My submitted ES screenshots

[y2richie]

Hi

I have just got started on submitting screenshots and I have found I have made an error with ES End Screen pictures. Please remove the ES only from my submissions awaiting approval (the rest of my submissions are ok). Thank you.

My apologies!  I'm on track again now and will be making new screenshots today and submitting them.  I'm keen to upload images for the Sinclair Spectrum area of the site.  ...and I realise these must be my own screenshots. I'm trying to avoid just loading the game and taking a screenshot as I am paranoid other sites must do this! Don't want to look the same!

Thanks!

Richie

[Belgarath]

regarding your screenshots..
Personally I don't want to accept any of them.
IMHO screenshots should always be png, (at least of the older systems) certaintly not jpeg which is a lossy format.
Also they should be in their native res, there's no need to resize them to 550x???, that's only for screenshots or scans that are larger than 550x and in fact resizing them to an odd res which isn't a multiple of the natural res makes things even worse.

This is my opinion though, I'm not really sure what the rest of the staff think about screenshots, they will probably get accepted but I'd really prefer it if you followed the above for future screenshots.

[y2richie]

Ok I'm obviously new to this as I tried to upload in the original size and the site wouldn't let me. It was only when I resized that I could upload them. I was on the (obviously mistaken) understanding that I had to resize my images to 550x as there is something about it in the image FAQ. I am tired so may have read it wrong. Why can't I upload the images until they are reduced in size?

Believe me, the way they look when I upload them is actually better than how they look at a larger size! The larger resolution actually makes the pixels and colour mashing of the old Sinclair Spectrum look as old as they are! (25 years old) Resizing them has actually improved the quality! Believe me, nothing is lost to the discerning eye!

Judging from your reply, I think I should perhaps come back to this at a future date so please delete any/all of my uploads that you feel would benefit the site. Thank you.

[Belgarath]

Whoa I said it was in my opinion, I do not speak for the entire site and I certaintly do not want to discourage you from submitting any more pictures!

As for the site not letting you upload the pics at the original size, well if that's the case then my aplogies but I don't understand why that would happen.

[y2richie]

Thanks for your reply. I understand what you meant by 'in my opinion'. You are a member of staff so you represent RFGeneration to me. I'm just expressing my own opinion. By the way, I just located this in the Image FAQ:

First, screenshots can be in PNG or JPG format. Also make sure screenshots are always 550 pixels on the short side as well. That is vitally important to maintain a neat look to the pages and keep load times down.

Anyway, I would like some time to learn more about what I'm doing with screenshots if I am to continue submitting them as I felt a little 'unprepared' today following my mistake with 'ES' screenshots and your initial reply.

Happy retro gaming!

[Belgarath]

Yeh the rules are a bit poor there..but I'm really only junior staff, we need the wisdom of the rfg gods here
screenshots should be resized to 550 on the short side if the resolution is bigger (altho I don't even agree with this)
and they should be jpeg again if they are big pictures because it keeps the filesizes low.
For simpler systems they should be png and left at their native resolution because this is how they are meant to look and filesizes will already be small so there's no need for jpeg

On modern games with lots of flashy graphics etc saving them as jpeg won't mean much difference to the naked eye but on simpler systems with simpler graphics you will end up jpeg artifacts which degrade the picture.

With the matter of resolutions, anything that isn't the native resolution or a multiple of the native res will destroy the aspect ratio. So spectrum games with no borders are 256x192 but you could submit them as 512x384 because it's exactly double (but you shouldn't use any resizing filters).

Again this is all my humble opinion so let's wait for a visit from the RFG Gods

[y2richie]

I see. Well, perhaps someone might update the FAQ in future for Spectrum or individual screenshots. I think the JPG ones I've submitted look almost the same as the originals if not a bit better. But I do understand what you've said about compressing images etc. I'm away now. Cheers.

[Belgarath]

Well you win either way, because if they are considered acceptable then great for you, and if they aren't it's our fault for not making the rules clearer

[TraderJake]

We always accept images of acceptable quality in JPG or PNG format. An image is better than no image, and we're always grateful for any image submitted!

Also, some screenshots come from a video capture device, which often only do JPG. So yeah, that is why we don't discriminate on this matter.

Happy submitting!

[TraderJake]

Hmm... I just noticed the thing about screenshots. It's been changed, and that should have been caught in QA/QC. Sorry about that!

[St0rmTK421]

Agreed, people are submitting stuff for free, so it's hard for us to not accept images that we don't have.  If better images come along afterwards we can always replace them, but for right now we'd rather have any image rather than no image

And sorry for the mixup.  Images are supposed to be a MAX of 550 on the shorter side, so the other side can be longer.  Native TV resolution, at least here in the US, is 640x480.  480 is smaller than 550, so no resizing needs to be done.

Hum....it looks like PAL is 768x576, which would be higher than our max and would currently require resizing.  We changed the limit to 576 just in case any capture program actually output in those dimensions.