Did you know that RF Generation has a chat? If you happened to visit while we were down, you may have seen the giant link to the RF Generation Chat right there on the front page being proudly displayed while the rest of the site was bricked. It appeared to work well, with a healthy group of people showing up in chat. Now that we're back though, that's all been washed out.
If the previous paragraph did not make it clear - RF Generation has a chat. It's hosted on quakenet, a popular IRC Network where we don't have to worry about the chat overloading our server. Don't have an IRC Client? No Problem! Our chat page has a Java IRC Client that will log you in straight to our channel, where you can chat with fellow RF Genners and pay respect to our secret op, Malygris. Certainly, there's fun times to be had, the question though is... why are you not there?
Join the chat! Kill time! Talk about your latest find! Talk about that game you love! Join the Zombie meme! We don't care, but we know one thing - it'd be a lot more exciting with you in the chat!
Whew. It's been over a week since we went offline, on April 1st of all days. It's good to be back. You might be wondering why we left. Let us delve into the abbreviated version of what happened... the long version will come later.
RF Generation has grown at a steady rate over the past 4 years. (can you believe we've been here for almost 4 years?) Well, last week, we learned that we had in fact outgrew our host. For that reason, we had to find a new host as quickly as possible. Today, we're on that new host, and we're pleased as punch to be in the realm of not quite dedicated hosting and out of the realm of shared hosting.
That's the short version. We'd like to thank our old host for two years of hosting at an affordable rate, and we look forward to our bright future with our new host!
PS: Everything except for images should be working.
We've been advised of a mass migration server move starting tomorrow night at midnight and lasting up to 48 hours. During this time, all of the websites that our host hosts will be moved to a new data center in Columbus. We recently moved our operation to a different server in the network, so we are somewhat confident that we're already in Columbus on a new server. In case we are not, though, this our advisory to you guys informing you that we may or may not have some downtime in the next two days.
If you find that we're slow / down keep tight, we'll be hopefully unaffected and if we are well, on the bright side it will be over by Sunday Night. Could be a good time to enjoy the weather in your area, or play video games, or go to a thrift store, or some other activity.
Keep it tuned to channel 3 for more developments!
Believe it or not, but we do listen to you guys. In fact, we even have ears that listen on other websites. You could say we're omnipotent... nah. That's not us. We're just a bunch of gamers, collectors, and average Joes running a website. But yeah, that's not the point. What is the point is that we've updated the collection checklist script after hearing some complaints about it. In the past, the script grouped variants and that was the only option. Now, the default option is that we show every game on a console, including variants. While this move will make a row for Greatest Hits, etc, it will also be extremely beneficial for those games that had multiple primary releases (read: Pokemon, etc.) We feel that it is better for you to filter out on the checklist which games you wish not to collect, rather than us. That said, if you wish to still group by variant, you can still do that as well, but such an action is not the default.
As with any new release on RF Generation, there may be bugs. As the PHP Programmer, as well as the Site Director, it is my job to quash these bugs. So yeah, let me know, somewhere, if you experience any bugs.
Enjoy!
February 2008. You guys managed to make 2208 submissions to our database. A little bit down from January, but still an excellent number of submissions. We'd be nowhere without your submissions, so keep it up! As a breakdown, 2027 submissions were for the games database, and the rest were for the hardware database. Poor hardware database. It's growing, slowly but surely, but it would certainly appreciate more love. Don't you hear it sobbing in the quarter, sad because it's being neglected compared to its more successful sibling? Make the database happy, you know you want to, and it will certainly allow for a better site.
So, who was the top non-staff submitter? This month, that honor goes to NES_Rules! He submitted 139 items! Congrats on being the top dog! It certainly is appreciated. Donkey Kong Kid was the second highest submitter with 109 submissions, and Yurf was third with 59 submissions. All you guys kick ass! Keep up the excellent work.
Of course, we have a dedicated group of staff also doing their job. Tan once again kicked ass in the staff category with 504 submissions. Apolloboy came in second with 235 submissions, and s1lence third with 224 submissions. Excellent work! In terms of the wonderful folks reviewing your submissions, Tan, Belgarath and s1lence are the top three people reviewing your submissions. Bum-man and Magewout also did their share approving submissions. Without their dedication, the site would be a stagnant site where nothing changes, so we certainly appreciate their work!
