Hello again!
Over the past few days, we have made a lot of progress on the site functionality so I wanted to give an update!
Submissions/Approvals
These are now working as expected! We found some settings that were keeping this from working that have been temporarily changed to allow things to function properly. This has also allowed the "All Collections" list to update as expected as well.
Forum error messages
This has been fixed as well with the changes we made. Again, this is another band-aid fix to the root issue, but it will let things get back to normal while we continue to make the changes.
https
I have heard the question a few times, so I figured I would update here with the status of this. The server is currently already https enabled. The reason why it isn't enabled site-wide at this time is largely due to the forum software being out of date. I have plans to set up a sandbox page at home, run the required forum upgrades, then begin developing a new theme. The new software supports https, so this combined with the other efforts of updating/auditing the code for hardcoded paths should allow us to finally enable https site-wide.
A huge thanks to everyone for reaching out to report issues over email, site PM, or Discord. Having a lot of data points helped to determine what was going on better. Another big thanks to the staff members who were helping me to test the various functions as we made changes to verify functionality.
And, naturally, thank you to everyone for your patience and understanding as we worked through this. I know it took longer than I hoped, certainly, but we're certainly on the road to making a lot of progress in updating the site for the future.
Hey everyone! We recently went through a server migration for several reasons (OS no longer supported, security updates, space, etc), but, as you may have noticed, we have had some issues since the migration. I am trying to correct all of the issues as quickly as possible, but it certainly hasn't been easy.
Thanks to everyone in Discord who helped report the current issues. If you would like to reach out, please join the Discord where we have a site issues channel for people to report the issues. I also plan on posting those issues on a Trello board here so I can more easily track them. You can find the board here: https://trello.com/b/Jxj3...rf-generation-site-issues
Finally, I can't say enough how much I appreciate the patience from all of you while we make the required changes to get the site up and running fully again.
[img width=608 height=256]https://i.imgur.com/3Dif6eH.gif[/img]
He's back! While I've had Shawn do a People of in the past, I have considered revisiting some of those conversations and doing them in the new audio format to be able to have a more candid conversation. As you'll see, this doesn't just relate to the standard questions that you're used to as we talk about something we both have an interest in.
The audio version is linked here: https://drive.google.com/...EOM0uoB4/view?usp=sharing
Hey everyone, just wanted to give a heads up that there will be some down time soon. The OS that the server is on is going end of life soon, so we need to upgrade. Unfortunately, in this case, that means that we have to take it down and deploy a new server because of the version that we're moving to.
What does this mean? Well, I don't anticipate this taking an incredibly long time, but the site will be down while this is happening. We'll have the URL redirect to a Wordpress blog that we have set up for situations where there is an extended down time. You can watch for updates there in case something majorly breaks, but you can also hop in the Discord or follow the site on Twitter as well to get additional updates or if you want to hang with the community while this is being worked on.
Sorry in advance for the inconvenience, but hang with us while we get this done and we'll be back soon. So, while you may end up changing inputs temporarily, be sure to change it back to channel 3 when we return.
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Today, RF Generation turns 16 years old. If you would like to read a little about the site's beginnings, please check out the page here: http://www.rfgeneration.com/PHP/about.php
Speaking personally, I have been in my position as the Technical Director for nearly ten years. I have seen a lot of things around here. Some weren't super great, but I think that we have made a great community even better as time has passed. I'm incredibly pleased to be working with the staff that we have here and, although I don't post a bunch, I'm glad that the conversations continue moving as well on the forum side.
We have gone from sporadic front page posts to new content every other day, 3 podcasts (and another one...), and we are growing our community in many new ways. There are things we have done that I never would have guessed we would do if you would have asked me ten years ago.
16 years, more than 135,000 games in the database, closing in on 10,000 hardware entries. We've made a lot of progress and continue to do so. I know it feels like I've done a bunch of these "Thank you" posts recently, but I truly mean it. I've been very lucky to be able to be in this position and only continue to do it because I care about what we have created as a community.
Here's to many more years on channel 3!
Introducing the great new product from those of us at RF Generation!
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Continue reading The People of RF Generation - nupoile
This is a bit of a departure from the normal "People of RF Generation" article. While I usually do a text survey of a member, I have gone a different direction. Since it was announced, I have been anticipating the release of the NBA Jam book in the Boss Fight Books series. Reyan Ali is the author of NBA Jam. He was nice enough to sit down for a chat about the book, his experience, and even a little Mortal Kombat...
