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
May 16, 2024	Significant improvements to the site's internal data systems were made, including adding consistency to how we stored dates and times (which were previously stored in various ways in different places), increased use of 'null' values where appropriate, and changing of some database storage types and sizes.
May 09, 2024	Full support for both imperial and metric weights and measurements were implemented. In a game record, the manufacturer's native measurements can be added. When displayed on the game detail page, the native as well as conversion to the other are both displayed for the maximum convenience of our visitors globally.
May 09, 2024	On the main site Sign In page, if the user has the CAPS LOCK key on the system provides a warning. It’s amazing how a simple little thing can trip up so many people.
May 01, 2024	Upgrades were made to the events calendar, including adding a venue field (for a name of a hotel or convention center for example), sub-pages for each event, map support, and more.
April 08, 2024	We have added support for multiple cabinet types of the same basic style for game entries. A great example of this would be Computer Space, which now has Upright cabinet entries for each of the different color variations.
April 08, 2024	We created a new Preferences page (Main Site: Account -> Preferences) with some previously found under the 'Account' tab, and some settings previously found in Members/VAPS profile settings. This moves some items (like how a member profile is displayed out of the VAPS section, which is particularly important as not all of our members have VAPS profiles. We also added selective Captcha support to our site's registration page. And we made significant improvements to the upload process for game manuals.
April 08, 2024	Substantial improvements were made to the wiki-edit style revision tracking system for game entry edits.
April 08, 2024	We added support for multiple manufacturers on game records as games designed by one company were very often released by different companies in different countries.
March 28, 2024	Members now have the ability to edit manufacturers and to add new ones. Plus there are no check boxes to note whether or not the manufacturer is still in business, and a field to note their home country. Additionally, an Advanced Search function for Manufacturers was added. Under the main menu, see Games & Machines -> Advanced Manufacturer Search.
March 27, 2024	We updated the online Calendar of Events so that instead of just a starting date and ending date for each event, users can now add schedules for individual days with start and end times for each date.
March 27, 2024	A major upgrade to the Members/VAPS sections of the main site was launched. Features were added, menu items were moved around, public member detail pages were broken up into useful tabs with new information added, and much more.
March 12, 2024	Weeks' worth of work has been done to help users improve the security of their accounts and to be able to recover when they lose access to same, along with the system's ability to protect itself from 'unnatural' behavior.
March 12, 2024	Improvements were made to the site's image thumbnail generation and management system were made.
February 27, 2024	Improvements and fixes were made to an Auction Search Results feature, which is in 'beta' and not yet available to the general users.
February 23, 2024	We significantly improved our handling and user communication based on user status codes, which will reduce the number of members locked out of our site for security reasons and give information on how to resolve issues when members are.
February 12, 2024	A search box has been added to the sites Manuals section (Tech -> Manuals) to search by game name or by manual title. This should greatly easy finding manuals as this section has greatly grown in size.
February 12, 2024	A foreign name field has been added to support non-English characters for arcade locations and also chain names in the Arcade Map section of the site, as well in our Calendar / Events section.
February 12, 2024	We made dozens of improvements to the Arcade Map section, including adding warnings when someone appears to be adding a location that already exists, the ability for a member to 'claim' a location, the ability to edit existing location and chain records, the ability to add/tie a game record to a location (the location has the game), and much more. We also updated and expanded our sitemap generation to assist Google in finding the site's pages.
February 06, 2024	Today saw improvements to the signup systems, users settings pages, and more.
February 06, 2024	For data standardization reasons, we've begun a significant upgrade through the site for states and countries to come from pick-lists instead of be free-form entered.
February 06, 2024	We've made upgrades to our manufacturer detail pages, including support for foreign names and more.
February 06, 2024	The Library received some updates, including an improvement to the donor receipt system, the removal of (discontinued) AmazonSmile links, some typo fixes, and more.
February 06, 2024	We launched improvements to our multiple database queries through the site, as well as expanded a caching system for various counts used by the system.
February 05, 2024	Improvements were made to the Rom Identifier upload feature (Tech -> Rom Identifier). Also, a game name search feature was added to the PCB Photo Box (Tech -> PC B Circuit Board Identifier). We also made the URL validator more user friendly in the Member/VAPS -> Profile section as some users would try and include 'https://' or 'http://' and some would not regardless of the instructions provided.
February 05, 2024	The SMS phone number verification process was adjusted to improve user experience.