Porting Team Announcements

Impersonating Members or Staff

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:51:37 +0000

We recently ran into a issue where a member on these forums changed his name, his signature, his avatar, and all of his profile details to be an exact Copy of another member (mod) Minus a slight change to their name.

This is not alright on these fourms or any other for that matter. This will not be tolerated - whether or not it was / is, for nefarious purposes or not.

That member's name and profile details were changed by Staff and that person is currently suspended from the forums for the next 7 days.

If any other person does this, it will be a permanent ban for that member.

No discussions - you have all been warned.

Google Account Sign Up / Log In

Mon, 16 Jul 2012 17:11:19 +0000

You can now sign up or log in through a Google Account on our website.
It's a feature we've always wanted to have on this Board, to let users sign up without the captcha/activation email hassle.

This is mainly useful to People who have not signed up already; so if you already have an account here, there's not much new besides one less password for you to remember.

Creating a new account here through Google works like this:

- There are three ways to sign in/sign up: (pick whatever you prefer, all buttons perform the same function)
click the Google Icon on the top right corner
OR
click the "Sign In" Button right next to it then the " Use Google" Button
OR
click the green "Create Account" Button then the " Sign in with Google" Button.

After you click the Button it takes you to Google's Page where you type in your @gmail or @googlemail email and your email Password.
Then Google redirects you back to us and you can choose what display name you'd like here.
And that's it.

The Google Sign up method uses official Google APIs and is very secure.
People who sign up with Facebook or Twitter use the same procedure.
The Google login is much faster though, creating an account is as quick as you'd need to type in your email address and a display name.

Note:
You need to have a Google email address or another Google Account (Labs, Code, etc) to use the Google login feature.
If you already made an account normally here, and associated a @gmail email address with it, you can use the Google login method too.

If you only used the Google Sign in feature to log in here, you do not have a normal Forum password made for your account here.
The Button "Password" shows up besides the Sign Out Button to let you choose a password, so you can also log in with your username and password here (and not depend on Google's services)

Port Database Nexus

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:00:32 +0000

Hello everyone.

We're nearing completion on the system we were trying to build, on the Porting Team v3
The Front Page is finished and looks good, and hopefully we get some contributions from you for it once in a while.
The Forums have been cleaned up and most of the legacy stuff imported from the old Forums have been refreshed.
The Port Database is the perfect place for everyone to post Ports, it's very easy to view/post/download/rate/manage Ports. Everyone from the Porting Team helps to make it what it is now. The Members & the Porters.
The Tutorial section will get cleaned up a bit in the near future, with more user friendliness and more Tutorials on everything.
The Members Projects Sections have enough space for the Projects of every Member who wants to share Ideas or Creations with others, and offers a lot more.

This may be the point on where we'll mostly leave the system as it is now, with some minor changes to some things here and there if a good idea pops up.

The main thing we are still missing and what we can't do anything about for is popularity or activity.
Like any website on the Internet, you have to specialize on something or you'll go down in the deepest reaches of the net without any trace whatsoever.
Contradicting this 'general rule', we don't specialize in something, but cover lots and lots of things. Game Developer websites have a few to a few dozen Games to provide support for.
We have hundreds. In the coming months, perhaps even a thousand or more. Also different Wrappers, porting techniques, tools, information.
Specializing in one or a dozen Games is not our strength. This is a big drawback in terms of user friendliness or an easy learning curve. And because this is a community driven project, not a cash-backed company.

So there's not much action around here, in the Forums or in the Port Database. Slow days where almost nothing happens in the Forums, or Ports from people who worked hard to make them don't get downloaded.

We can't change that. We don't have the focused specialization or the Ad Dollars to make Ads for us. We can't actively look for People who want to join the Project.
But you can.

Every Member of the Porting Team is this Project's biggest and best advertiser.
Took a lot of time to make a Port or wish that more people should check it out?
See something here that is really great and could mean fun for lots of other people?

Share it.
Like with the usual Twitter or Facebook social stuff that's going around for years and years there are other possibilities.
Or, think different and use what we have made now.

We call it the Port Database Nexus
The Port Database Nexus is inspired by the mac App Store and some app wall projects, and it displays a Nexus of Ports that you'd normally not see with the normal Port Database interface.
The Port Database is the general collective place for Ports, neatly categorized and easy to find what you're looking for; but the Nexus is meant for sharing.

Port Database Nexus

The Port Database Nexus looks like a simple search result from an app search engine, and rightly so. It's a proven concept and the connection to our Port Database.
On the Nexus you can view pages that show:
- the latest Ports
- the latest updated Ports
- the most popular Ports
- the most downloaded Ports
- and Today's randomly picked Ports by the system.

These Pages should be great for normal Members to check out what's new or share this with others.
So good so far, but this isn't the real strength of the Port Database Nexus.

My Nexus

The My Nexus Page may be the thing you could be looking for if you are a Porter, a Member who submitted something to the Port Database.
People not noticing your Port or not getting enough downloads on your Ports?
Take the fight to them. Advertise these Ports for yourself. Tell people about them. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Forums. Where you like.

The My Nexus Page will be your best friend if you are a Porter in the vast world wide web, a single page to show what you can offer.

example My Nexus Pages from some Members:

thedoctor45's Nexus
waves' Nexus
Battlefiler's Nexus
DanIsTheMan's Nexus
SouthTuna's Nexus

Don't think we are begging the userbase to advertise for us with this. We are not.
We see what the Porting Team Project can become and what is missing. It's missing people.
Everyone who checks the Port Database is noticing only a few dozen downloads for popular Ports, while some do not get any downloads at all.
As mentioned, we can't help you with traffic or interest.
Only you can do that.

Ported a great new first person shooter game? Tell others in a shooter forum.
Got a great RPG? Tell others in a RPG forum.
Got a anime-like game Port? Go tell others in an anime Forum.

You'd be surprised how many mac lurkers are there looking for running that Game with Bootcamp or other ways.
So if you are not looking for these users, they will not notice what you made.

