System Updates

We continuously address small bug fixes as well as regularly work to improve the responsiveness of our pages through programming rewrites and data caching. Additionally, here are some of the more significant site improvements we have worked on recently:

Date	Description
August 26, 2024	Improvements to the add/edit game functions went live, particularly dealing the handling of cabinet controls and also multiple cabinet styles.
August 13, 2024	Extensive improvements were developed to improve the experience when adding or editing a game entry.
August 01, 2024	Dozens of site usability improvements and fixes went live.
July 30, 2024	In VAPS, under the Trading Menu, the site previously offered a 'Newest 100 Game Listed'. Now the site offers: Recent For Sale Games, Recent For Sale Parts, Recent Wanted Games, and Recent Wanted Parts. On the Game detail pages, there is now better labeling of revisions made by users.
July 30, 2024	A scheduled email verification system was finished launching. It assists members in keeping their account current so they don’t get locked out of the system.
July 30, 2024	We added the ability to rotate images as well as some watermark settings, though access to these features are currently limited.
July 30, 2024	Some user content submissions may be moderated and not go live until approved. The internal notification systems for such pending content was improved. We also expanded the site's permission system as we continue to allow members to edit more and more of the site’s content.
July 22, 2024	Significant improvements were launched for the login and lost password retrieval functions.
July 16, 2024	Under Members/VAPS -> Search, now in addition to searching for members by member names, you can also looking up members by game they might own or manufacturer of game they might own.
July 05, 2024	Special handling was added in the Arcade Map section for locations that have been permanently closed to further identify them. Users like to see this historical information, but we didn't want someone missing that they were closed before trying to drive out and visit them.
July 03, 2024	Significant improvements were continued to be added to the VAPS member pages after a major re-launch of these pages a week back.
June 28, 2024	How the site keeps track of monitor details for individual games was rewritten to be more flexible, more accurate, and otherwise more useful. Improvements to the VAPS member search system went live, which better incorporates individual member preferences on whether their username and/or real name is made available publicly – allowing some members to be searched for that otherwise wouldn’t have been listed.
June 24, 2024	Settings allow users to make their user profiles non-public. Now, if their status is set this way and they try and list games for sale, they will get a warning.
June 19, 2024	The Google maps system was upgraded to a newer API version to address an issue where blank maps were sometimes loading for users that hadn’t visited a maps page in a while.
June 19, 2024	Significant preliminary work was done on an email newsletter system, including support of letting users know when know VAPS for sale entries match their wish lists. The newsletter features are projected to launch in early 2025.
June 10, 2024	A week ago, a new 'People' section was added to the site, under menu items Games & Machines -> People to track people that worked on machines and the companies they worked for. Today we launched a number of improvements to upgrade the experience when viewing these pages.
June 06, 2024	We added extra information about what email addresses people need to whitelist when they signup. In particular, users with Earthlink.net addresses tend to turn on whitelist only email options and then can't figure out why they don’t get our email address verification messages.
June 06, 2024	Previously when uploading an image, the system automatically presented the user with an image editor to adjust the image before saving. Now the system only presents the editor when a user requests it.
May 31, 2024	Over a hundred subtle improvements were made to various sections of the site. Here is one, for example: In the Arcade Map section, when a member clicks to claim that the 'Represent This Location', it now allows a free-text field for an optional title/role. Previously we had a drop down selection list that proved too limiting.
May 29, 2024	The events pages now have starting and stopping times for events. Clock times are automatically selected using 12 hour (AM/PM) or 24 hour clocks based on the country of the event.
May 21, 2024	A 'How to Contribute and Participate' page was added under the main menu: More -> Support Our Efforts, with explanations and links for contributing content, funds, and more. For users that are logged in, this page provides direct links to add and modify content based on their permissions.
May 21, 2024	A new 'Stats' page was added for logged in users under Account -> Stats that provide all sorts of information about their account, their donation history, and their contributions and edits to games, locations, manufactures, events, people and more. Additionally, the Contributions tab (Account -> Contributions) now provides additional details on user data contributions made to date.
May 21, 2024	Substantial improvements were launched to our security warning systems (which send warning email if someone logs into their account from a new country, or when an inactive user logs into their account for the first time in a long time, etc).
May 21, 2024	Recommend a User for forum posting access went live again (it had been taken offline when we had launched the new web site. For logged in users, it’s under Account -> Tools.
May 21, 2024	Weeks' worth of work went live today. One improvement is how we communicate to users when a password they are using was found in the HaveIBeenPwned password database (and that its just the password they were using was found breached, not necessarily their user of same – but very well could be).