a serious matter everybody please come in and comment!

Being here since quite a few times (i wasn't logged before ) i have noticed that there's people on this boards with such an incredible amount of knowledge in the videogame history, prototypes, programming, technical knowledge and lots of other "obscure" topics (this is the home of the obscure after all?)...

What i want to propose is starting to write some series of FAQs on some of the most interesting obscure topics, maybe starting a open tread for each one of them and from that topics writing a FAQ (like i did with the snes cdrom topics in example) that might be hosted in assembler's webpage (or maybe i'll register another one just for that if it is not appropriate [i know that bandwidth costs quite a lot and working on a web page is tiring]). I know that i'm not a very good poster or an autorithy of the forum for saying so, and maybe i shouldn't be proposing such things but nevertheless i think that such kind of faqs would be really entertaining for the whole forum and useful for all the people that are here from little time or couldn't dig up informations from hundreds of topic due to the time required...

Please share your consideration on the possibility of doing such things and critics to the idea.

Thanks for you attention,
Karsten

ps: maybe i'm just crazy thinking about such a thing with threads open to anyone, but this community forum is so GOOD that i think it could work for real

 

Yeah could work and i dont think that having a database of FAQs will be much of a problem. However alot of the hardware stuff will be dealt with on ASSEMblers site so maybe wait untill thats done so that we know what we have to write for and what we dont?

 

I know that I would greatly enjoy FAQ's dealing with the majority of subject matter on this website. However, I can also see how that could potentially open the website and writer up to some legal trouble if there is any proprietary information listed in it *coughthebigNcough*.

 

i didn't tought about that at all anyway i think you can give any information without risks; i mean people have devkits that were supposed to be destroyed and not released to anyone and took pictures of it and their internals just by hiding the serial codes and machine numbers.... anyway i have no idea about problems that might arise... i guess the older members can clear that up for us...

Interesting, i see that my idea is not that unpraticable after all

i'm waiting eagerly for news

 

Karsten: I would consider myself "an old member", and I can tell you a little titbit, one time where I was defending a person, my post was removed, and I asked why to the person who would problaly have removed the comment. And he said to me, my reply was good and all, but the IP´s who looked at the thread wasn´t "good ips", so well instead of they were good ips, they were more like "wannabe god ips".

So that is why, sometimes those who have some hardware(perhaps devhardware ?). aren´t talking alot about them(making faqs etc.), other than helping people setting the hardware up and running. Because there are some NDA´s involved, and other things that are either protected in a legal way perhaps, or for that matter very copyrighted. as in perspective, think of über RIAA and MPAA, when we are talking about "wanna be god ips".

 

So you're saying legal problems could arise from setting up a website on various official videogaming development hardware/software?

 

If the companies wanted, almost all of assembler could be shut down, i think setting up faqs for the older stuff, katana, wideboy, etc, would'nt poses a problem. Its when you get into the current stuff, that problems arise. also, is there any update on the new assembler museum?, could we see it in 06?

Ryan

 

I can tell you right now that my own website is walking a very fine line when it comes to documenting some of this stuff. As it is now, i could loose my job just for visiting Assemblergames.com. While NDA's are typically nullified once the information becomes public, the console manufacturers still need to protect their trade secrets. For example, Nintendo and sony would both be really pissed off if someone gave the technical pinouts of the SNES sound chip. When i put up my website i only bought 3 months of hosting, as i'm still not sure that i won't get cease and desist letters.

Assemblergames isn't exactly hiden, when you google for "dev hardware" guess who pops up. Have you ever stopped and wondered who the 20-30 "Guests" are who are always showing up on the member list?

All of that being said, i think the FAQ would be a great idea. How many times have people asked if an xbox dev kit will play retail games. Or why their burned disks don't work on their TEST PS2. Don't even get me started on the boot procedures of a Kitana. But then, i guess you could look at the entire site as a sort of FAQ.

 

59 "guests" are present at the moment.

 

I still find it shocking 574 memebers were once online all at the same time.

I don't know about the whole ceast and desist letter thing. The only emails I've ever received to my site email were Japanese emails which had the words: TOP SECRET JAPAN somewhere in the long text h:. From: tosecjapan@yahoo.co.jp

EDIT - Correction: 574 users online

 

mmmmh this seems more serious than i tought... just for being sure.. does NDA apply to europe? if it would be really such a problem, i could home host and register a web page...

and if it is so restrective how comes that this forum is up and old web page too? ?_?

anyway i think that just writing about those things, without stealing pinout and such wouldn't be a problem...

i was a guest for such a long time without feeling the need to register until just lately Let's not be paranoids

 

O man, thats a good idea, we could explain DEV kits, rare, ulrealeased things, good ideas

 

Yeah, it seems the other site was well hid. I think the most users ever online in the phpBB forums was in the twenties.

I was going to suggest maybe becoming part of the deep web, but I think it's too late for that.

 

Really, the people who are under NDAs and the like know what they have to do to protect themselves. Assembler himself has had legal scuffles with the major companies before...so...I imagine he knows what the can and cannot do to piss them off again.

So, go ahead. There's plenty of people who know what will and will not piss off game companies. They'll keep you in check.

 

Well, there's an easier solution, just get some free hosting from Geocites or whatnot, the kind you can get with a throwaway email address. Host the Faqs off site, then make a post under an anonomous user with links, ala "Check this thread for (insert dev hardware) Faqs." Since it's not being hosted on the main site, no legal action can ensue. You can't sue a website for providing links to such information. All they can do is get Geocites or whoever to take the site down, then you just register another phoney account and put it back up. And if we make sure to never tell who actually did it, all asses are covered.

I would also suggest removing this post if you guys decide to do this.

 

Would a Wiki not be better?

 

That'll be google spiders or whatever their search bots are called.

 

The idea is great, up to one little problem : what we are talking here about is, like you said, obscure, and mostly of the "obscure force" behind the courtain relies on that. What does that mean? Simply put, I think there are people that not only aren't interested in rising the courtain, but they additionally even want it to be that way, for a bunch of reasons which you can easily imagine. With that said, please dont get me wrong, i dont think its impossible to rise the courtain, but it's going to be a hell-of-a-work. Put on the table my experience, for example. At first all i wanted was a N64 dev kit with which i could possibly play, i had absolutely no idea from where to start, nor did somebody help. Until, one day, a guy contacted me saying he wanted to sell his (non-working btw) U64 dev kit. The main reason why i got to it was because I agreed to spill some cash. Which is not wrong, please dont misunderstand me, but up to a certain point.

That's my opinion. If you are going to get your project a go, I'll be happy to help you with information about N64.

Ciao
Kammedo

 

I still also find this hard to beleive as well!!

Was there a new system launched this day or some really HOT news?

 

I used to think that was from the Sonic Xtreme auction, but i think the date is too early. I thought the auction was in August... but my mind could be playing tricks on me.