Continue reading The People of RF Generation - Reyan Ali
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Posted on Jun 14th 2019 at 12:00:00 PM by ( bickman2k) Posted under People of RF Generation, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness, Ness... |
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I know, I know. I've already done one of these. I did my first "People of" article almost 9 years ago. I was about 3 months in to my tenure as Technical Director and was still learning the ropes of how the site was run and what kinds of things needed to be done. Since then, there has been a lot to happen. This is a sort of combination post as you will see at the end. Because I'm answering my own questions, I'm not going to worry about the color coding.
Continue reading The People of RF Generation - bickman2k
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2019 has certainly been the year of gaming as a service so far. From Apple Arcade to Microsoft xCloud, there are a lot of new things that could change the landscape of gaming and collecting in the future. Well, as we tend to do, RF Generation is wholeheartedly embracing this fully digital future.
RF Generation Channel brings you the best of RF Generation, including the forum, blogs, and even your own collection, streamed straight to you. We have partnered with Google and their Stadia platform to bring this new experience to you in the best possible quality. It's so easy, you won't Twitch when you have to enter new games!
Continue reading Introducing RF Generation Channel
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I found some writings on Erdrick's Tablet. The writings were this interview with the Playcast co-host GrayGhost81!
Continue reading The People of RF Generation - GrayGhost81
[img width=608 height=256]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/XTPfI8oxHAkyoTAdwsE_NJdTNPNbAcWjzcM0gmXMnwYt-z4A2vkBX-lJ4U05uXWRVWRNgNoBcDPXd7ggxe5VJBiSTtsjAGLfEcTc5cjxyUWqpQJJIb9biJtSrGhS0t_Co73vuPZzIZP6hG-QrOMhDXIEXPAI2vcdgnBwwHZK5GNEtE_g2oBhLZOmJQ4eBokRJ53eEEiagDEsDHomoSOW99u0fDVnK_5Z5LV4qy4FUStGHMfEF4J7F6nz6Sh3Q7Q8ycE2i8G0A2yxuRxn0-UqH1RXXQwtS9jhwqqGIKclwR5BMiX5tIAcKdbNQgi1PO2aCA81qbqZ-qOa46jLGlZEBemNylVknXViA_MrcBx-KBq0zv-VJBvEkQC_un7F2P40E1Q2DXg4cVOkGB7H4Vw8GFG6nt2-N8eycNl8wonWRtt8tAqJ5IB30SQSTFIL0rkP2F5Ehr1Fb6unnHBX70ZHvy9HNTuIfM_X9x1y36hGMwY0kcxbNn_13XliLs_tBSaKqXtPw1HIiHeaPq8pCTP0xXtI0IajBhIfrkJa1pVAFA491U6AADzZMC77fQgpC25J2AsVqY_lN8NyeJFf-ebz2IPDrt07xJ2SNx4Uorhpo4vBMrztwJQjxw0beCGLJmBr1VKn8wB5D8dqjOygUqz3MgqDghrtVn4TIjTjxR_ntJel8CgC-GfPwTCCm60Pi9Ne8KPMb737qIMSSc3zhjc=w608-h256-no[/img]
Continue reading The People of RF Generation - ReddMcKnight
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Continue reading The People of RF Generation - Addicted
Before I begin, I want to give a small disclosure on this. Thoughts may be very disjointed and I may end up jumping around a bit as I remember some of the early parts of this story. This is partially because I'm writing after the fact for now and will be more linear as we catch up to now. On to part 2!
So, we left off when the house had no furniture, no food, but a Super Street Fighter 2 cabinet with Marvel vs. Street Fighter inside of it... Since then, there's been a lot of progress. We have replaced 2 light fixtures, swapped out the light bulbs for daylight LED in most of the house, and are starting to do some prep work on the bedrooms for painting.
One thing that I missed describing before was the back yard and how the previous owners left the house when we took possession. After what we've been seeing, it really explains a lot of what we've found along the way.
The day we took possession, we were told that they shut off the water because they found that the hot water line going to the laundry room was leaking after they removed the hoses. They shut off the main water line as well as the water heater. So, now we're in a new house with no water. My dad helped us replace the knob where the rubber seal had eroded away and now we can use the sinks!
They also mentioned to us that they had scheduled a bulk trash pickup for some things they didn't want to take with them. Unfortunately, they left all of it on the side of the house, not actually at the curb where, you know, the trash is picked up... So, as it was doing for most of April, it began snowing as we carried their stuff to the curb along with the boxes of trash left in the garage. Because of that, we also began dismantling a swingset that was in the back because it was held together with basically one bolt and rotting wood. If we're moving their trash, they can pay to haul some other stuff away.
