Glad you asked.
- Jim Leonard owns the
brain that gave birth to MobyGames. He's a twisted individual with
an unnatural love for old games that were designed and written well.
When not writing new content for MobyGames or its sister site The Oldskool PC, Jim lives in Illinois with his wife and two sons, who somehow manage to tolerate his 17+-year relationship with personal computers.
- Brian Hirt is the coding
juggernaut. He continuously breathes new ideas and code into MobyGames. He's also had years of experience doing this stuff, so it's no surprise he's the one doing all of the coding. Brian also has normal interests, like music, reading and gaming.
- David Berk cleans up nice and can talk pretty if he wants to so he is the business wonk in charge of trying to prevent MobyGames from costing an arm and a leg to run. David has worked in the Online Entertainment and Gaming Industry for some time now. He's done stints at Sony, Paramount and Electronic Arts.
-
Rob is a long time MobyGames contributor, game collector and Video Game industry veteran having spent time at Activision.
All electronic games, from the early attempts to the
latest "blockbusters", have the potential for a truly great gaming
experience that transports the player away from his chair and truly
entertains in a thought-provoking or exciting way. It would be
a terrible shame if references to these games and their creators were
never constructed. (And the user ratings and reviews practically jumped
off the screen once we started the project--what better way to find good
games than consulting your gaming peers?)
Jim Leonard: "I got the idea for MobyGames several times over the last decade.
Whenever I would play a game I really liked, whether it was the
incredible graphics, fast code, wonderful music, or game design,
I found myself wanting to learn more about what other people though of
the game, and also if there were more games like it. For particularly
ingenious game designs or coding, I wanted to know more about who
created it. MobyGames is the physical embodiment of those desires."
MobyGames uses mod_perl for
server-side code, and PostgreSQL for the database
back-end. All queries to the database are made via standard SQL.
This is up to the person who adds the entry, some entries are entered
completely from memory (good thing we check each entry for accuracy, eh?) while others are entered with the game box and manual/credits used as a reference. But me personally? If I don't know enough about
the game to give it a proper entry, I start at the source. Usually the
game's documentation itself is checked, then the game itself (credits
listed under the title screen, video/sound boards supported at the
configuration screen, etc.). If nothing is found, the program binaries
are then peeked at. If all else fails, a general web search is performed.
Occasionally, one of the original designers or programmers
is able to add information (see "Tass Times in Tonetown"'s Trivia section for an example).
We have several new features planned (but please note that this list could change between now and then):
- A "Find Similar" search that will find games similar to the current game being displayed, based on genre keywords.
- A "If you like this, you'll love..." query that will find similar games based on user reviews (if your likes and dislikes are similar to a particular reviewer, it will take that into account and show you games that reviewer liked).
- The ability for users to trade games they own with other users, using the aforementioned list capability.
- Discussion groups.
As these features develop, we'll notify you via the MobyGames mailing list (if you're a member) and the News section at
the top of the site. And if you have any ideas for additional features, let us know.
You can view a list of the latest features and fixes to the site by viewing our ChangeLog.
