amigalove.com

Leffmann · 28 May 2016, 14:14

I just found a site called Amiga Love, http://amigalove.com/

It's got a really slick and modern design, and is easy to use and navigate. Compared to EAB and amiga.org it's very small, but people who prefer quiter places may like it.

intric8 · 16 June 2016, 22:45

Hi Leffmann, thanks for mentioning my site!

I'm the designer and creator of AmigaLove.com, and I would be honored to give a brief overview of what I'm trying to do and where I hope it will lead for the amazing community here to understand my motivations.

First off, I love EAB, Amiga.org and Lemon, among other "big boy" sites that have been around since the start. I only joined some of them more recently as I pretty much was a content consumer (like most folks).

However, over on Lemon - which I still visit very often as I value their Game Votes very much, as I am also an incurable collector - I became frustrated with the original 800x600 design (which made a ton of sense many years ago) on my modern machine(s), but especially my smartphone. Navigating the forums or games pages became a chore for me. Secondly, I am based in North America and I noticed many of the screenshots of games I hold dear to my heart - which I knew to be NTSC, created here and sold here - were being represented as pure screenshot outputs from emulators. Now, I sometimes use emulators, too, but the actual screens as seen on CRT monitors back in the day were vertically stretched by the monitors. Emulators don't do that by default when you take a screenshot. As a result, they always look vertically squashed everywhere you look online - because they are directly output from emulation in the original resolution, and no stretching is being applied. It's subtle, yes. But when you see a man's head this way compared to one that was in coverted to 4:3, it's extremely shocking to say the least. Blame it on my two degrees from art college, but I can't un-see what I see now everywhere I go.

So, I thought to myself one day, "What should I do?" I love this machine, I love its software, I love the artistic creativity it provided and inspired, and I want to preserve these amazing memories for future generations the way many of us saw and played them - but you can't find anywhere online. "What should I do?"

I decided to build my own site. Call it a shrine, if you will. A place I can pray to the Amiga gods of old, and keep their memories alive. While a lot of "work", I find a lot of pleasure in it in my off-hours (I have a day job, too).

I add about 3-4 games to my "Games Library" each week. Not many, I know - I am currently at 41 total. But I not only log the credits for games, but also box art (most of which I own) and write reviews, and I capture screenshots. Ah, the screenshots. If I don't take actual pictures of the screens with my DSLR (which I'm still experimenting with on the best settings to avoid artifacts and distortion) - I convert all NTSC output files (320x200) into 4:3 aspect ratios at 640x480. This takes extra time or my Library would be twice as big by now. However, I recently received thanks from the designer of Defender of the Crown for "fixing" his artwork this way, which made me breathe a sigh of relief that I wasn't desecrating things but making them right. I believe the work is worth it.

In the meantime, I am also working hard to improve the overall experience in many places around the site and expect most of it to be complete by the end of summer 2016. Then, I should be just building the Games Library for the rest of my life!

I don't expect to have my site ever reach the heights of EAB, Amiga.org or Lemon. That's not what I'm after. But I welcome all who want to join the conversation and use a site that (hopefully) continues to adapt to our forever-changing technologies, be it desktop, tablet or smartphone.

My 1200 and 500 are not currently hooked up online, but I've been told AmigaLove.com does OK on Amiga browsers, too.

Cheers!

desiv · 17 June 2016, 00:26

Think I might get into trouble trying to go to a site called Amigalove.com during my breaks/lunch at work, but I'll check it out when I get home.. ;-)

desiv

intric8 · 17 June 2016, 03:57

LOL @desiv yeah, when you do searches for me on some social sites you sometimes dip into some weird stuff. If only I spoke Spanish more fluently!

invent · 17 June 2016, 13:01

Hi intric8, nice site just enjoyed a good browsing

Look forward to seeing more.

26 June 2016, 21:29

i was the first registered user on amigalove.com

i like its nice & clean design.

djukon · 15 August 2016, 10:48

@intric8 Have you tried playing with WinUAE's Filter settings? I usually use them to stretch the NTSC 320x200 or 640x400 to 4:3, to avoid getting the image squashed, as you mention. The higher output display resolution you set the emulator at, the least "stretch artifacts" you'll notice. Such as using 1280x960, or 2560x1920.

28 May 2016, 14:14	#1
Leffmann Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Sweden Posts: 2,269	amigalove.com I just found a site called Amiga Love, http://amigalove.com/ It's got a really slick and modern design, and is easy to use and navigate. Compared to EAB and amiga.org it's very small, but people who prefer quiter places may like it.

