News and Updates

Vizzed Board turns 16 years old on December 6th so you guys have a little more than 2 weeks to vote for whoever you think deserves any of the awards below. Voting will end on December 5th and the awards will be given out on December 6th. There are 25 awards you can vote on, 20 user awards and 5 thread/post awards.

You can cast your votes here:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103331

I fixed and enhanced the RetroArch Web Player emulator on Vizzed (the primary HTML5 emulator in the RGR). It recently stopped working properly on mobile devices including phones and tablets. This has been fixed. It has also always had issues where it randomly doesn't work in the browser and you therefore have to restart the browser to get it to work. This has also been fixed. I also added a few various buttons that popup if the script is detecting that you might be having issues with the emulator. The games should also now load faster and possibly even play better, thanks to a few tweaks.

Most users might not be aware that most of the games in the Retro Game Room are playable on mobile devices. A while back I had created my own touch game pad that appears on your phone/tablet when you choose to play the games on a mobile device but you're also not limited to just using the touch screen for gaming, you can sync a controller to your phone/tablet and use that as well. Of course the games work in almost all internet browsers on a desktop so be sure to check it out if you haven't ever done so:
https://www.vizzed.com/play/sonic-the-hedgehog-gen-online-sega-genesis-3371-playable

I also changed the way games play on Vizzed. For the RGR Plugin games, they popup in a window just like they use to years ago, so no more opening up in a new window. For all the other forms of emulation, they also now open up in a popup window but at a bigger scale.

I did a few other things here and there with the way games are played on the site so if you notice any problems that might be the result of this update, or if you like this update and want to offer support or feedback, let me know in this thread:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103327

After the server migration from a few months ago, some of the games for the Nintendo NES, Commodore 64 and Atari 2600 stopped working. Nearly 50% of the Nintendo NES games didn't get migrated properly, 30% of the Atari 2600 games didn't get migrated properly, and well over 60% of the Commodore 64 games didn't get migrated properly.

All of the missing games have been restored. If you have any questions or feedback, respond to this thread:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103323

The Vizzed Minecraft server was recently upgraded to a new and far better server. This new server is a lot faster and has far less issues. I also invested a good amount of time fixing just about everything that was wrong with the server, including those occasional lag spikes and random server crashes.

Here's the address to use for joining our MC server:
Vizzed.co

You can find all information regarding our server, along with many site to server features, here:
https://www.vizzed.com/minecraft/

I put together a video showcasing the Vizzed Ville world of our server as a way to promote our 3rd Ground Opening

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msB98W2GiaM

And here's a 360 variation which lets you grab the screen and move it around (and you can even use a controller to look around).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJzEf6KZftI

I also plan to put together a video for each of the worlds in our server so if you have a suggestion for something you'd like to see shown in one of my showcase videos, be sure to let me know in this thread:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103310

If you have any questions, issues or feedback, be sure to let me know in this thread:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103309

The Video Game Music Room has been completely revamped! It was basically rebuilt from the ground up, although I did reuse some of the code to save time. I put about 150 hours into it over the past 2-3 months so there's a lot to talk about.

https://www.vizzed.com/videogamemusic/

The Video Game Music Room has always been one of the biggest overlooked features of the site. Although it makes up about 8% of the site's traffic, that number could be much higher when you consider everything that it offers. I honestly view it as the best place on the internet to listen to video game music (it has nearly 200,000 songs), especially now with this massive upgrade. There's a lot to cover so I'll save some of it for a video at some point showcasing everything but I'll highlight some of the biggest features.

All New Layout
I made it super easy to navigate. Every page shows you the Video Game Room Statistics, because those are the biggest highlights of the feature (nearly 200,000 songs, 10,000+ games, 40 systems...definitely worth showing off). Next to the statistics, you'll also find on every page the song search, loaded with features (more about those below). And since I gave the Video Game Music Room its own directory and broke it up into multiple pages, I made it so that the banner changes depending on what section you're on, so that you don't get lost. And speaking of new banners...


All New Theme
I not only gave it an all new layout, but also an all new look. And also completely changed the banner. I never really liked the old banner much since it was the lowest priority when I originally made the VGMR. In fact, all of the cosmetics were pretty low on the list back then since that's time consuming and wanted to put most of my focus on programming and music adding. Now that I got to dedicate more time into the look and feel of VGMR, I had fun with it and changed up a lot of stuff. Color scheme is a bit different, the background is similar but also different, and it's overall utilizing more visuals since that's what people tend to be drawn to.