While many of you are not top three submitters or reviewers, we still want to recognize everyone who did their part in keeping our databases growing! A special thanks goes out to those members who made 50 or more submissions:
Tan, ApolloBoy, s1lence, NES_Rules, Tynstar, Belgarath, Donkey Kong Kid, Funk_Buddy, Tondog, sharp, Yurf, den68
Thank you all for your submissions. Know that even if you were not mentioned specifically in this article your work is greatly appreciated. We'd be nothing without your work. With February behind us, let's look forward to an awesome March!
Bored? Interested in knowing useless knowledge? Want to know how many total titles everyone owns? Well, you're in luck. Today we launch our new statistics page. Fun and exciting things lay there. Be sure to check them all out. Did you know that our collectors own on average about 270 titles? It's true, right now at least. What else could you learn from the statistics page? How normal are out collection's owned distribution? I don't know, and I don't believe that I'll attempt to code that. But, for those of you interested in other stats, check out the page, and keep it tuned to channel 3.
Stats Page
So, I imagine that many of you have noticed the periodic slowness over the past few weeks. So have we. Today seemed to be the worst of the worst in terms of downtime. Being down over 10 hours is unacceptable, and we hope our host understands that. Recently, we switched servers to a new server, with more power... blah blah blah. You'd think that would make the site faster, right? Apparently not. It should be noted that we have not made live any new features since our switch. So, in theory, our site should have had a flawless transition. Unfortunately, it's been anything but, and we've been working with our hosts to rectify the situation.
We're as frustrated as you are when it comes to this issue, and we as much as you want it resolved. Hopefully our host can get the tweaks on the new server to be identical to the old server, as right now either our traffic patterns or someone else's traffic patterns are doing major stress upon the server. We think it's someone else, but regardless, we hope that our host will fix the issue in an expedient and proper manner.
After a bit of a coding rest it's time for me to get the ball rolling on the next big project. This project encompasses tweaking the games database so that downloadable games can be added to the database. It seems as though digital distribution is going to be the future, and we want to continue to be the classic and modern video games database. In that sense, onward ho!
So, while we know that this is going to be the next project, we want your input regarding how you think we should actually do it. We want to do this tweak right, and I want to make sure that the tweaks are things that you all agree with. To accomplish this, I have created a forum thread regarding crafting the architecture for this project. We need your help! With your input, we can ensure that this project turns out great.
Downloadable Games Architecture
 Why hello everyone! Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Tony. You may recognize me from many blog articles here on RF Generation, and as the resident Sony Fanboy on the forums. However today I am entering a brave new world: the weekly features! Run for cover, hide the children, and lock the doors, because this week we are being invaded by Headcrabs, Vortigaunts, and Bullsquids. That's right, our featured game is Half-Life.
Oh but since I'm doing the features, we have to make this huge (like my ego)! Why not include all the expansion packs and one of my favorite online games ever while we're at it? So, that's why we are featuring Half-Life 1 Anthology for the PC. This package bundles together the original Half-Life, the brillant expansion packs (Opposing Force and Blue Shift), and the ridiculously fun Team Fortress Classic. Think of this as an old-school version of Valve's recently released Orange Box, but without a kickass puzzle game. If you've been reading the Gaming Diary thread in the forum, you'll notice that I've been slowing making my way through the Half-Life series again and am really enjoying the experience so far. Now, Half-Life is out of print, but thankfully you can track it down (sans expansion packs) on Playstation 2, (legalishly) on Dreamcast, or you can get it on Steam.
Let's take the featured hardware in a totally different direction. This week, the featured hardware is the Philips CDI 910. I've always wanted to see the CD-i featured since it has brought us so many classics like Hotel Mario (and the , , and the whole YouTube Poop thing.
What about the featured image, you ask? Why don't we keep the trend alive and feature the cover image for last year's smash-hit compilation The Orange Box for the Xbox 360? If you were paying attention earlier on in this article, you might figure out that The Orange Box is a compilation, just like our featured game of the week. However, The Orange Box bundles together Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episode One, Half-Life 2: Episode Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2 into one great value of a game. Also, don't think that you can only get this little joyful bundle of sunshine in video game form on the 360, because it's also on the PC and the Playstation 3.
And finally, the featured collection this week belongs to someone who has never played Half-Life becuase he's too busy going nuts over Halo. Who might this be? Well it's none other than our friend OatBob! He's got a very extensive collection of all sorts of games for various systems, but he has a soft spot in his heart for the Dreamcast, the same system Half-Life got cancelled on. In fact, that soft spot has led to him having a goal of collecting every single US Dreamcast game and all of their variants. While he has that nice Dreamcast collection, he needs to play our featured game of the week...really badly. If he doesn't, I might just send Nihilanth after him.