The Port Database Nexus and the My Nexus Pages are currently just a preview what can be done in this direction, and will continue to get improved.
Please give a huge thanks to syao, our php specialist and the developer of the Nexus pages. (seriously, PM him and say that you love him )

Planned Upgrades to the My Nexus Pages are:
- 'User featured Ports' - Users can feature what Port they want featured from their collection on their My Nexus Pages (like our Port Database has)
- embeddable iFrames - on each Member's My Nexus Page will be a small text box where you can copy your My Nexus Page as an iFrame into the clipboard.
This iFrame can be used to embedd your whole Port collection in a html/php site, or even post it in Forums Posts/Blog Posts that support iFrames
- next/previous page indicators - currently every Nexus Page is limited to the last 50 Ports, but we'll implement some next/previous pages for the 51+ Ports
~~- Forum Integration - the Port Database Nexus and My Nexus Pages will be more tightly integrated with the whole system. Every Member will get a My Nexus Page (link) in his Profile~~ - done
- disabling specific Types of Ports that others can view via your My Nexus Page
Got some Full Game Backups or WIP Ports that you don't want others to see where you post your My Nexus Page? (or vice versa) No Problem, user selectable categories to show on the My Nexus Page to the rescue.

Some Notes about the Port Database Nexus and the My Nexus Pages:
- currently everything will be shown on your My Nexus Page, including Full Game Backups.
We don't have a problem if you post your My Nexus Page containing Game Backups somewhere else; as mentioned multiple times, there are reminders about these Backups on each setting that is made for them (viewing/downloading/etc)
- clicking on a Port from the Nexus Pages opens the Port in the Port Database.
Clicking on Game Backup Ports results in a reminder to log in and/or enable viewing Backup Ports
- Ports in the Port Graveyard or 'broken' marked Ports do not appear on the Port Database Nexus Pages, only on your My Nexus Page.
Other People should remind you to reupload them if they are broken. Or ask a Moderator to delete the dead Ports.
- some old User Avatars from the old Forum are not quite compatible with the Nexus Pages. please resubmit your Avatar if you don't see your Pic in your My Nexus

That's about all we can do from our side.
The rest is up to you.
You are the Porting Team after all

-syao & dev

Community Articles

Thu, 03 May 2012 16:32:37 +0000

Hello everybody.

This is a followup Announce to the Front Page Authors Topic from a few days ago.

We have now implemented a Community Article Drop Box in the Projects section.
Users can now submit Articles or News into the Community Drop Box there, and these Articles can be part of the Front Page.

We are also trying to build a Team of users who have some experience writing Articles, the News Team.
Please note that the News Team members will be responsible for the work of getting Articles on the Front Page, so please write your Articles well in the Article Drop Box so that they don't have too much work to do.
They will help you get your Article Front Page ready if it could use some work, but they will also have the option to delete really bad Articles.

Community Articles Drop Box
Please check the stickies/readme's there for what we're currently like to cover on our Front Page.

Currently the Community Articles 'experiment' is pretty new.
We don't know if it will be successful, but as always, you don't know until you try

tl;dr
- you can submit Articles to the Article Drop Box
- The News Team will edit/improve these to be Front Page Material (News Team can also deny/delete bad Articles)
- check the readme's in the Article Drop Box for more info

Looking for Front Page Authors

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:32:52 +0000

Hello everybody.

Our system has increased in size and features considerably since the upgrade to version 3, and we're looking for a few people among the community that have some spare time and interest to help us out in a few departments.
We are looking for some Authors for our Front Page.
Our Front Page is the main page that people see when they visit us, and it gets thousands of views each month.
Currently it's a bit empty there, so we would like to populate it a bit more.

If you have time and like to write some things, we would like to cover the following things on our Front Page :
- mac gaming and upcoming games for OSX
- porting and current Hot Ports
- Wine, Cider and related Software (like CrossOver updates or new Wine builds)
- or some mini reviews related to gaming hardware/peripherals/software (iMac/Joystick/Gaming Mouse/Monitor/etc...)

You can reply here if you are interested and we'll sort something out.

The current requirements for a Front Page Author are:
- English Language required.
If you are a native English speaker or you were/are good in English Classes in School, you'll do fine.
- Articles have to be written by yourself.
No copy/paste from Wikipedia/other Review/News sites (except Quotes from the original Articles)
- Articles have to be original and at least similar to this structure. (article with pictures)
Good readable Paragraphs, some pictures/banners, not just a single chunk of text.
- some minor photoshop/pixelmator knowledge.
For editing the photos/pictures/icons/banners necessary for your article.
- some spare time and will to help out
- and the guts to do this regularly!

You should write at least 1 Article every Week ( or perhaps 1 in 2 weeks if we get more Authors, more Authors make it easier for everybody )
That effectively means, you sit down for one or two hours once in a Week and write something up. Nothing else is required, only if you want to do more on your Part

If you are an Author/Editor for another Blog/Site, you can write a bit for us too, and we'll drop a line to your Website in your Articles.
So again, we're not just looking for only 1 Author, we're looking o build an entire Team of it.
Front Page Authors here will get a custom Rank.

So if you'd like to try your Hand at writing, feel free to drop us a line here (or make your first Article with one of the topics mentioned above, that would be even better )
If you don't know how to write these articles, you can look how other News Sites do this, a good Example of a review would be Arstechnica.

-dev

Video Tutorials

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 16:12:02 +0000

Just a heads up, you can now Post Video Tutorials.

Head over to the Tutorials section and click 'Video Tutorials'.

A big chunk of people prefers these Video Tutorials from YouTube over simple text, also they are very popular with the younger crowd.
If you like to make a Video about anything porting related, you can submit a Video that's posted on YouTube in the Video Tutorials section.

The first User who posted his Video Tutorial is Demondays1, to give you a look how this can look like.

There are no rules to consider when making a Video Tutorial, please just stay on Topic (porting related) and refrain from using mature language/curse words.

You can post an embeddable video with the use of the youtube tag:

Example:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=UvS151yzMLo[/youtube]

Game Backups Section online

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:28:21 +0000

The Game Backups section is now online in the Port Database.

