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 I never really liked the old banner much since it was the lowest priority when I originally made the VGMR.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, resply to this thread.

Davideo7 : i got a question? how come my video games music were taking out? from switch and xbox 360? i don't get why at all????

Davideo7 : i got a question? how come my video games music were taking out? from switch and xbox 360? i don't get why at all????

cid789 : I don't understand what you mean. We still have Xbox 360 songs on here. I don't think we've ever had Switch songs.

Davideo7 : mine were from final fantasy 13 and 10 plus 12 as well. i do own switch. i think more video games music, the better the music choices will come.

Davideo7 : I know we talked in PMs a decent amount about how much work went into this update but I still wanted to make a post to talk about it some more. I 1000% agree that it's one of the most overlooked features on the site I remember there's been times where I was talking to members of the site that didn't even know it existed (I've also had this issue when it came to the radio trivia when that was up and running) and I've always thought it's a shame because it has so much potential to be used more on the site, and seeing it get a update making it even better and simpler to use is great. I love how the new layout for it but I think the new theme shocked me the first time I went on the page I think it really helps it stand out more compared to the rest of the site, I also didn't even realize straight away that it recommended you songs as a huge fan of video game music I adore this feature.
I gotta say this is probably one of my favorite updates to the site in a while I really hope people will make more use of the music room from here on.

cid789 : Like David I'm confused what you mean as well I can't remember there ever being any switch music on the site.

I tested out the new search engine, really liking it. I used to have so much trouble finding specific songs.

I've been forcing myself to keep pretty busy with non-computer things lately, but it seems I've picked a great time to randomly click the old Vizzed bookmark.

This looks absolutely fantastic! Music Room has always been my favorite sleeper feature for the site. Even with so many of my favorites purchased physically on amazon japan I still find myself often streaming gaming music online.

Usually I'm not a fan of revamped things for mobile as it typically just means things end up looking big and blocky, but you've definitely made everything on this site the outlier. New interface is pleasing and user-friendly.

SonicOlmstead : i think to try something new is a idea i had in mind just try something. i just wanted to help with a new idea on music to give a chance on new systems music, like xbox one, ps 4, ps 3, switch, wii, and wiiu. just idea i though just to be please nice about. that's all. i am different now. just trying to help. i am not mad about switch music wasn't added. just wanted to help to try more music types in the video game music room.

cid789 : I just wasn't sure what you meant before, I would be down for more music in fact that's something I've talked to David about in the past sorry for the misunderstanding.

SonicOlmstead : it is ok sonic. it is not a problem. i need to working on that more to make more sense what i am trying to says what i do mean.

I noticed something the other day I thought should be brought to your attention I wouldn't recommend you spend time on it right away cause it's not a major issue but as far as I can tell unless it's changed and I'm somehow not understanding song ratings no longer seems to give CP and count as an action.