I have some unfortunate news to report. For part of Sunday and Monday, ads displayed on MobyGames may have been trying to install malware. As soon as we discovered this was happening, we shut down all ads and tracked down what was happening and removed the offending code and fixed the problem.

Hopefully nobody was infected by this, but I wanted to let you know what was happening and tell you to please check your computer and make sure your AV is up to date and scanned recently.

Please accept our apologies. This problem was related to 3rd party ad serving software and was not a result of MobyGames being compromised.

If actually a proof was needed whether the MobyGames community is very much alive or not, let's take a look at the latest achievements of some of our top contributors:

Russian-Israeli-Chinese contributor Unicorn Lynx, one of our too few people who are able to read Japanese and/or Chinese and who are actually contributing in this interesting gaming segment, got another motivation boost with the addition of the Japanese-only PC-88 and PC-98 platforms, thus easily jumping into the 80,000 points. He is the second man to ever reach this milestone. Besides his high quality work on Asian titles, his reviews are always a pleasure to read, and when looking at the average points reward for his 2010 reviews (4.59 by now where 5 is best) I'm clearly not alone with this opinion.

#1 Brazilian contributor Macs Black obviously continues to play many of the casual and hidden object games that are released out there - and he also continues adding them all to the database in high quality delivery, a work that saw him break the 70,000 points barrier as the fourth contributor ever recently. But a closer look at his contributions reveals that Macs must not be reduced to casual games: he adds obscure freeware games of all genres for home computers, has mastered the art of console screen capturing, and is the all-time #3 contributor of developer portraits. Just to give some examples.

And last, but not least, all-time #4 US-American contributor LepricahnsGold became the 12th man/woman to score 50,000 contribution points recently. For his latest 10,000 points he mostly added screen shots of ages-old home computer games (C64, MSX, Amstrad CPC), filling many visual database gaps of the 8-bit-age along the way. But I remember having seen him contribute for console systems/handhelds, too.

A big wet ki... err... a loud Hooray to all of you, guys. :o)

The long-awaited change is finally there! No more PC-98 entries under DOS - the most popular Japanese computer in history is now a fully independent platform on MobyGames! During its golden days (late eighties till mid-nineties), PC-98's importance for its home country equalled that of IBM PC for the West, boasting a vast (over 3500 commercial games) game library and unique cultural significance. It is also notorious for hosting the overwhelming majority of pre-Windows adult games, so if you are under 18, don't browse through this platform :)

A lesser known, yet historically very important computer is the PC-88, which is to its younger and more powerful brother approximately what IBM PC booter games were to DOS. So get ready to fire up your emulators and start submitting games!

More contribution achievements to celebrate within the MobyCommunity:

Sciere continues to boldly go where no contributor has gone before and recently broke the nearly unimaginable 130,000 points barrier. If this alone isn't enough to let the Moby founders thankfully fall to their knees, his behind-the-scenes work (approvals, administration, whatnot) sure is. IMHO it can be safely said that Sciere is one of the main driving forces that keep this site running.

Some days ago, Patrick Bregger added a second 10,000 of contribution points to his belt. He continues his systematic contribution campaign by adding the most obscure of missing Windows games and doing valuable maintenance on all ends of the database. I don't know if he already owns approval rights, but judging by his constructive and thoughtful commentary in the forums, it can't be long.

And last, but not least, silent American contributor Ricky Derocher broke into the 10K points club, mostly by adding missing screen shots for ages-old home computer games.

Big congratulations to all!

The site's reach just became a little broader when the BBC Micro became a supported platform yesterday. Originally called Acorn Proton it went on to become a cornerstone of the British computing industry in the 1980s, despite the high cost. Ultimately covering nine models, it houses many ports of famous games, as well as the first steps of people that became famous game designers, such as Geoff Crammond's Revs and Ian Bell's and David Braben's Elite. It was also the platform where Martin Galway learned to design sound effects and music when he was seventeen years old.

There are also those obscure titles, which are given equal importance here on the site. The work of companies such as Alligata and Superior Software, and the many developers who worked hard, often out of garages or single rooms, to send out the titles that still live in many hearts today. If you notice a missing title, make sure to contribute to make them part of the games history here on the site. In less than a day we already list 25 BBC Micro titles.