This section was previously the 'Full Game Ports' section in the old Forum, and contained complete Game Ports (ready to use Game Port, Wrapper + Game files) posted by various Members here.
In the old Forum, this section required 3 Posts in the Forum to access, but this is not the case anymore.
To simply view the Game Backups section in the Port Database, simply choose 'Yes' for the 'View Backup Ports' setting in your Account's settings.

Click your Username on the top right corner -> click 'My Settings'
On the Bottom of the Page is the 'View Backup Ports' dropdown box, which you can set to 'Yes'

Now you can see the Game Backups Section in the Port Database.

As a reminder, we do not support piracy or warez here in any way, but we allow every user to upload their Backup Game Port (if they want to) for others to use here.
Users downloading Backup Ports from the Port Database will get a little legal Notice Box before downloading them to remind them that they should actually own the game before downloading, among some of the usual legal disclaimers.

For the Porting Community, there is a delicate balance in both extremes, some who only deal in Wrappers and some who want to use Full Games only.
We would like to keep up that balance, and we give every user the opportunity to choose if he wants to see these potentially copyrighted Game Ports (different for each country), or not.
If you don't want anything to do with Game Backups from others and stick with Wrappers, don't agree to the Box in your Account's settings.

With the Game Backups section online, we have at last everything online that the old Forum had.
We had to work on importing and sorting out the dead Ports (because of the Megaupload Meltdown) quite a bit, that's why that section came up a bit late.
Also implementing the way it is now (agree and then see the section) took some time as well.

Some Notes:
- When you post Backup Game Ports into the Backups Section of the Port Database, you HAVE to use linksave, linkcrypt or another linkcrypter site to 'encrypt' the download links.
While Linksave is not required anywhere else in the Port Database, it is in the Game Backups section. No way around that.
Users who post Game Backups without saving the downlaod links via link encrypter will get a Warning.

- The [ fullgamebutton= ] and [ fullgamenote] tags are still available for posting a Game Backup into a Wrapper only Topic.

- Basically we allow for complete Ports everywhere in the Port Database, except the standard Game Ports section. Wrappers only there.
I'll make a post about what's allowed where to clear things up shortly.

- also thanks to tanoulas, Battlefiler cybershark and thedoctor45 for the cleanup help in the Full Backups section.

P.S.: Happy Easter Everybody!

Porting Team System Update: v3.3

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:07:06 +0000

Porting Team System Update: v3.3

These official IPS Upgrades improve the stability of the site, increase security and add lots new features.
Most new features are related to the system itself, and are not directly visible for the overall templates.
Changes include better page, system, forum & shoutbox management & features

- Improved Overall System Resources
System Upgrade to IP.Board 3.3
System Upgrade to IP.Content 2.3
Shoutbox System Upgrade

Basically there are dozens of little improvements throughout the site, some more visible & helpful than others.
We're also starting to see exactly what's new with the newest IPS updates, so you're not alone discovering new things

System Upgrades on April 2nd (04.02.) for PT v3.3

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:29:17 +0000

We will be shutting down the System on the 2nd of April 2012 for a few hours for some System Upgrades.
The Upgrade is a big one and breaks some templates and other things, so it will take a few hours to fix everything again.

The whole System will be updated to v3.3
The changes are not in the interface, but more on the underpinnings of the whole system.
(we want some of these features for 4 months now)

Expected downtime is from 19:00 to 23:00 CEST (if all goes well)

The whole community will be offline during this time.

Server Fairies performing the upgrade magic are syao and dev

-dev

Member's Projects, Freeware Games and Retro Game Ports

Sun, 04 Mar 2012 17:36:33 +0000

Finishing things up with the planned reconstruction of the Forum because of our new System...

- The (Member's) Projects section is now available as an extra Tab above, and should generally be more visible.
In Member's Projects you'll find various Projects by our Members that do not mainly relate to porting with Wine.
You can start your new Projects here in the Startup Projects section.

Game or Application Ports however, should still be submitted to the Port Database.

- The Freeware Game Ports section is now live in the Port Database.
Here you can post complete Game Ports (Backups) of your Games that are mainly freeware.
Massive Multiplayer Online Games, plain Freeware Games, Shareware Games (unregistered), Game Demos and Flash Game Ports (more on the Flash Ports later...)

- The Retro Game Ports section now includes older Ports (retro) from DOS(Box), Amiga (paulthetall's Wrapper) and ScummVM (syao's Wrapper)
These games can (and should be) uploaded like the freeware Games, in full; since they are mostly Abandonware.

- The Forum got some minor changes, the Porting Tools and Porting section now merged into one. -> now Porting Section

- CiderX has now it's own section like Wineskin has, because these two Wrappers will be the the main Utilities for Porting.
Drakulix has gotten some help with developing it, and progress should be coming along nicely.

- CXEx/CXZ has been moved back into Member's Projects where it originally started, due to a lack of future usefulness.
It's still available for anyone who wants to port with it for 10.5 & 10.6 (also Application Ports made with it work in 10.7)

As it now stands, the main things (Forums, Port Database, Projects, Tutorials) should stand ready, and are more logically structured for everyone.

Port Database: Work In Progress Ports & Port Graveyard online

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:05:53 +0000

The Work in Progress Ports and Port Graveyard categories are now online in the Port Database.
These two sections are for the 'special' Ports that we have around here; helping a new buggy Port see the light of the day, or taking it to it's grave when it no longer resides with us.

Work In Progress Ports:

The Work In Progress Ports category is intended for Ports that do not work right, are unfinished & not ready for use, ranging from graphical/interface errors to glitchy to unplayable.
You can post Ports here where you need some help with getting them fully working, or at least getting them to a 'good playable' status.

Port Graveyard:

All dead Ports that have no download links anymore will be moved into the Port Graveyard category.
Ports who get updated with re-uploaded download links get moved back to the normal categories again of the Port Database.
Leave a reply in this Topic to let us know what's up, and we'll unflag the Port and move it back.

Note:
All currently 'broken' flagged Ports have been moved to the Port Graveyard.

