I've reduced the Viz prices of most of the RGR games and some of the RGR games have reduced by a lot. All of the small sized games have taken a price drop, the medium sized games are around the same (some may have gone up) and the large sized games have taken a huge price drop. For those who don't know, the games in the RGR cost Viz to help me avoid high bandwidth costs but I think I might be able to get away with dropping the prices of these games without any problems.

In return, I've added an ad to the play window while the game is loading. All of the revenue made from this will go to tRIUNE since he does a lot for the site. He currently already shares the site's revenue with me but I wanted to help him out by increasing the amount he gets since he invests way more time on the site than anyone else has over the past few years (excluding me of course). I'll eventually add an item to the item shop which will allow you to disable this ad if you find it annoying but it shouldn't interfere with anything.

One of the main purposes of the Retro Game Room has always been to introduce users to games that they've never experienced. So many of these retro games deserve recognition and if the prices are too high, most users will never be able to experience some of these great games. By dropping the prices the really large games, I'm hoping it encourages users to stick around the site longer by enjoying more games.


Just to give you all an idea of how this affects each system, here's the Viz prices based on various systems.


NES Games
Average Size: 182 KB
Before: 10 Viz - After: 7 Viz

Largest Game: 3227 KB =
(SMB1 Bowser's Jumping_Challenge)
Before: 30 Viz - After: 29 Viz


GENESIS GAMES
Average Size: 737 KB
Before: 20 Viz - After: 14 Viz

Largest Game: 4976 KB
(Sonic 3 and Knuckles - The Challenges)
Before: 30 Viz - After: 36 Viz


GBA GAMES
Average Size: 4871 KB
Before: 30 Viz - After: 35 Viz

Largest Game: 32,604 KB
(Cartoon Network Collection Special Edition)
Before: 109 Viz - After: 91 Viz


N64 GAMES
Average Size: 8689 KB
Before: 40 Viz - After: 47 Viz

Largest Game: 63,677 KB
(Resident Evil 2)
Before: 212 Viz - After: 127 Viz


SEGA CD GAMES
Average Size: 129,424 KB
Before: 431 Viz - After: 180 Viz

Largest Game: 453,595 KB
(Cadillacs and Dinosaurs)
Before: 1512 Viz - After: 337 Viz


DREAMCAST GAMES
Average Size: 848,851 KB
Before: 2830 Viz - After: 461 Viz

Largest Game: 3,185,607 KB
(Shenmue II)
Before: 10,618 Viz - After: 750 Viz


Here's some examples of more various games:
Donkey Kong Atari 2600 - 4 KB = 1 Viz -> 1 Viz
Super Mario Bros 3 - 228 KB = 10 Viz -> 8 Viz
Sonic the Hedgehog - 382 KB = 20 Viz -> 10 Viz
Chrono Trigger - 3,037 KB = 30 Viz -> 28 Viz
Pokemon Emerald - 6,978 KB = 24 Viz - > 42 Viz
Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time - 26,606 KB = 89 Viz -> 82 Viz
Saturn Bomberman - 354,061 KB = 1180 Viz -> 298 Viz
Sonic Adventure - 1,079,923 KB = 3600 -> 520 Viz

The game systems that have large games that benefit the most include: Sega CD, Sega Dreamcast, Sega Saturn, Large MAME/GBA/N64 Games, CD-i, Turbo Grafx CD, PC-FX and some future systems.

With the new formula for calculating Viz prices, the larger the game, the less the Viz price increases. What I mean by this is that a game that is 100 KB is going to cost 5 Viz which means that each 1 Viz is equaled to 20 KB for that 100 KB game. Now for a 100,000 KB game, the price would be 159 Viz which means that each 1 Viz for a 100,000 KB game is equaled to 629 KB. In other words, the larger the game, the more KB you're getting for your Viz lol. And for those wondering what formula I'm using to come up with the new Viz prices, here it is:
sqrt($GAME_SIZE_IN_KB) / 2 = Viz Price

I was amazed at how well square root worked out for this. Also, I've placed a Viz cap on games which means that a game cannot cost more than 750 Viz no matter how large it is. For those who are really curious, all Viz prices are rounded up.

Oh and before I forget, since the Shenmue games are some of my most favorite games of all time, I've made all of those games cost 0 Viz, just so that everyone can experience a game that I think every gamer should play. Normally it'd cost 1500 Viz to play both games for the Dreamcast (and probably nearly 20,000 Viz before the this Viz update) so I'm giving you guys no excuse not to try out the game.