New Search Engine
So the song search is complicating at first but if all you want to do is search by song name, game name, artist, then all you have to do is worth about the top row. Now if you really want to narrow down your searching, you can search for songs based on just about anything, and also order the results in various ways, depending on the search parameters. Not only did I add tons of new ways to search, but the overall results are far better and more relevant.


Here are all of the search options (bold are what's new):
Song Name, Game Name, Game ID, Song Artist, Publisher / Developer, User ID, Playlist ID, System, Keyword, Format (console, handheld, etc), Media (cartridge, CD, etc), Generation, Genre, Bits, Duration and Rating.


New Song Player
I purchased a completely new script for the song player and then greatly modified it. It's less buggy and gives you more options and control.


The player itself floats at the bottom or top of the page, letting you navigate the page while still having quick access to the player. In bigger browsers, such as a PC, the player floats at the bottom. On a smaller screen, such as a mobile device, the player floats at the top (and it's at the top because there's an ad that floats at the bottom already). The player also shows an audio wave of the song being played, and that can help visualize the song and know where to skip to if you like to skip around in a song.

The main song player playlist offers basic but clean information and relies on graphics for navigation. The son player has a 2nd playlist navigator right below the main one, which is graphicless but offers a lot more details in a vertical format (keep in mind that you can play the song by clicking the track number to the left). By offering 2 ways to navigate the music on a page, I feel like it's a good way to please users of all preferences.


Daily Song Recommendations
As long as you've rated songs, the index page of the site will show recommended songs based on the songs you've rated. Each day you visit the Video Game Music Room, this list will be updated. If you haven't rated any songs since the previous day, it'll mostly be the same list so be sure to rate songs in the recommended list to not have those same songs recommended and for a more personalized experience.

This is how it recommends music. It takes all of the songs you've rated a 4 or 5, then it finds all users who have also rated those same songs a 4 or 5 and finds all songs that they have all rated and takes the songs that were most commonly rated high among all of those users. It's kind of a strenuous script so that's why it only gets executed once per a day per a user.


Games Page
https://www.vizzed.com/videogamemusic/game.php


The Games Page lets you browse through all of the games that have music available. You can order the music based on Name, most Songs, total Duration, Average Rating, and Score (which is basically like popularity). You can also select a system and browse through games based on system (more about that below).


Systems Page
https://www.vizzed.com/videogamemusic/system.php


The Systems Page lets you see a list of all of the available systems. It provides some really useful information for each system, including total Soundtracks (games), Total Songs, Total Duration, Average Song Duration, Average Song Rating, and Popularity.

If you click a system, then you can browse through the soundtracks based on the select system. The individual game system pages also generates a playlist of the most popular songs for that system.


Playlists Page
https://www.vizzed.com/videogamemusic/playlist.php

The Playlist Page lets you browse through user created playlists and also lets you create your own.

Keep in mind that when you create your own playlist, you then have access to giving your playlist its very own look. You also get lots of fun details which view count, view count today, number of unique users who have viewed your playlist, and info on the last user to view it.


Users Page
https://www.vizzed.com/videogamemusic/user.php

The Users Page lets you see a list of all users who have rated songs. It's in order of who has given out the most ratings by default but you can also order it based on Name, Average Rating, and Last Rating.

If you click a user, you'll be presented with a list of every song that user has rated and also a list of all the playlists they've created.


Song Pages
Last new page type to talk about is the actual song pages. The song page provides details on whatever song you're viewing and its the song pages from where you can add songs to a playlist and is also where you can rate a song.

One of the most exciting new features for the entire VGMR is the similar/recommended songs feature. Every song page will have a list of songs that are similar and recommended. It first grabs around 15 songs that are similar and it figures this out based on song name, game name, artist, system and keywords. The next 10 songs are recommended songs and these are recommended based on songs that users have also rated a 4 or 5. So the recommended songs on a song's page basically returns songs that you might also like if you like that specific song.

here's an example of all this in action:
https://www.vizzed.com/videogamemusic/song.php?id=2315


More Mobile Friendliness
The previous VGMR was mobile friendly but only to a certain extent and that's because it was created back when I was creating the new site code/layout years ago which means that since it was one of the first features to be created with that code, it didn't fully utilize all of the features that eventually would come. The new VGMR adapts to pretty much any browser width and height.


Conclusion
That was a lot to cover and that wasn't even everything. It's best for you guys to all just try it out for yourself and discover everything the Video Game Music Room has to offer. I highly encourage everyone to rate music that they like, this helps organize the music in the VGMR better and also helps the site give you a more personalized experience.