Also some Ports that were not in a 'working/usable' state were (and are going to be in the future) moved into the Work In Progress Ports (WIP) category.
Contact the nearest moderator or administrator if you spot a Port that gets posted into the normal categories (action/fps/rpg...) in the above condition. These Ports will be moved over to the WIP category.

Porting Team System Update: v3.2

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:52:28 +0000

Porting Team System Update: v3.2

This update increases the usability of our system even further, with some things members really wanted, and some helpers for posting.

- Tutorial System now fully online
The Tutorial System is now open for everyone to write Tutorials and how-to's into. The Tutorial System will be the place of general information on our site, as we post documents and other knowledge in it.
Notice something that isn't clearly explained here? (there should be a lot...) Make a Tutorial about it and submit it into the Tutorials Section.
Submitted Tutorials from Members will not be immediately viewable for others, they need to be checked and approved first.
Tutorials can be about anything here, and if yours won't fit into an existing category, we'll make another category for it.

- Author Ranks (for the Tutorial System)
Every Member who submitted a Tutorial will get a 'Author' Rank Banner under his Avatar in the Forums.

Since few Members care about sharing their information & knowledge in detail with others, this will show who actually cares about other Members and filling the information hole that gradually builds up.
Upon mousing over the Author Banner, you will see what this Banner really means and how much content a member has submitted.
By clicking this Banner, you will be taken to the Member's Tutorials Page, where all recent Tutorials (from the last 365 days) are displayed. (older Tutorials are viewable via the 'Find Content' Button)

- Porter Ranks are back!
A little bit different from what we had in phpBB, but now a lot better.
Every Member who submits at least one Port to the Port Database, will get a 'Porter' Banner under his Avatar in the Forums.

This Porter Badge is automatically given by the system (refreshed every 24 hours), and this does not require mods or admins anymore to set it up individually.
Upon mousing over the Porter Banner, you will see what this Banner really means and how much content a member has submitted.
By clicking this Banner, you will be taken to the Member's Ports Page, where all recent Ports (from the last 365 days) are displayed. (older Ports are viewable via the 'Find Content' Button)

This information is also displayed in the Profile View.

-Port Database Category Field Information
It may be a bit confusing to some Members what to post into some Port Database Categories. Only Wrappers? or Full Games? what about Apps? Wrappers there, too?
Every Category in the Port Database will now have some little Notes above it, what this section is for.

(the wording may change)
We hope that clears up what content these Categories have, and what is allowed where.

- Pre-defined Port Database Topics
As with the pre-defined help topics in the forum, this feature is also available in the Port Database.
Forget about copy/pastà with the post template when submitting a new Port, now the template for editing your Port Information is built into the Port Database.
Click the 'Submit new Port' Button, and the template for editing is automatically in the Description Field.

Since a lot of Members stray from the template or totally forget to use it, this should show things more clearer.
We really can't make it easier than that

The Template is open for suggestions, but it is laid out for minimal edits to be made for submitting a new Port, this is the minimal Info that others will need about your Port.
Naturally you can add as much extra info as you like in your new submits to the Port Database.

- Linksave/linkcrypt/safelinking now no longer required*
Linksave was introduced by us for posting download links to wrappers; for protecting download links against hotlinking and abuse, also to avoid link deletion from Hosters via website spidering.
All main download links are now automatically protected by the download system via a dynamic links.
This gives us the opportunity to drop linksave from content like Wrappers, DOS Games and Applications. (also because linksave became such an ad-infested place)
You can choose to use it further, or not. We think most will choose not to

* Only complete game Backupshave to be posted via Linksave, because the links posted via the fullgamebutton are not part of the main download part from the system, and for other obvious reasons.
This part of the update will also get mentioned via an extra announcement.

Extra Note:
The 3.2 Update will be (one of the) last update(s) on the Board for a while, since all critical holes where we bleeded information from are now patched.
Also the system that we use (Invision Power) will have major updates shortly, and everything needs to be tested to the bone before we will use it.

Linksave now no longer required for Wrappers or Application Ports

Fri, 17 Feb 2012 21:49:43 +0000

A little bit of history:
Linksave/linkcrypt/safelinking was introduced by us for posting download links to wrappers and other content;
for protecting download links against hotlinking and abuse, also to avoid link deletion from Hosters via website spidering.
Also to protect some of the other content*, more on that below.

All main download links are now automatically protected by the system via a dynamic links.
This gives us the opportunity to drop the linksave protection from content like Wrappers, old DOS Games and Applications.
Also because linksave became such an ad-infested place, and the other puzzle things on some of the other sites.... *shudders*

* Only complete game Backupshave to be posted via Linksave.
Because the links posted via the fullgamebutton are not part of the main download part from the system, and for other obvious reasons.

So what this means for people who submit Ports to the Port Database:

You don't have to post Wrapper links via Linksave.in anymore.
Linksave and other link encrypter sites are increasingly becoming a pain, and you can post mediafire or rapidshare or other links like they are into the 'Wrapper Download' fields when submitting a new Port.
Only full Game Backups have to be posted via the fullgamebackup code and encrypted with linksave.in/linkcrypt.ws/whatever in the main description field of the Port.

So that takes care of one of the most annoying things here and as said; you can choose to use linksave further, or not.
We think most will choose not to

Members who already have submitted Ports can go through their Ports and submit the direct download links if they like (actually recommended),
this step would also remove some confusion in the future from new users who click on the ads instead of the download links.

Porting Team System Update: v3.1

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:50:16 +0000

Porting Team System Update: v3.1

Hello all.

Since we updated the whole site to 'version 3', a whole lot of stuff has been going on behind the scenes in terms of fixes and features.
We will go with a application version-like update mechanism & changelog for our system now, because this makes keeping track of our changes & improvements easier for you.

- System Version indicator
On the top left there is now a System Version indicator.
Click this link to get to our ChangeLog of the entire site.