So, my first time doing features has come to a close. I enjoyed it and maybe I'll do it again in the future, that is if you'll let me. 
Until next time...Channel 3...leave it on there. There's some good stuff coming up.
First off, I'd like to apologize. I meant for this type of post to be a reoccurring feature on the site, of the monthly variety. As you may or may not have noticed, that really hasn't happened in a while. Well, such is a new year, perhaps we can get this article back in the groove. Submissions keep the site growing, and without your continued submissions this site would be just another place on the web. But instead we are RF Generation, the Classic and Modern Gaming Databases, and we couldn't be where we are today without your continued support.
January, 2008. Sort of a down month. People are still getting over their post-holiday comas. But, you guys kick ass. Collectively, you all managed to make 2788 submissions, of which about half were new images. Also, you all overwhelmingly made the majority of your submissions for the games database. Awesome everyone! You guys totally kick ass, but don't forget about our hardware database! It wants to be loved too.
So, who do you think was the number one nonstaff submitter? Why, it was lovable! He/she made 318 submissions in the last month! Kudos to you! We certainly appreciate all the submissions. NES_Rules was our second highest member submitter, with 260 submissions, while Donkey Kong Kid was third with 107 submissions. Congrats to you three for being the top three member submitters! Keep it up.
Similarly, we have a group of dedicated staff members who do their part to make sure that the site runs smoothly, and they also do a significant number of submissions in addition to reviewing any submissions that you guys make. In terms of staff submissions, Tan leads the pack with 575 submissions. Belgarath was our second highest staff submitter with 217 submissions, while bum-man was the third highest staff submitter with 183 submissions. Excellent job guys! Keep it up. As mentioned previously, staff members also review any submissions made by regular members. The top reviewer this month was also Tan! Marriott_guy and Magewout also did their parts reviewing submissions, as did many other staff members! Thanks guys!
While many of you are not top three submitters or reviewers, we still want to recognize everyone who did their part in keeping our databases growing! A special thanks goes out to those members who made 50 or more submissions:
Tan, lovablechevy, NES_Rules, Belgarath, bum-man, sharp, Apolloboy, Donkey Kong Kid, Yurf, James, Pop_Culture_Portal, Funk_Buddy.
Thanks to everyone for their submissions! We certainly appreciate it. If you are interested in seeing the full list of submissions stats, they can be found here. Here's hoping for an awesome February!
[img width=300 align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/collections/Tan/Laptop-RFG.png[/img] As I'm sure everyone is aware, RF Generation has growth immensely in the past couple of years. As our userbase grows so does the need for improvement of the database and collection tools. Whether for shopping, research, curiosity etc. a detailed and filled out database is the key to continued success.
The community of members we have is the heart of RFGen, the database itself is the soul, and together makes up the charm and feature rich functionality that brings new members every month and makes this community a warm welcoming place, a second home for many.
In keeping with the community spirit, we've decided that joint member/staff projects to improve our database would be an excellent opportunity for members who feel they can do more to contribute, while having the staff and admins mingle alongside, so everyone can have an equal chance to be a bigger part of a long lasting series of projects that will ensure RFGen remains the best game database/collection tracking tool on the 'net.
In the coming months, we'll be starting projects one at a time to standardize and fill out game pages on a per system basis. That boils down to adding info, submitting scans and adding reviews overviews etc. Even adding something as small as a part number or Media type goes a long way to making a game page more complete.
Some of you will wonder if you can help out on a system you don't own? Well of course you can! No one here is an expert, and we all try our best to step up and grow beyond our own collections and tackle alien systems and foreign regions. Whether it be a member, a staffer or an admin, we all have something to contribute.
These projects of course will be on a volunteer basis. We will designate a staff member to lead them, and they along with the rest of the staff and admins, will be on hand to answer questions and help everyone, as well as review these submissions as they come in. We only ask that members and staff keep an open mind on the system being worked on, and to not feel pressured to over-commit themselves or take on more than they can handle.