If anyone has questions or feedback, or if anyone is interested in helping out with the VGMR, reply to this thread:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103291

zanderlex has 100s of items for sale and it's all being sold for Viz! zanderlex is a legit and trustworthy seller on Vizzed so therefore you can trust anything you buy from him.

He's Selling:
-Physical PS4 games
-Digital Switch Games
-Physical Pokemon Cards
-Digital Pokemon Cards
-Physical Movies
-Digital Movies
-Gift Cards
(10,000 Viz per dollar. Includes Steam Gift Cards, PSN Gift Cards, XBOX Gift Cards, E-Shop Gift Cards, and Amazon Gift Cards)

Go here to see a list of everything he has for sale:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103279

The file migration that started a few weeks ago is finally complete. All game downloads should now be faster than they were in the past and this includes CD systems, which are now blazing fast!

I recently got rid of one of my servers and replaced it with 2 cheaper servers with 2 different hosts. The service that the 1 host offers was dedicated to just file serving and both are cloud services. I've been finding ways to cut costs and this allowed me to cut server fees by about $100 a month, which brings the server fees down to around $450 a month now, which is great since the site's ads don't generate as much income as they use to in the past due to a decline in site traffic and ad network payout (the latest donations have been awesome, thanks camkunimura, tgags123, takeo masake, DOLPHINS440, NoxHardigan and NefliteX).

This site has about 3 TB worth of games so that makes it difficult to get monthly costs down and it also makes server transfers time consuming but having that all finished is great! And getting the download speeds of the games to be way faster than they were in the past is a massive bonus. Some of the large games for the CD systems use to take quite a while to download since they are very large in file size but now they download pretty quickly, assuming you have a good internet connection.

I also had some games on my primary server that I also transferred to the new servers which freed me up space on the primary server which means we'll now have more space to upload more music to the Video Game Music Room, which I'll probably start working on later this month.

If you have any questions, feedback or want to confirm to us all that the files are indeed faster to download, let us know in this thread:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103263

Some of you that logged on to the site today may have been given a security warning in your browser. This happened because the site's SSL Certificate expired. I renewed it and now things should be back to normal. Sorry for the scare.

If you have any questions, let me know in this thread:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103256

All of the games in the Retro Game Room should be back up and working except the following:
-Dreamcast (75% complete)
-PlayStation (50% complete)
-Sega Saturn (0% complete)
-TurboGrafx CD (0% complete)

Games are being uploaded in alphabetical order. I'm also doing the systems in the order listed above (except I'm skipping the remaining PS1 games until I get all other systems uploaded since it's a very large collection of games).

Games should be far quicker to load with the new file host (more on this once I make an official announcement/thread after migration is complete) and it'll cut my costs greatly so this migration was necessary and worth it. The migration should be complete sometime next week.

Thanks for everyone's patience.

The cartridge games in the Retro Game Room should all be back up now. Most of the disc games are still down and will be down for another few days, possibly up to a week. I'll make another announcement when everything is back up.

I'm in the process of doing a server migration for Retro Game Room files. Most of the games in the Retro Game Room will be unavailable for the next 24-48 hours. I'll make another announcement once the migration is complete.

I put together a suite of new features for uploading, managing and viewing pictures. It's available to all users and can be found in the Developer Center.

We've had a Photo Album that was created years ago but it was outdated and using the old site code and format. I made sure to include all features in the previous photo album and I also made sure to migrate all of the photos to the new system.

Before I go over the available features, I wanted to quickly point out that the images and albums can be embedded to any page that your a staff or admin of (forums that you moderate, your threads, your profile, etc). To do this, go to the page you want to add an Image or Album to and at the top of that page click the 'Add Content' at the top of the page and from the 'Select Content to Add' drop down, choose either Album or Image (depending on which you want to embed) and then click 'Save and Continue'. From here, you'll want to add the ID of the Album or Image that you want to embed (the ID can be found in the URL of that page). Here's an example of a page that I embedded an Image and a Photo Album to:
https://www.vizzed.com/u/test.php


User Images
All displayed images not only show title, user, date and thumbnail but they'll also show image view count and number of comments. It makes browsing through 100s of images far more enjoyable.

There's a lot of options available for sorting through images. You can order the images based on Name, Size, View Count, Date, etc. You can filter the images based on Type and Category You can do a text search which returns all images with matching titles and keywords


Image Uploader / Editor
You can upload images as large as 500 KB and all uploaded images will have a small thumbnail generated. The uploaded image page will provide you with image specs and also HTML and Forum codes that you can copy for easy pasting.