- Graphic Card Status Indicators in Category view
Porting Team System v3 was text-based, but v3.1 show the GPU indicators pretty nicely via custom graphics.
Since Wrappers run differently on different GPU chipsets, you can use the Port Indicator to get a quick view of the Port's compatibility.
Click any category in the Port Database to see the Port Indicators.

- Automatic Personal Message Cleanup
Normally, the IPB System does not have a way for automatically remove old messages.
Your Inbox can get full pretty quickly, and you'd have to manually delete messages to receive new ones.
We've set up a automatic message pruning system that removes messages after they are 90 days old.
This saves you the hassle of manually deleting old stuff.

- Porters Page
The Porters Page lists all Members who have submitted a Port to the Port Database.
The old way of manually adding Porters to a group was tedious and some users were overlooked easily.
Now the system will add you to the Porters Page, if you submitted at least 1 Port to the Port Database.
Porters with the most Ports are on the top.
The List of all Porters is available in the Port Database (Left side, 'Extras' Panel), or click here to get to it directly.

- Latest Announcements Sidebar
Since only a few actually stumble their way into the Announcement section every now and then, we've added a Sidebar on the top right where we will list all important messages we want you to read.
Now everything important is easy to notice.

- New Member Ranks & Rank Window & Custom Ranks
We've introduced a bit more 'generic' Member Ranks, since the old ones we transferred over from phpBB were a bit outdated, and didn't fit anymore with our current system.
Not everything is in the Forum anymore (Port Database, Tutorials), and not everyone is a Porter.
Also click on the Rank banner under a Member's name and see all the Ranks members can get on our System.
Users with more than 500 Posts in the Forum will get Stars instead of 'Pips', and they will be able to choose their own custom Rank name (Member Title) in their profile settings.

- Pre-defined Help Topics
All new Topics in the 'Ask for Help!' sections now have some default information automatically filled into them for members to edit.
Since most new members do not read the 'how to post' stickies or forget to post some required things others could use to help them, the pre-defined Help Topics will definitely help out in this area.
The 'Porting Requests' section & 'Report website problems' section have this helpful change as well.

- Better Notification System
On the top right corner besides your name is now a 'Sync' button.
This Sync button will automatically change your Notification settings to the Board default one.
Since notifications are a big source of information transfer on our system, going with the default Notifications is recommended to show you when your favorite Port is updated,
show you when you got new replies on your followed Topics, or get a email when someone reports your Port broken.

.

Server Transfer completed!

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:15:55 +0000

We've successfully transferred our System to the newer/faster Server.

This was not an easy step, i tell you...
Thankfully IPB Support helped out.

Unfortunately, a few Topics and Replies were lost, because we used a few hours old backup for the new Server.
If you remember what you posted before the Server transfer, please post it again.

Also new Users who recently registered and can't login anymore, please register with your old username again.

Thank you & sorry for the inconvenience.

At least we have finished the last big step for our whole System upgrade.

-Porting Team Staff

Happy New Year 2012!

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:48:16 +0000

Happy 2012 guys!

Porters - Migrated your old Ports? Post the old Forum Links here

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 02:58:32 +0000

As mentioned earlier, our staff will now begin to slowly convert all of your ports from the old phpbb forum into the new IPB Download Database. However, due to the sheer amount of ports we have gathered over the years, this process will most likely take several weeks if not months before it is completed.
In case you want your old stuff posted right now, you'll have to manually copy-paste it from the old read-only board yourself.

If you decide to do this please leave the links to the corresponding old download topics here in this thread so we can excude them from our to-do list and prevent double-postings once we start the import process from our side. (Comments of the affected topics will be transferred separately by us - but as stated before it can take a while.)

NOTE: Please do not import ports of other users since they will be marked as posted by you. If you fail to comply with this simple rule you will receive a warning and probably a ban.

Thank you for your cooperation.

-The Porting Team Staff

Porting Team v3 online!

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 00:51:23 +0000

See our Front Page Post about the new Porting Team v3 Update here

Hello everyone and welcome on the new PT v3 System, complete with Port Database and whatnot.

About Ports:
The Port Database is currently rather empty, but we will begin immediately converting the Ports from the phpBB3 Forum to the new Port Database.
EVERY PORT will be carried over to the Port Database, IF THE PORT had a Wrapper.
We will be very busy in the next few days & weeks converting stuff over and fixing bugs here, so lots of stuff to do for us
Every Port converted by us into the Port Database will retain their user comments.

About Ports that had no Wrapper (Full Game Backups):
We had a little Forum section with Full Game Backups, where Users could upload their Full Game Backups for others.
Since most of these Full Backup Ports did not have an extra Wrapper, they cannot yet be posted into the Port Database, since the main Download link in the Port Database is intended for Wrappers.
The old Porting Team Forum (the black one) will remain in read-only mode, so all users can still log in and look at their Info from their Ports

About posting extra Wrappers for these Full Games that they will be included into the Port Database:
If you want us to import your Full Backup Port into the Port Database with all content & comments, please send your Wrapper download link (linksave protected) to devilhunter@portingteam.com
We will import your Full Backup with everything around it as a Port Database entry with the Wrapper link as the main download link.

About seeing Full Backup Games by others:
Since the Port Database is mainly for Wrappers, the main Download Links get reserved for Wrapper Downloads.
As mentioned above, we will also have Backup Ports uploaded by some users.
To enable seeing full Game Backups, click onto your User Name in the top right corner and go into 'My Settings'.
On the Bottom of the Page you will see a 'View Game Backups' option. Set the field from NO to Yes and save changes.
Now you will see complete Game Backups from other user in every Port, if that Porter did upload a complete Game Backup.

There seems to be something wrong with my Posts, a few things are gone
The conversion couldn't carry over exactly everything from the old Board, but 99% of it.
The things that aren't carried over are for example the heavy customization we did with the old Board. custom bbcodes and the like.
The old Forum will be set to read-only mode shortly (means nobody can make new posts/replies), so you can take your stuff out of the old Board and paste it into your Topics here.

About missing Avatars:
Because of some miscalculation from the import (because we have two servers), newer Avatars since the middle of the year were not copied over correctly.
Everyone needs re-upload your User Avatar/Picture.
Only the newer User Avatars were lost in the transition.