The weather has since been warming up. One thing that we needed to do was take care of the leaves in the back yard. The previous owners just left them in the yard. My wife and kids did an awful lot of raking and bagging of leaves. I was amazed with just how many bags it took though. Our city offers a program where you can pay a one time cost to purchase a 95 gallon yard cart that you can put your leaves, small sticks, and things like that in and they will pick it up on your trash day. So, while the bags weren't absolutely necessary, they certainly helped speed up the process. The first round, we had probably 10 or so bags to go along with the cart. Over the next few weeks, we filled the yard cart as well as 60 bags of leaves.
Oh, under the leaves in back, we also found that they had left many trampoline poles behind the shed for us to take care of as well. Managed to get them to the curb for the bulk pickup. So, that was fun.
Now that the yard was cleaned up, it was time to do more work inside. Our home inspector did a radon test as a part of the initial inspection. If you are unaware, radon is a colorless, odorless gas that is radioactive and can cause cancer. My part of the country has pretty high levels as it is and the levels detected were over twice the levels where you should have a mitigation system installed. That was honestly not a terribly large expense in the grand scheme of things and was already completed. We also knew that we would have to install a new HVAC system. The furnace appears to have been original to the house from 1983. That installation is scheduled as well.
One thing that we requested was left as a part of our offer was the Nest thermostat and smoke/CO detectors. I've been researching various smart home pieces and if I could save some money by having them already there and installed, I'm all for it. Nest is a home automation platform now owned by Google. They started with a smart thermostat, but have since expanded to other smart home products like a security system, locks, and cameras as well as integration with other smart home products by other manufacturers.
To go along with the thermostat and smoke detectors, we went with the Nest Secure system. The up front cost is a little higher, but there are no monthly fees for any of the functionality. There is a monthly fee if you want to have 24/7 professional monitoring though. But, right now, we have one app that we can check the smoke detector batteries from, change the thermostat temperature, check if any of our exterior doors are open, and set an alarm that will go off and send a notification to our phones if it does.
The painting has started as well. My wife painted our bathroom and work has started on my oldest son's room. He is very excited to get his room painted because it means that he can start moving things over and decorating.
Spent a good chunk of time one Saturday replacing all of the exterior locks. The existing ones on a couple of doors were keyed on both sides, which is not only a pain, but also a fire/safety hazard. Plus, we put a smart lock on the front door as well. This lets us do a couple of things. We can send an electronic key to our friends or family if they would need to come in the house while we were away. We can also set times that the key is valid for, so we don't have to worry about someone coming in when we aren't expecting.
So, at this point, we have now painted all of the rooms we want to right away (kids' rooms, master bath, walk-in closet, and basement. This has allowed us to move most of our stuff from the old house over. We've now been staying in the house for over a week and have just moved the dogs over. Still need a little time to figure out where we're putting stuff for the cat and our sugar glider, but we still have a little time to work that out.
In the next part, I get to start the fun stuff: Cabling
As some of you may know from talking with me, my wife and I recently purchased a new house. This series is going to chronicle how things are progressing as we complete various projects around the house.
So, my family of four have been living in a house that is less than 1000 sq. ft. and no basement. It has been tough with such little space, but we have made it work with a lot of extra storage (re: Ikea trips) and a storage unit. While it hasn't been ideal, it was ours. Over the last year and a few months, we have been on a bit of an adventure as our house was sold (without ever hitting the market, long story) and now we have recently purchased a new place.
The new house is quite a bit larger than our old place, including a partially finished basement. While the extra space is very nice, it's also going to be a bit of work to get things the way we want it. We still have our old place until October, so we don't have to try to paint, move furniture, and get things the way we like it while the house is full of stuff.
First thing's first though.
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I've never owned an arcade cabinet before! My good buddy wildbil52 found this on a Facebook group that happened to be in my area. Works great, condition is pretty solid, and the price was right. The guy I was buying it from was nice enough to hold it until we took possession of the house, so it was one of the first things that we moved in...
In the short time I've owned it, I've learned a lot about cabinets, JAMMA, and kick harnesses. Part of why I wanted a CPS2 cabinet was the ease of changing games. Pop off the back, remove some clips, and take the top board off. Replace it with the new game, power it up, and you're good!
I did see one other thing though. With the CPS2, there is a battery on board. If that battery dies, the entire board can be rendered inoperable. One way to fix it is to replace the battery before it gets too low with a new one quickly enough that the board stays powered. If you come across a board that has failed or a board you own has failed, there have been recent developments that will allow you to resurrect the board by reprogramming it with unencrypted ROMs.
In the time that we've had the house, it's mostly been a lot of cleaning and painting, but there are a few pieces that will be installed that will turn the new home in to a new smart home. Look for that in an upcoming entry.
Thanks for reading!
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