There are a few options available when uploading and editing:
-Image Type lets you choose where the image will be used on the site
-Image Category lets you add your very own category which will help you and others filter through images
-Image Privacy lets you choose who can view your image. Public means it'll appear in the search results, Unlisted means it'll not appear in the search results (can only be viewed with direct link) and Private means that only you can view it (or anyone you add as an Admin to your image page)
-Unique lets you specify whether this is something created by you or not
-Keywords (only available after uploading) let you add keywords to your image that makes your image appear when that specified keyword is used in the search engine

The image pages let users leave comments on images and also offers additional details of the image such as how many people have seen the image, how many unique users, the last user to view it, upload date, the last time the details of the page were updated, etc. Here's an example of an uploaded image:
https://www.vizzed.com/u/image.php?id=1


User Albums
This simply displays all of the albums created by users and also offers a few filter and search functions.


Album Creator / Editor
Anyone can create their own album but you can only add images that you uploaded (or are admin of) to the album you created. The albums have a few options available that work the same as the Image Uploader / Editor, which include Category and Privacy. It also has an option which lets you choose the order the images get displayed in.

Work on Albums Together
After you've created an album, you can make someone an staff/admin of the album so that they can also add their uploaded images to your album. To make someone a staff/admin of your album, click the 'Edit Page' link at the top of the page and add their name into the 'Add Mod' section.

Here's an example of an album page:
https://www.vizzed.com/u/album.php?id=3


Questions? Feedback? Go here:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103213

I've postponed the start date of the Summer Team Tournament by 1 more week.

It's not too late to sign up:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103132

I've postponed the start date of the Summer Team Tournament by about a week so that we can get more users signed up.

It's not too late to sign up:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103132

This more than likely will be the very last netplay tournament that I can host due to Flash being discontinued (the RGR Plugin requires flash). I'm hoping to have 1 last netplay tournament.

The scheduling in this tournament is very flexible and can work around just about any schedule. Users have control over which games they play each week.

To join, or for more information, go here:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103132

This competition will involve 2 player teams facing off against other 2 player teams. I haven't been able to host this competition in a few years now due to lack of interest. Since this might be the last netplay tournament, I'm really hoping we get enough users involved.



Results of previous years:
Summer 2019: (never happened)
Summer 2018: (never happened)
Summer 2017: Triple Trouble Win
Summer 2016: Vizzéteers Win
Summer 2015: Vizzéteers Win
Summer 2014: Retro Renegades Win
Summer 2013: Kogarasumaru Win



This tournament will last for 6-10 weeks, 4-6 of those weeks being regular weeks and the last 2-4 of those weeks being playoff weeks (all depends on how many users sign up). The 8 teams with the most points will enter the playoffs.

If you have a tight schedule or don't know how your availability is, don't worry, you'll be able to schedule a day and time for your matchup each week. You can also get a backup player on your team who can fill in for whenever you can't make it to a match (or you can sign up as a backup player). You, your team and your opponents each week will come up with a day and time that works for all of you to do your weekly matchup. In other words, it's a very flexible tournament.

You must enter as a team, so find someone who is willing to be your teammate and let me know what your team name is but if you can't find a teammate, just let me know that you're interested in joining but don't have a partner and I'll find someone for you. Your team may contain a 3rd user, a user who will basically be one of your backups in case one of you can't participate in a matchup in any given week or someone who can fill in if one of the main players of the team is bad at a game that gets picked. The 3rd backup player isn't required but is suggested if you can find someone willing to take on that role. If you can't find a teammate, just let me know that you're interested but don't have a team and I'll add you to the list of users looking for a teammate.

Be careful on who you choose as a teammate. If your teammate doesn't show up for a matchup, then it's you against 2. If your teammate gets banned from the competition or drops out, then you have to play the entire tournament alone unless you can find someone to replace them.

NOTE: You don't need the PlayStation item to join PlayStation netplay sessions. Also, the games of this tournament will be available to everyone while the tournament is active.



The games that this tournament will include (some of these might change):

Mixed System:
-Bomberman '94 (TG)
-Wit's (NES) *
-Super Spike V'Ball (NES)
-Final Match Tennis (TG)
-Motoroader (TGCD) ?