Edit: the old forum is back online in read-only mode
No new User signups, but everyone else can login and get their stuff out if you are missing something here.
The old Forum will stay that way for a few months, until we are done with the import of the Ports into the Port Database.

Reply if you have questions.

Happy Halloween 2011

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:30:19 +0000

Happy Halloween 2011

We would like to wish everyone a Happy and safe Halloween 2011 :good:.

Loco and I halloweenified the forum up to be more fitting for the holiday. Enjoy :D.

Sincerly,
-the Porting Team

Planned downtime on Sunday

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 03:07:43 +0000

Due to unusually high server loads caused by the phpbb3 board our hoster will be forced to migrate the PT site to a different server and upgrade our hosting package.
The transition will take place on Sunday afternoon at approx. 1:00 - 4:00 PM PDT.
The board will be inaccessible during that time period.

Thank you for your understanding.

-The PT staff

Oh, hello, i must be going

Thu, 21 Jul 2011 23:27:31 +0000

Hello all.

I am leaving the Portingteam Project for a good while, because of time related issues and some other things in my life.
You may have noticed things gradually slowing down here, with the lack of new stuff happening or watching my postcount slowing down rapidly.
As a consequence, i'm stepping down as the active Administrator of the site; since a non-active Admin is like a handbrake for a community or a project.
In my place thedoctor45 will manage things here and keep everything running (although his priorities always were with making ports), with assistance from the active Moderator Team members ( and hopefully all you other guys here ^_^ )
There should also be a second active Admin on this board, but i'll leave that to the Team members to elect one when they agree on who it shall be from them.
Also i hear they are considering recruiting new Team Members, so show you best side here if you want to be scouted ^_^

I'll still be around here to check up upon things from time to time and help out here and there, but i can't be here as much as in the last two years.
If you are a long standing member here, you may remember that the 'responsibility' of the Portingteam Project (that nearly bit the digital bucket) was kinda hurriedly forced upon me anyway.
So while things are running smoothly here and everybody here kind of knows his/her purpose, i know i leave things here in good hands.

Still, if things kind of get slow around here, feel free to keep bugging the guys in red or green until they do something, that's what they're here for. ^_^

My active projects are hereby frozen until no further notice, but most of them were older stuff anyway.
If someone finds the room to improve things i've posted here and there, feel free to do what you can.

The current plan for the Portingteam Project is to overhaul it gradually, with a separate database for all Ports (like WineHQ) and lots of improvements here; but because of said time issues this plan has hit a little speed bump.
loco (the other Retired Admin) and me will try to build this system (Invision Power Board) when we find the time for it. (should see the light of the day this year however...)
If you know a bit about php and html or IPB, feel free to write us and we'll figure it out together how the next Portingteam system will be like.

Here's a small parting gift, a Haiku i've thought up a some time ago:

You can only stand
with your own two feet
on tomorrow.

More of a metaphor & riddle actually, where feet =/= feet and tomorrow =/= tomorrow.

stay sharp
-dev

Donations are online again

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 22:06:36 +0000

Hello all.

It certainly has been a while since the Donations were shut down, and for those who wanted to contribute a little something to our cause, i apologize for why it took so long.

As some remember, we had a high post-limit on the Full Games section (27+ Posts to view) to not fall into the 'file-sharing' category on the Internet, we are more in the 'brains' category after all. (no, not the Zombie 'braaaains' kinda thing)
(also that high post limit was kinda absurd, now that we look back at it, now it's down to a very manageable 3)
While Donations were on, some people came to the ridiculous idea of donating their way into the full games section, and this was not OK.
Things here are free for everybody, and we intend to keep it that way forever, i shut down donations to prevent said terrible above.

Things have changed since then, and i was getting a good amount of 'hey, can i donate?' messages over the time.

We do not like to beg for money (or have an urgent need for it) as some other Websites or Guys on Youtube do to pay for our online services (the little banner above helps a bit covering the costs), so we've come up with another good cause for donations.

From every Donation we get, we will donate 50% of it all to the Wine Project, since these guys are magic behind the Wrappers, and they do lots & lots of work on Wine.

For our part of the Donations, we can make little contests in the Forum or buy other things that could help us all, like a mac Cydia repository or a server to help seeding Wrappers or Engines.

If you do want to donate, have a look at the top right of the Forum or the Blog, instructions are there.
(currently Paypal only, Google Checkout can be if enough people bug me into it ^^ )

Every Donator get's a nice golden 'Donator' Badge below his Avatar (example: waves), and he/she will be added to the 'Donator' Group.
Amount you want to donate is up to you.

Don't forget to write your Forum username into the Paypal description field before you press 'submit', to let us know who donated.
If you miss this, you can still email your Paypal transaction ID to donation@portingteam.com

Adding you to the Donator Group can sometimes take up to a few hours, time-zones and work are at fault here, some of us have to sleep sometimes ^_^ (no, not at work of course...)

- The Team

Looking for Sub-Moderators (Language Sections)

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 21:32:11 +0000

We are looking for some Submoderators in our Language Subsections.

Since we have various Language sections since a while now, moderating some sections is a little bit hard since the Admins and Mods cannot cover every area quickly in case of help requests or Spam.

So we are looking for a few people who are a bit talk active and on the helpful side to your countrymen.
You would be given a 'Sub-Moderator' Rank with control over your Language section. (can delete Spam posts / can merge Topics / can lock Topics)

The Sections we'd need some help for are:
Deutsch (German) thank you Battlefiler & cybershark
Français (French) thank you ScipioAemilius
Italiano (Italian)
Русский (Russian)

The Italian and Russian Sections would currently benefit the most from additional help and moderation, and if someone wants to help out in the German subsection that would be very helpful, too.

The other subsections (Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese) aren't nearly as active as the other ones, we'll see what we can do with those.

