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Old 17-02-2009, 09:34 AM   #1
Dave
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Default Submitting Content to Abandonia: Here's How

Have something to offer?
Do you want to offer games, boxshots, screenshots, extra documents, YouTube videos? Here is the place to do that!

Open a topic named with your nickname and post into it your offer, it's important not to post direct links, wait for an approval from our Admins/Updaters and we will give you FTP access.

If you want to see your game on site as soon as possible remember to share with us all the material you can: the basic package that we can insert on site includes a review, some screenshots and the game.

Remember to check these topics:We won't accept offers for Oldwarez.
Thanks for the collaboration!

FTP Instructions
After you received the FTP Access and the staff's approval to upload the offered files, you can proceed in doing so. You can find some basic instructions in the same Private Message that included the FTP Access, but here you can read a more detailed explanation of what you have to do, in order to avoid common problems.

Creating the folders. Before everything, you must choose your work environment, an FTP manager. Our staff recommends using Filezilla, which is free, but you can also work in Internet Explorer or in your own preffered FTP manager. When opening the ftp link in IE8, for example, you need to go to the View button on the Menu Bar and select "Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer". There you can create folders and copy-paste files the same way you usually manage yours in Windows Explorer. It's even easier in FileZilla, where you drag-and-drop folders and files to the FTP.

When, logging on the FTP for the first time, you'll see a lot of folders. Every contributor has his own folder, where he uploads and stores his offers. Thus you need to create your own, named exactly as your username on the site. Always remember that you can't rename, delete or move stuff with your permissions, so either prepare the folders beforehand on your PC and then copy (IE)/ drag-and-drop (Filezilla) them right on the Main FTP directory, or take care to do all the necessary steps in the right order, so you won't be forced to do one of those actions. But in case you screw up (creating one extra folder for example), don't panic, just notify one of the active updaters and we'll clean up after you.

Uploading the files. Your folder is organized almost the same way as the site's FTP directory. Every game has its own folder. There you can upload the stuff you offered. Never add games in their raw form (like the folder), always put them in a ZIP archive, use RAR archives only if you don't have another option. Contributions with multiple files like boxshots and screenshots need to be archived also, for the ease of use, while 1-file contributions like the manual, a map or a reference card can be added in their original form, without zipping them.

If we were to reduce this entire phylosophy to a simple sketch/plan, you'll have the example you received in your FTP Access PM:

David86 (main directory, your username)
Game (directory of the game, game's title)
- gamename.zip/rar
- screenshot.zip/rar
- review.doc/txt
- manual.pdf/doc/txt
- boxshots.zip/rar

This is just an example, though. It doesn't mean you have to upload the boxshots or the manual - only what you offered. I need also to add that when creating the game's archive, place all the files in a folder, give the folder a 8-character title (related to the original game name; this is referred mostly to DOS/PC Booter games.) and only then archive it in .zip, which as you can see in the example must have the full original game name.

Size limit. Due to server cost restrictions we need to limit the size of the game archives that go on site. Currently it is 270 MB. Game archives with a size below 270MB should be uploaded on FTP, games bigger than that go to ISO Cellar.
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Old 16-12-2009, 10:01 PM   #2
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Review Guidelines
A long time ago Abandonia hosted a lot of stub reviews that didn't analyse game elements deep enough to be considered objective. It was done in a hurry, in order to speed the process of uploading the games on site. But now we actually require you to follow some rules:

-Review Size. Probably you didn't know until now, but we don't accept reviews smaller than 15 lines.

-Review Sections. The review has the main part, the important one, where you write the review itself and 3 more optional sections: Notes, DOSBox Info and How To Run the Game? In Notes you mention additional interesting stuff, like trivia, some info about the extras, addons and so on; DOSBox Info - very useful where you advise gamers how many cycles to use and if there is a need for additional DOSBox lines; How To Run the Game? includes the actions you must do in order to run properly the game, like specifying the .exe, .bat or .com file to run or in what kind of environments you can run the game and how (XP, DOSBox, VDMSound, Winfrotz, Frotz etc) for example.

-Uploading Your Review. Using your FTP Access (received in a PM), you should upload the review on FTP preferably in a txt file, because it allows us to work faster. But you can also upload it as doc or rtf.

-Number of Screens. Of course we need some screens for the gamepage. The minimum is 5 screens, the max is 15. 5-8 screens is the optimal number, you can upload up to 15 if the review is longer. There is an exception to this rule, though: text games - for those we require 1-3 images.

-Capturing the Screens. In DOSBox you press Ctrl+F5 to capture screens. For Windows-only games you can use the Print Screen button to save the full screen or Alt+Print Screen to capture the current window, or you can use third-party applications like Faststone Capture or IrfanView. Always save the screens as .png; only in the worst case possible do it in .bmp, but remember that it will give us some extra work, which we don't like to do. After making the screens compile them all in a ZIP/RAR archive and upload it on FTP.

-Screen Size. The screens we need should be 320x200 in resolution, or one that can be resized to 320x200. Upload another size only if there is no such resolution and it is the original (not resized or cropped).

-Be Creative. Feel free to write your own opinion, to try different approaches, simply making art out of your own review.

-Don't Forget to add the score, numbers from 1 to 5 (not "1.x") and "similar games" recommendations. Please. Preferably at the end of the review.
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Old 16-12-2009, 10:03 PM   #3
Dave
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YouTube Videos

With the opening of our own YouTube channel, we sure won't have a lack of games to upload so we can sure use some help in recording clips. Below you'll find some guidelines and rules if you want to be one of the contributors.

WHAT

The clips we want have to be one of the following:
- the intro of a game
- gameplay (part where you're playing the game)
- the outro (ending of the game)
- a noteworthy cut scene in a game

HOW

DOSBox has an integrated recording mode which starts and ends by pressing CTRL+ALT+F5. The end result will be an AVI file which can be sent to us. You'll need to send a PM to admins or updaters for info on how to upload your file.

Windows games are trickier - some like FRAPS (ONLY with the registered version - otherwise it will have a watermark which is not allowed) but there's plenty of other software for recording clips.


RULES

- Better to record too much than too little: if you record the intro, make sure all of it is recorded. If it has music, try to get the song from the start. We can cut away the unneeded stuff but we can't miraculously add removed footage (not without loss in quality anyway).

- No editing of your video before sending it to us. We'll do the editing - it avoids loss of quality. EXCEPT if you can compress your vids without any noticeable loss of quality while keeping the file size down.

- No watermarks on your videos. Some shareware/unregistered programs add these (like FRAPS) but it ruins the authenticity so it's not allowed - either register those programs or find different ones.

- ALWAYS use the internal DOSBox recording utility for DOS games.
The coded used in DOSBox (ZMBV) is excellent and manages to record games in perfect quality while keeping a small file size.

- No files larger than 250MB. Unless you got a good reason!

- Windows clips need to be of good quality. You can ask for help if you can't manage to record a clip of good quality.

- The clip should only show the game window. This means: no task bars, no menu bars, no borders, etc.

- Clips HAVE to be with sound & music if the game has it.
Note that some games will need to be set to Adlib for music to be recorded in DOSBox. Replacing the music or sound or completely removing is not allowed: we want the authentic experience.

- Intros need to be worth uploading.
Don't send us vids of just text running on a screen. Animations, images, FMV, etc. are all cool so pick games with a proper intro.

- Minimum lenght of a vid is 30 seconds.

- Maximum lenght is 10 minutes.
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