11 replies to this topic

[VectrexMad!]

Just to let any of you Vector arcade gamers out there (and that includes fans of the arcade machines, mame and Vectrex)


Vectrex Wiki owner Darryl B has recently launched the Vector Gaming Forums. Here’s his press release:

"Being a cross of the old Vectrex forums (R. I. P.) and a vector gaming forum on Yahoo! Groups (also long dead!), the vector gaming forums takes things a few steps further by also having discussions on raster vector ports and even current vector-like online and portable device/cell phone games. There are also forums for any kind of game console, from the oldest Pong machines to the most current gaming rigs available such as the XBox 360, but the main focus are on the beloved wire-frame games."

http://vectorgaming....s.com/index.cgi

[VectrexMad!]

18 members now, and many guests - the forums are growing

[Mayhem]

I might sidle over there in due course...

[rmaerz]

VectrexMad!, on Wed Oct 12, 2011 2:26 PM, said:

18 members now, and many guests - the forums are growing

That's good.

I was averaging about 1 sign-up per day for the first 30 days when I created the R'cade Mag forums. When I announced that the preview issue of Retrocade Magazine was available for forum members only, I only got 5 new sign-ups!

So far, I got 60 members in three months which isn't bad. I've been promoting the hell out of it and anything new takes a lot of promotion to get the community aware that you're out there.

[thegoldenband]

Promotion is difficult stuff! Most people want to feel like whatever they do in life is their own idea -- arising spontaneously out of organic impulses and preferences -- and are resistant to being told they should check something out.

(Hence the saturation approach to commercials: it's not that any one commercial convinces someone to buy something, but rather that encountering the product repeatedly makes it start to seem like part of the self, or at least part of a person's world and community.)

I'm a little "forumed out" at the moment, i.e. too many memberships at too many places, but I might well sign up even so. I've been getting back into Vectrex lately, and also want to find out if anyone's been developing Vectrex-style games for modern laser projectors.

Edited by thegoldenband, Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:30 AM.

[rmaerz]

thegoldenband, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 8:30 AM, said:

I'm a little "forumed out" at the moment, i.e. too many memberships at too many places

I recognized that a lot of gamers are. So, the forums I set up are a niche and not trying to compete with the likes of AtariAge and Digital Press. It's a place where members can post scores and comments on classic console games, participate in online tournaments, take reader surveys, read preview issues and more.

[Mayhem]

Yeah, that's part of the issue for me really. I'm on about 20 different forums of differing interests!

[Hatta]

This is why USENET was so much better than web forums can ever be. All the fora you want, under one powerful interface.

[rmaerz]

Hatta, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:31 PM, said:

This is why USENET was so much better than web forums can ever be. All the fora you want, under one powerful interface.

Unfortunately, Usenet became a Spammer's paradise.

[VectrexMad!]

Mayhem, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:04 PM, said:

Yeah, that's part of the issue for me really. I'm on about 20 different forums of differing interests!

Yes same issue for me. But, rec.games.vectrex is getting so quiet these days that I took the plunge and joined the Vector gaming forum. With more members this new forum should be a good place to hang out and talk vectors.

[raindog]

Hatta, on Thu Oct 13, 2011 1:31 PM, said:

This is why USENET was so much better than web forums can ever be. All the fora you want, under one powerful interface.

And every site kept its own copy of the archive, so you didn't have to worry about your thousands of posts disappearing one day because one sysadmin didn't realize backups were being made, or the site ran out of money.

I still keep a pay Usenet subscription, and read a number of non-binary groups (they're not all dead or overrun with spam, believe it or not) but I've made only one post in the last 5 years.

(Edit: just signed up for the vector forum. I see this is another one of those hosted forum sites that not only has the usual forum disadvantages of not allowing me to read them with my choice of reader, but instead of simply having a mobile stylesheet they want you to buy a 3 dollar phone app. I really, really miss Usenet, and mailing lists, and even Yahoo groups. But the alternative is to not hear about new vector developments unless someone happens to mention them on Atariage, so I signed up anyway.)

Edited by raindog, Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:11 PM.

[VectrexMad!]

Bump!
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