[Scummvm-devel] New section for the freeware game downloads?

Max Horn max at quendi.de
Wed Sep 10 10:54:17 CEST 2008


Am 10.09.2008 um 09:04 schrieb Filippos K:

> Hello
>
> The number of freeware games that ScummVM supports are increasing...  
> perhaps it's time to put all of the freeware games in a separate  
> section of the ScummVM web site? (e.g. "Freeware games" or "Free  
> games") ? The "Downloads" page is a bit cluttered right now...

Actually, I like that with ScummVM, all downloads can be found on a  
single page. I hate it when I have to search on other websites till I  
find what I need. However, I agree that the current page is cluttered.

Though some clever use of AJAX etc. could probably help a lot. Like
* detect the OS of the user, and present a download button with the  
"right" ScummVM version for download on a single click, at the top of  
the page (and maybe also on the ScummVM front page)

* use AJAX to "hide" the various download sections. I'd imagine that  
by default, the user should only see the most downloaded stuff. So,  
maybe something like this

BEGIN EXAMPLE

Downloads for ScummVM version 0.12.0
  BLA BLA (insert navigation and text as is)

   === 0.12.0 Release binaries
  * Windows .EXE
  * Windows .ZIP
  * WinCE
  * Mac OS X
  * Nintendo DS
  * PSP
  * Symbian S60-v3
  [ More ]      <- clicking here expands the list; BTW I listed the  
ports which are downloaded most

  === Free games
  * Beneath a Steel Sky
    - Freeware CD Version
    - Freeware Floppy Version
    - SKY.CPT - required to run the game with ScummVM; already  
included in most ScummVM distributions

  * FoTAQ
   - QUEEN.TBL - required to run original versions of FOTAQ
   - Freeware CD Version (OGG compressed sfx/speech)
   [ More ]
   - Freeware CD Version (MP3 compressed sfx/speech)
   - Freeware CD Version (MP3 compressed sfx/speech), hosted by Snoke  
Media and Tech Hosting Network
   - Freeware CD Version (FLAC compressed sfx/speech), hosted by Holarse
   - Freeware CD Version (unmodified original)
   - Freeware CD Version (Hebrew subtitles, English voices, ogg  
compressed sfx/speech)
   - Freeware Floppy Version (6.7M)
   - Freeware Floppy Version (6.7M), hosted by Snoke Media and Tech  
Hosting Network
  * Lure
    - ... list all files, you get the idea
  * Drascula
    - ... list all files, you get the idea
  * FoTAQ
    - ... list all files, you get the idea

  === Extras, add-ons
   ... BS1, FF, Kyra addon files should be listed here, you get the  
idea ...

  === 0.12.0 Source Code [ Show ]

  === 0.12.0 Tools (mostly unsupported)  [ Show ]

  === Older versions (unsupported; use if your port is not listed  
above) [ Show ]

END EXAMPLE

Actually, for FoTaQ I find our list needlessly confusing. First  off,  
why do we need those "Snoke Media and Tech Hosting Network" mirrors?  
Nothing against them, but we don't link mirrors for other game  
downloads, so why for these?

Secondly, I think we should only list
   - QUEEN.TBL - required to run original versions of FOTAQ
   - Freeware CD Version (MP3 compressed sfx/speech)
   - Freeware Floppy Version (6.7M)
   [ More ]

-> I believe that this will be sufficient for 99% of our users, and  
reduce visual clutter and confusion. Oh, I chose MP3 because it seems  
more of our ports support that; though of course some Linux ports do  
not support MP3 and want Ogg... :). Personally, I'd love if just *all*  
our ports could support Ogg, because that carries no (known) patent/ 
licensing issues (hence all Linux distros can support it), *and* we  
can legally ship binaries which include an Ogg encode; so for a  
graphical "ScummVM data file compressor tool",  we can include Ogg  
encoding support in the binary. Ah well... that's another matter :)


Cheers,
Max




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