So the requirements for becoming a Language Submoderator would be:
- speak one of the Languages in question.
- be active, post a lot. If you generally have answers to questions this would help a lot of people.
This doesn't mean you have to be a master-porter and answer every question into detail, just smalltalk, replying and pointing into a direction where people can find help/resources helps a lot!
- visit us frequently. if you are given the Submoderator Status, visiting the Forum or your applied language section only once or twice a week wouldn't be very helpful.

There is not much action in the Language Subsections as of now, but with some additional help (from you) activity there would be much better.

Be assured, if you have any questions later regarding general moderation, you can always ask the Board Moderators (guys in green) or Admins (guys in red) about anything.
We'll show you how to manage Topics on this Board, but generally it's very easy.

If you'd like to apply for Sub-Moderator Status on a Language Subforum, reply to this topic with a short introduction about why you'd like to apply.

Facebook

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 19:28:16 +0000

It's been suggested a few times so something has been done about it. We now have a facebook page and I'll make an effort to post important news and changes etc regularly. If you are currently logged in with facebook you can click the following like button:

[facebooklink][/facebooklink]

Happy social networking!

Changes in the Request Sections

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 23:24:04 +0000

Do to some misuse of the 'Open Requests' Section (due to Spam), we are now limiting the creation/participation in the 'Open Requests' Section to some Usergroups.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Usergroups with limited access:
- Guests
Lurkers (0 Posts)
One-Post-Wonders (1-2 Posts)
Leechers (3-4 Posts)

- can view the Open Requests Sections
- cannot make new Requests
- cannot reply to Topics
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Usergroups with normal access:
Newbies (5+ Posts), Rookie, (20+ Posts), User (50+ Posts), Advanced User (100+ Posts), etc...
Rookie Porter, Advanced Porter

- normal access as usual (can view Topics / can make new Requests / can reply )

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This means that Users who do not have a postcount of at least 5 Posts cannot make new Requests in the Open Requests Section.
Newbies and upwards (5+ Posts) however, can.

This was done for some reasons:
- Nobody checks the AppDB anymore if the Game/app was working in Wine. Hundreds of these useless Posts have been floating around there.
- What's with the spamming new guys? Because the Requests section was hard to moderate, lots of garbage posts have been posted there.
- multiple Topics/Requests for the same Game
- Because this section was hard to moderate, we'll introduce some simple rules to follow in there.
(AppDB Link / Description / etc. )
Not following these simple post guidelines will result in the deletion of the Topic.

We will clean up the Open Requests section over the coming days/weeks, everything that has not at least a Reply or has insufficient Info about the request will be thrown out.

The simple guidelines we'll go with here are:
- use the [REQ] Tag in the Topic
- no links to Warez.
- look in the AppDB for your Game.
If it's listed there, post the link to the Entry in the AppDB and it's rating into your request topic.
If it's not listed there, please state this in a sentence like 'I looked in the AppDB for the Game, but it's not listed there.
- simple one-liners don't cut it. Please include some description or links to Info about the Game
- SEARCH for the Game name to see if this was already requested or even ported.

Also:
Games with a 'GARBAGE' rating cannot be ported / have a slim chance to be ported (with Cider).
Think before you make a Request about a Game that has a 'Garbage' rating on the AppDB.

Below the spacer is an example on how to post a request in the Open Request and Application Request Sections:
The Game Hellgate: London will be used for this example.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[REQ] Hellgate: London (Topic Title)

Hello, i'm new around here and i'd very much like to see a Port of Hellgate: London
The rating on the AppDB is silver for the newest ratings of Wine, so it should be portable.

Game Description:
Hellgate: London is a dark fantasy themed action role-playing game developed by Flagship Studios, released on October 31, 2007. It was developed by a team headed by former Blizzard Entertainment employees, some of whom had overseen the creation of the Diablo series. In 2008 Flagship Studios filed bankruptcy and all intellectual property was seized because it was used as collateral for funding received from Comerica Bank. Subsequently, development of the game halted. Namco Bandai Games provided free ongoing US/EU server support in the fall of Flagship Studios until 31 January 2009, when the US/EU multiplayer game servers and websites were taken offline. HanbitSoft has since acquired properties to the game and it is being developed and played in Korea to date. As of 2010, Hanbitsoft has acquired the US/EU territory rights and will be re-releasing back to the US/EU territories with its sequel Hellgate London: Resurrection.

AppDB Link:
http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=5889

AppDB Rating:
Silver

Wikipedia or Review Link: (optional, but post at least one!)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellgate:_London
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/hellgatelondon/index.html?tag=result%3Btitle%3B0

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- dev out.

Happy Holidays & Merry X-Mas 2010

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 01:20:38 +0000

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas from the Porting Team

We hope everybody had a great year and wish you all Happy Holidays.

While many will be visiting their Families or are going off to see the World somewhere, it may be a bit quiet around here over the holidays.

Signed
-the Porting Team

* The X-Mas Banner this year was supplied by RazorPro. Awesome job & thanks, Razor.

Front Page down

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 14:41:38 +0000

The Front Page (Blog) is currently down, and will be for another couple of hours.

The reason seems to be a serious Bug from a current Plugin in Wordpress, but disabling most of the old and recent Plugins didn't help.

I'll have to do a restore of the Front Blog(s), hopefully not too much data will be lost.

Most likely this was the reason for the long downtime of the domain, the Front Blog killed the Server.

-dev

Contest: New Forum Icons - Poll

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:42:16 +0000

Here we are, folks. Time to decide the Winner of our "Design the next Port Status Icons" Contest.

We have 5 really good Entries from: darkstar711, GameGuy, RazorPro, GeekyMacBoy1 and BoomBoxCreations.
All 5 Entries look really great and it's hard to pick just one.

The Icons from the Winner will replace our current Port Status Icons we have now.
Below is an example how they will look in the Forum.

The Poll is only open for 5 Days, so vote, vote, vote!