Enjoy

Wow this is great news! Currently only have Sonic Shuffle and one other for the DC since I noticed my Viz would disappear fast if I went on a shopping spree. However, I would like to point out that I have not idea how much the games are supposed to cost normally. If I buy one it does give me the option to sell it, but before buying any DC game it just says "You own DC = free to play." And we know that can't be right. Is this a glitch with the beta ticket? Perhaps just access to the game alone is being confused with owning the system?

danielbelitch : I guess that's a glitch and it appears that glitch has been around for at least a year. Anyway, it's fixed. This entire time you have been getting charged Viz for playing Dreamcast games even though it said "free play" on the game's page.

This is an interesting choice. I hope that it is a beneficial one in the long run.

Hello,I seem to be having problems with the Ads.the Ads appear on the game screen,but remains there after the game is loaded.it overlaps/blocks out the game and I can't play them,it also creates game lag/slowness.A few games I tried the lag was so bad I couldn't do anything/close the emulator/reset emulator or close the page................help?

Everything seems to be working now,the Ads disappear after loading and no more game lag.

Honestly I'm surprised you haven't done something like this sooner.  I think it's good to have a few ads on here, this is a great site.  if anyone complains about them then I say let them whine because you have worked your butts off to make the site what it is today and I am really grateful for all of your hard work.  

I see what you mean but personally I never found the games in the RGR to be expensive, they've always seemed pretty cheap. Then again new members may not know many ways to make Viz so it might benefit them.

As for the ads I don't really see any harm in them since they don't intrude on the actual gameplay and if that generates more revenue then I can't see how it's anything but a good thing.

That's great and all, but how does the ad revenue thing actually work? Is it by we looking at it or we clicking it (or none of that)?

But on any case, I think you shouldn't make an item that disables this or any ad. If people are that bothered by it they are just going to put Adblock.

I can see how this would be a good choice for some people. I personally have the item that makes every Vizzed game free, so this doesn't affect me that much, but it's still nice.

Ads would be fine if they displayed things people want to look at lol. Only reason I ever use an ad is by complete accident. 99% of them dont pertain to me. If there were more gaming ads, I'd be more interested.

I thought Ads only appeared on actual game windows if you weren't logged in.
Was that changed recently?

Hmm, I went to the item shop, and I didn't find the item to turn off the ads.. weird.

imamonster : He hasn't coded that item into the site yet. He told us he'd do it eventually.

I'm so glad more people can experience the games they grew up with now that the price is lowered for most of the games!

I don't mind the ads so I'm glad that you added ads to the play window too! It's very generous of you to make all the revenue go to tRIUNE! He deserves big help like that!

Davideo7 : I couldn't help but notice that the Itadaki Street for PS1 isn't in the Retro Game Room. It's called Itadaki Street Gorgeous King. You should add it. :3

Linkums : I went ahead and added that game now:
https://www.vizzed.com/playonlinegames/game.php?id=88087

tRIUNE : Thanks! My friends and I just played a full 3-hour game of it. Behold the hours of enjoyment you brought to us: http://www.twitch.tv/linkums/c/6542246

CobraGuy : It should be. I'm hoping it increases traffic which overall increases site revenue which helps pay for the servers and future RGR Plugin updates.

Brownnose : Ads are removed. I was playing around with them but they weren't working out as expected. I'll probably play around with them again in the near future until I find a good solution.

jerry.ferguson : Compared to some sites (like IGN), the ads on vizzed aren't really that bad and don't really get in the way. I also usually have a limit of no more than 3 ads per a page.

Scohui : I earn a tiny amount for each ad click and a tinier amount for each ad view.

Fireproof : I really wish I could get more gaming ads.

vanelan : They appear on the left side of the play window for guests. What I'm trying to do is make the play window display an ad on the right side for everyone while the game is loading.

imamonster : I'll add the ad blocker items to the item shop eventually.

Linkums : I had no idea Itadaki Street existed for the PS1, that's pretty exciting. I might take a shot at playing it one of these days.

I really liked to see all of the prices for CD games drop. I've been playing a lot of those kinds of games mostly on PS1, and even though I have plenty of viz, I could see the effects. Thanks on dropping the prices for those huge file downloads