Super Nintendo:
-Vs. Collection
-Micro Machines 2 - Turbo Tournament
-Super Bomberman 4 (English Translation) ?
-Tiny Toon Adventures - Wacky Sports Challenge ?
-NBA Jam ?
-Bakukyuu Renpatsu!! Super B-Daman *

PlayStation:
-Micro Machines V3
-Shaolin
-Crash Team Racing ?
-Crash Bash ?
-Micro Maniacs ?

*Games added to tournament for first time this year

If you know of a good 2 vs 2 game, please recommend it and I'll see about getting it added!
Games with a ? next to them are games that aren't confirmed for this tournament yet.


The games will be grouped together and each week a team can veto a group which means for their matchup that week, no game from that system can be picked. This will allow users to compete who are unable to do netplay for a certain system because they'll be able to simply veto that system each week and never have to worry about playing a game for it.



Requirements
-You should preferably live in the United States (unless you have had very little lag problems playing netplay with USA users)
-The RGR Plugin must work fine on your computer and netplay should work for at least 3 of the systems mentioned above
-You must be free at least 1 hour every week that this tournament takes place or have a backup player that can fill in for you any week that you're unavailable
-If your on the ban list, you cannot enter. To see who is on the ban list, go here:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=60334



Prizes
1st = 300,000 Viz or $300 Worth of Steam Games (aka 30 Raffle Tickets)
2nd = 180,000 Viz or $180 Worth of Steam Games (aka 18 Raffle Tickets)
3rd = 90,000 Viz or $90 Worth of Steam Games (aka 9 Raffle Tickets)
Click here to see all the games you can choose from if you win.
(teams will share the prize)


Trophy Award
Every user of the winning team will get a special trophy item added to their Vizzed Market inventory. Users will be able to display all the trophies they've earned on their profiles (when I'm done remaking them) and they'll also be permanently enshrined on a Hall of Fame page.


Penalty
If you miss more than 50% of your matches, then you'll be added to the ban list. This rule does not apply to backup players and you wont be affected by this rule if you can get your backup player to fill in for you in a week that you'll miss.



Signup ends and Tournament begins on Monday, July 13th.



If you want to enter, reply to the below thread with your team name, who the leader of the team is and who is on your team. If you don't have a team or can't find one, respond to the below thread saying that you want to form a team with someone and I'll add you to the list of users looking for a teammate.
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103132

These will be the 2 admins for the 1st half of 2020:
Boured
Furret

https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103119

The Summer Tour de Vizzed discussion thread can be found here:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103116


Each day there will be 4 Jerseys you can compete for:
Yellow Jersey: Most words in a day
Blue Jersey: Most posts in a day
Red Jersey: Most CP in a day
Green Jersey: Most CP actions in a day


Hall of Fame page can be found here:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/tourdevizzed-halloffame.php

You can find the current Tour de Vizzed results page here:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/tourdevizzed.php

It's time to elect the 2 users who will be admins of the site in 2020 from July - December. You can vote for 2 Admins. They're listed below, click them to see their application:

Boured

Furret

SonicOlmstead

EX Palen


Here's how this works

Respond to this thread with up to 2 users you think would do a great job. The more users you choose, the less weight your votes have. So if you feel really strongly about someone, then vote for just 1 user.

Here's what determines the weight of your vote

The weight of a vote depends on the user and how many votes that user makes. Users who have a high rank, been around for a long time, and have a high post count, will have a vote with more weight. This is fair because those users should have a bigger impact on the results since they're more familiar with the community and have a higher reputation compared to someone who just registered with the single purpose of altering the results.

Here's the formula for figuring out the weight of your vote:
User Level * Power Level

And if you have multiple votes, it'd look like this:
(User Level * Power Level) / Vote Count

The User Levels can be viewed from their profile and also next to their posts to the left. A User Level is based on how long a user has been here and how many posts they have.

Here's the numbers that represent each Power Level:
0 = Newbie
1 = Normal
2 = Trusted
3 = Elite
4 = Site Staff
5 = Local Mod
6 = Global Mod

Rules
-Can't vote for yourself
-Can't vote for more than 2 people
-Posts with negative ratings will be investigated and potentially ignored

Voting ends on Thursday, July 2nd.


Be sure to submit your votes to this thread:
https://www.vizzed.com/boards/thread.php?id=103107

The annual Bomberman '94 Tournament concluded last night with these final results:
1st. Davideo7
2nd. Foxyman1113
3rd. M4g1cW4rr10r
4th. Barathemos
5th. deggle

If you missed the stream, it has been uploaded to YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7oSFybRWR8