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Will Macscene be updated?
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TOPIC: Will Macscene be updated?

Will Macscene be updated? 4 years, 11 months ago #4479

Two questions:
1. Is Niemann still around and actively monitoring this site?
2. Will it be updated any time soon? The two bleeding issues I see are that the fields don't properly fit mobile devices (guessing a fiddly but relatively easy thing to fix without radically changing the theme) and there have been no news updates for aaaages.

Happy to get involved where possible.

Re: Will Macscene be updated? 4 years, 11 months ago #4481

Yeah, a whole lot of stuff is kind of semi-broken at the moment. I'm happy to be involved in getting the news and emulator database going again, but I don't have time to do these on my own like in the old days.

I've just sent Niemann an email to make sure he sees this.

Re: Will Macscene be updated? 4 years, 11 months ago #4482

1. Is Niemann still around and actively monitoring this site?


I'm still around, but actively monitoring may be a stretch. I stop in about once a week or so just to check the forums. I am impressed by the number of people who emailed me notifying me of this post though. Guess there's still a good number of "regulars" around.

2. Will it be updated any time soon? The two bleeding issues I see are that the fields don't properly fit mobile devices (guessing a fiddly but relatively easy thing to fix without radically changing the theme) and there have been no news updates for aaaages.


The last rebuild of MacScene is quite dated, and in many ways broken. I'd be very happy to discuss ideas on how to revitalize this site. It definitely seems like the days of frequent Mac emulation news are behind us, but it could be interesting to develop a new site with general Mac gaming, classic gaming, Mac hacking, etc. news (which seems to be popular topics on the forums). In fact, Mossy's book helped reinvigorate some of my interest in classic gaming in the last few months.

What topics are of interest to this community? Let's start there and see what comes out of the discussion.

Re: Will Macscene be updated? 4 years, 11 months ago #4485

Great to see the website's still being monitored and has a future. FWIW I grabbed a copy of Mossy's book... it's a very bold attempt at summarising an era that's so special to us. Great coffee table/conversation starter book.

What topics am I interested in?
- Retro gaming using my Mac (Clanlord's an example).
- Emulation (where necessary) using my Mac. Otherwise, remakes and the like often fill the gap.
- For reasons discussed earlier, Dreamcast and Saturn emulation are of particular interest to me.
- Retro Apple hardware. I have a heavily hacked up Newton that Woz signed when I met him a few years back (I know he had nothing to do with the Newton but he told me it's very precious to him because it's the first device that made think 'wow... it's about the usability, not just the engineering'). I'd like to see other people's experiences with retro gear (happy to share photos...etc of my Newton as it's kinda cool).
- As an undertone, cool retro gear that was ahead of its time but never quite made it.
Last Edit: 4 years, 11 months ago by jetboy.

Re: Will Macscene be updated? 4 years, 3 months ago #4535

In about a week, it will be ten years since this incarnation of MacScene launched. I've been brainstorming some ideas on how to "reboot" the site. Not sure what I plan on doing, but I'm guessing that on the tenth anniversary the site may be going down for a couple weeks while I archive what we have here and develop a new site.

I'm hoping to keep the site primarily forums based.

I don't believe I'll be keeping the "Emulators" database.

I'm hoping to provide archives of the forums and news articles.

Any general thoughts?

Re: Will Macscene be updated? 4 years, 3 months ago #4536

Niemann wrote:
In about a week, it will be ten years since this incarnation of MacScene launched. I've been brainstorming some ideas on how to "reboot" the site. Not sure what I plan on doing, but I'm guessing that on the tenth anniversary the site may be going down for a couple weeks while I archive what we have here and develop a new site.

I'm hoping to keep the site primarily forums based.

I don't believe I'll be keeping the "Emulators" database.

I'm hoping to provide archives of the forums and news articles.

Any general thoughts?


I have had an emulation blog idea in mind for a while that might fit this purpose.

Basically, a few seasoned members (myself included - be happy to kick it off) could do regular reflective blog posts for the frontpage that double as forum posts. That way the frontpage would look fresh, while encouraging people to contribute to a broader conversation about the emus/games that have been discussed.

For example, I could write about my recent experiences (using a modern Mac) could include:
- A para or two on getting FS-UAE to work with AmigaOS 3.1 and installing WHDLoad games (so no floppy swapping is needed), followed by a para or two of reflection on my favourite Amiga games from my childhood (e.g. Moonstone, Giana Sisters, Bloodmoney, Bandit Kings of Ancient China, The Third Courier, Legend...etc).
- Similar format to above but about MacOS 9.1 using Qemu and playing games like Weekend Warrior (which I don't think you can play on any other system).
- Compiling Mednafen and building a text-based 'GUI' for playing Saturn games on a Mac (also tips on adjusting the config file...etc as it a bit fiddly). Worth reflecting on how bloody hard it has been for people to emulate the Saturn so accurately though (and how IMO modern CPU power has helped devs to focus on accuracy/authenticity/compatibility rather than 'making the darn thing fast enough).
- Crack open Redream and reflect again... on how I'm so amazed that such a high quality Dreamcast emu came outta nowhere. It wasn't a very popular console and I retired from console gaming at about that age. However, I bought one in Japan, used it to learn Japanese and can reflect positively on a lot of titles from that era (including Shenmue, which has recently seen a 3rd iteration).

That's a few examples at least! Whether or not people wanna read that stuff from me I'd be happy to do some short blogs with the aim of opening the floor to discussion (and above all, making the site look fresh/maintained). I reckon if we could get a solid group to make such posts then setup a monthly queue, we could have have 1-3 years worth of content without too much effort.

Other ideas:
- Q&A sessions with techs (e.g. 'monthly tech letter for Richie B') where we can put a tech query out there. I've asked a few of these before but as a non-dev I'm always keen to hear answers to things like 'WTF did Apple choose metal?' or 'how do I go from coding websites + productivity utilities to porting over emus that rely heavily on Windows APIs?' Maybe we could hit up some commercial emu devs for 1-2 para semi-tech explanations to life's emu questions?
- Reflections on emulation development over time. For example PSX emulation from VGS -> PCSX -> now... how has the scene changed? What challenges were overcome?

Just a few ideas
Last Edit: 4 years, 3 months ago by jetboy.

Re: Will Macscene be updated? 4 years, 3 months ago #4537

Thanks for the feedback, content has always been a challenge and a lot of what you describe I think could get some traction. I'm going to spend the weekend looking through the latest forum / blog stuff available. If anyone has any suggestions regarding sites they particularly like or software they recommend I'd be interested in hearing ideas for that as well.

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