16 June 2016, 22:45	#2
intric8 AmigaLover Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Seattle, WA USA Posts: 75	Hi Leffmann, thanks for mentioning my site! I'm the designer and creator of AmigaLove.com, and I would be honored to give a brief overview of what I'm trying to do and where I hope it will lead for the amazing community here to understand my motivations. First off, I love EAB, Amiga.org and Lemon, among other "big boy" sites that have been around since the start. I only joined some of them more recently as I pretty much was a content consumer (like most folks). However, over on Lemon - which I still visit very often as I value their Game Votes very much, as I am also an incurable collector - I became frustrated with the original 800x600 design (which made a ton of sense many years ago) on my modern machine(s), but especially my smartphone. Navigating the forums or games pages became a chore for me. Secondly, I am based in North America and I noticed many of the screenshots of games I hold dear to my heart - which I knew to be NTSC, created here and sold here - were being represented as pure screenshot outputs from emulators. Now, I sometimes use emulators, too, but the actual screens as seen on CRT monitors back in the day were vertically stretched by the monitors. Emulators don't do that by default when you take a screenshot. As a result, they always look vertically squashed everywhere you look online - because they are directly output from emulation in the original resolution, and no stretching is being applied. It's subtle, yes. But when you see a man's head this way compared to one that was in coverted to 4:3, it's extremely shocking to say the least. Blame it on my two degrees from art college, but I can't un-see what I see now everywhere I go. So, I thought to myself one day, "What should I do?" I love this machine, I love its software, I love the artistic creativity it provided and inspired, and I want to preserve these amazing memories for future generations the way many of us saw and played them - but you can't find anywhere online. "What should I do?" I decided to build my own site. Call it a shrine, if you will. A place I can pray to the Amiga gods of old, and keep their memories alive. While a lot of "work", I find a lot of pleasure in it in my off-hours (I have a day job, too). I add about 3-4 games to my "Games Library" each week. Not many, I know - I am currently at 41 total. But I not only log the credits for games, but also box art (most of which I own) and write reviews, and I capture screenshots. Ah, the screenshots. If I don't take actual pictures of the screens with my DSLR (which I'm still experimenting with on the best settings to avoid artifacts and distortion) - I convert all NTSC output files (320x200) into 4:3 aspect ratios at 640x480. This takes extra time or my Library would be twice as big by now. However, I recently received thanks from the designer of Defender of the Crown for "fixing" his artwork this way, which made me breathe a sigh of relief that I wasn't desecrating things but making them right. I believe the work is worth it. In the meantime, I am also working hard to improve the overall experience in many places around the site and expect most of it to be complete by the end of summer 2016. Then, I should be just building the Games Library for the rest of my life! I don't expect to have my site ever reach the heights of EAB, Amiga.org or Lemon. That's not what I'm after. But I welcome all who want to join the conversation and use a site that (hopefully) continues to adapt to our forever-changing technologies, be it desktop, tablet or smartphone. My 1200 and 500 are not currently hooked up online, but I've been told AmigaLove.com does OK on Amiga browsers, too. Cheers! Last edited by intric8; 17 June 2016 at 07:49. Reason: correcting spelling error

17 June 2016, 03:57	#4
intric8 AmigaLover Join Date: Jan 2016 Location: Seattle, WA USA Posts: 75	LOL @desiv yeah, when you do searches for me on some social sites you sometimes dip into some weird stuff. If only I spoke Spanish more fluently! Last edited by intric8; 17 June 2016 at 04:22.

17 June 2016, 00:26	#3
desiv Registered User Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Salem, OR Posts: 1,767	Think I might get into trouble trying to go to a site called Amigalove.com during my breaks/lunch at work, but I'll check it out when I get home.. ;-) desiv

17 June 2016, 13:01	#5
invent pixels Join Date: May 2014 Location: Australia Age: 52 Posts: 476	Hi intric8, nice site just enjoyed a good browsing Look forward to seeing more.

26 June 2016, 21:29	#6
anchor Posts: n/a	i was the first registered user on amigalove.com i like its nice & clean design.

15 August 2016, 10:48	#7
djukon Registered User Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: 640x512 Posts: 167	@intric8 Have you tried playing with WinUAE's Filter settings? I usually use them to stretch the NTSC 320x200 or 640x400 to 4:3, to avoid getting the image squashed, as you mention. The higher output display resolution you set the emulator at, the least "stretch artifacts" you'll notice. Such as using 1280x960, or 2560x1920.

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