To follow up on this announcement and for you to offer feedback, please feel free to discuss this in our new ongoing Community Project thread located here:
http://www.rfgeneration.c...um/index.php?topic=6917.0
 This week we get to play another game, YAY! The surprise is that this game is so much more. You'll see and hear bright colors, and touch the music, as it pulses to your head. You too can experience synesthesia, and you won't need sex or drugs to get there. Rez is a shooter like no other. Hold the fire button and aim at multiple targets to lock on, but releasing it will destroy them in sequence with the music. The background oscillates with to the music, and whatever haptic feedback device you're using will also pulse to the music; be it the controller in your hands, a secondary controller in your lap, or the trance vibrator in your pocket or resting under the sole of your foot. Level up and your wire-frame man will gain polygons, and guide him through the techno landscape of cyberspace to free 'eden' from the system.
The Neo Geo Pocket Color catches our eye as this week's hardware feature. Sure, color portables have existed before this, but SNK's experience with arcade gaming ensures we can bring those bright, flashy, and intense hues with us anywhere we go.
The featured image this week comes from yet another colorful game. N2O Nitrous Oxide is a tube shooter along the likes of Tempest or Gyruss. Where it deviates is its use of bright colors and hypnotizing soundtrack. Don't play it too long though, as you'll end up with tunnel vision for some time afterwards.
Finally, our featured collection belongs to sharp, a member of the RFgen community who's been here from almost the beginning. This Nederlander has a lot of games for SNK systems, showing that gaming exists beyond Sega, Nintendo, and other modern parties.
Until next time, stay tuned to channel 3...
Two years. Two years since RF Generation lost a friend, and its leader. On February 1, 2006, Michael Collins, one of the founders of RF Generation, tragically passed away. He left behind family, friends, and projects, including his baby, RF Generation. Today we pause, pause to remember our departed friend, and share the memories and feelings we since have.
Some of us knew Mike for a really long time. His death hit us especially hard. In the two years since Mike died, I think we've all had time to cope with his passing. The pain may be less, but it is still there. Gone are the days of the three amigos. Gone are the trademark statements such as "Shut up Dave." Gone is the person who was a friend to many. At the same time, we take solace in who Mike was while he was alive. Mike was a selfless individual, and many of us were touched by his life. You could almost say that he helped to shape some of our personalities and ideologies. Mike was our friend. I can't imagine what life would have been like if I never knew Mike, but certainly something would have been missing.
Last year we unveiled a memorial to Mike. If you never knew Mike, then I highly recommend that you check out the page to see who Mike was and how much he is missed. If you wish to add a memorial than Mike, certainly go ahead and send me it via email or personal message, and we'll add it to the page.
We miss you Mike, we really do. You may be gone, but you are never forgotten.
[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-132/bf/U-132-S-01640-A.jpg&sizex=225[/img]Look to the right. Why, it's the box for No More Heroes, the Suda51 game of pure awesome. Think I am lying? Why not buy yourself the game? In fact, in the RF Generation realm, this week is now known as "Go Buy No More Heroes Damnit!" Week. Seriously. Stop reading this newspost, drive to your favorite video game seller, and buy the game. If you don't own a Wii you may want to consider purchasing one to go with No More Heroes. Not sure what a Wii looks like? If you said yes to that last question, where the hell have you been? It prints money! We forgive you though, and we've made the Nintendo Wii our featured hardware to ensure that you know what to look for when you buy a Wii to accompany No More Heroes. Still reading this? What is wrong with you? Seriously. Go buy the game. Play as Travis Touchdown, be the best damn assassin in the world. Good times to be had.
So, if you are still on the fence about getting this game, then I suggest you talk to the person who currently has the featured collection. His name is Tony, and he really likes No More Heroes. Furthermore, he really likes Grasshopper Manufacture, and has a man crush on Suda51. Who can blame him though? Look at our featured image, for Killer 7. Certainly, another Suda51 masterpiece. Tony certainly has great taste, except for his Sony fetish. But, look at the pipeline. LittleBigPlanet. Echochrome. A possible price drop. Perhaps his fetish is not so bad. Perhaps you might be joining in his fetish in the not too distant future. Regardless, check out his collection, and be sure to bombard him with questions regarding No More Heroes if my Overview and Review are insufficient.
FEATURES! BUY NO MORE HEROES! BUY IT FOR YOUR FRIENDS! And that is all, until next time, keep it tuned to channel three.
Well, we wanted some added functionality, so we switched servers, however, we are on the same host. But, for now, expect some nice new perks like lower load averages (for the time being). Of course there are server changes as well (new versions of mySQL, Perl and PHP), but we doubt you care about the nitty gritty.
If anything seems bricked after this server change, do let us know.
Enjoy!
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