affords...