So here we go:
(click the Thumbnail to see the Full Image)

All Entries Side by Side:

small Note:
Yes i temporary labeled a few Ports wrong for these Screenshots ^_^

Note2:
To those who may have misunderstood some things in the Contest, we will be grouping the following Wrappertypes together, meaning the following Groups will only have 1 Icon now:
CXS and CXZ
Wineskin and Wine
Cider and CiderX

To those who made separate Icons for CXS / CXZ and Cider and CiderX will be changed to a single Icon; we will use the 'Z' Icon for CXZ and CXS, the Wineskin 'Spiral' Icon for Wineskin and Wine, and the 'X' Icon for Cider and CiderX.

This step will highlight our current-gen and next-gen Wrappertype Creations, and it will also simplify things for existing and new users.
(as said, we have too many Status Icons now, users still mislabel things)

About the Prize for the Winner:
DankoB is sponsoring the Prize of this little Contest, the Winner will get a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 from Steam. (native mac Steam Game)

If the Winner already owns the original Left 4 Dead 2 from Steam, he will receive another Game with the same value.

and rank - Porting Team's Chief Artist & Designer

May the best Entry Win!

Contest: New Forum Icons (Port Status Icons)

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 07:43:59 +0000

Hello all, it's time for our first little Contest in a while.

Currently we have a lot of different Wrapper types here, it's getting a little hard to differ between them.
I'm talking about these things:

And we'll be adding a few more, seeing as Drakulix' CiderX is now coming along nicely, as we as syao's ScummVM Wrapper.

Status of Ports and their Icons

To make things a little more easier for ourselves and others, we'll regroup the Wrapper types a bit.
Also most of these will not really fit anymore when we regroup them.

The Wrapper types that will be regrouped together (with one Icon) are:
CXZ and CXS
Wineskin, Wineskin Self Contained (WineskinSC) and Wine
Cider and the new CiderX

Cider and CiderX will be a light Blue icon. ('official' color of Drakulix' CiderX Project)
CXZ and CXS will be a Orange icon. (CXZ's original origin, CrossOver, has Orange colors)
Wineskin and Wine will get a Red icon. (Doh123's Wineskin Project mainly uses red )
DOSBox will get Black (Black), ScummVM a Green color, and Amiga a Yellow color. The color for the old and now defunct CX Wrapper is up to you.

I made a few example Icons a while back, they look like this:

The 3 Main Wrapper Types:

CXZ / CXS

Wineskin / Wine

CiderX / Cider

The other Wrapper Types:

DOSBox

ScummVM

Amiga

CX (Chromium)

So if you want to participate in our little Contest for our new Status Icons, submit your Entry in this Topic, and we'll make a Poll afterwards to let the Users decide what we should use.

The Entry for the Status Icons should have these properties:
- PNG Format
- 40 x 40 pixels
- a dropshadow
- remember the color codes: CiderX/Cider - Blue, CXZ/CXS - Orange, Wineskin/Wine - Red and so on.
- The differences between them should be clearly viewable, also go easy on the gamma on the colors because lighter colors are better on our current dark Forum theme.
- The Icons may be round to match the other Forum Topic Icons, but can also be pictograms (small symbols in the Icon)

- you may use elements of the previous Icons but it can not be a full representation of previously used Icons. (due to the grouping together part)

Now to the good Part, the Prize:

DankoB is sponsoring the Prize of this little Contest, the Winner will get a copy of Left 4 Dead 2 from Steam. (native mac Game)

Message from DankoB:
We're talking L4D2 here, so no mediocre icons are gonna win this contest. Incorporate the site's choice of colours... This is going to be a site wide implementation so get creative (this could be a good project for for someone's portfolio ;) )

Contest Entires can be added until the 10. November.

Good Luck

Forum Changes

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:41:33 +0000

The Forum is online again.

I think most of you will see the changes we implemented right away.
The Forge moved into the Gaming section which is now called the 'Porting Section'.

Inside there are now 5 different main categories:
- Game and Application Ports: All Wrapper /Games /Dos Ports /Applications can be found here now, just select this subsections of this section and you'll find the usual categories.
The Wrapper / Game Ports /Dosbox sections cluttered the main Page a lot, and it was pretty confusing for a lot of people.
Now everything's more tightly organized and logically structured.

- Work in Progress Ports:
All the 'Work in Progress' Ports can be found here. Everything that's not fully playable and get's a different Rank than 'Green' should be posted here /gets moved here.

- Porting Requests:
The Porting Requests Section got two new Categories, the Application Requests Section from the Forge and the Port Graveyard / Re-Port Requests section, with which the Dead Ports from the Port Graveyaerd and the re-Port requests got merged. (why didn't anybody think of this sooner?)

- Ask for help!:
The Ask for help section is now splitted into Applications and Game related posts, but in addition there's the new 'Help Me I'm New' section.
This should be a blessing for all the new Users who got Information Overload and posted things like 'What to do now' or 'Help a noob' and so on.

- Emulation Corner
This got moved from the Forge, no big change.

The 'Your Language' section got moved to Discussions.

A few notes why we did this change:
The overall quality of the ports dropped quite a bit over the last few months, since many new users wouldn't stick to the Tutorials and forget to customize the Wrappers correctly or don't install the required libraries or applications to make them work better, or simply post Status Orange or Status Red Ports in the Game sections.
Now there is the 'Work in Progress' section where you can post the not so functional Games /Wrappers, (where others can help improve them) while keeping only fully playable stuff (Status Green) in the Games and Application Section.
This helps to raise the standard and the quality of the ports, while also making a new place for the experimental / barely playable stuff.
More info here and here.

How to Rate a Port as Green / Yellow / Orange or Red ?
Simply look at this Global Announce
(viewable at the top in every Section)

The other change we did was to introduce two new Porter Ranks, the Rookie Porter Rank and the Advanced Porter Rank.
Previously everyone was awarded a 'Porter' Rank once he or she posted a port in one of the Ported Games sections, but with this Rank you were not able to distinguish between beginners, inexperienced porters and porters who had already learned a lot and got more experience.
Everyone has been set to Rookie Porter for now, but in the coming days we'll make a new Topic where you can request an upgrade to Advanced Porter.
The requirement for a Rookie Porter is one posted Port, and for the Advanced Porter it's 7 Green (fully playable /usable) Ports.