What’s happened to software?

About 10 years ago, when I was 7, I remember our computer. We had a Windows 95 PC and it had some pretty cool features. Looking back now, it was pretty cool (mainly for the novelty value) and I wish I could get some of the stuff onto my clunky Vista machine (which actually has more RAM than the 95 PC had hard disk space).

We had some cool things… some awesome screensavers (including macaroni dancing to the macarena!), some cool games, and, of course, Microsoft Works.

We had internet access, but I never knew the password for the dial-up connection so I never used it. Software was the main reason I ever used the computer.

Whiz forwards 10 years, and people don’t use software as much as they used to. We use internet browsers, maybe a mail client and an office package – and I’m pretty sure that’s all most people ever open. Because we don’t need to. Everything we need now is on the internet, downloading and installing software is a hassle… and then there’s the threat of viruses!

Now why’s this such a big issue? Well it’s not really, but I’ve just started my A-level computing project at school and we have to build a program using Visual Basic. I was sitting down and thinking about what I could actually build which would be useful to somebody and I found it extremely difficult. Every time I thought of an idea, I had to remind myself that it would involve some sort of connection to the internet. That’s fine, but it often defeats the object of the program.

Programs now seem so pointless, because all these services are now available on the cloud – even Microsoft Office! But we are heavily dependent on the internet when using computers. If I don’t have an internet connection at my computer, I stop using my computer, because there’s not much else I can really do!

So when I think back to Windows 95, and the maze screensaver, or Comix Zone, or making random publications because I didn’t have anything else to do… it seems a shame that everything we do is in the same window – we haven’t built software which interacts very well with web services which means that the software is often quite pointless in today’s very connected world.

Game Site Scripts?

If you have ever been interested in creating your own games arcade website, you may have looked at various different game site scripts. But are they worth it?

I have recently looked at game site scripts, and wondered why they are valuing themselves so highly. A few details on all of this are included in this blog post.

First point… the cheapest game site script I found was $9 from www.gamessitescript.com. However, you don’t get certain games preset in the site.

Second point… are people really paying for “game packs”? These are simply a collection of games, ready to be added to a user’s site. These can cost as much as $39.99. A downside of these is that loads of sites on the internet have the same sets of games, so the sites have no uniqueness.

However, if you are wanting to just have as many games as possible, then I suppose this method is okay. However, a quicker and easier way of doing this, in my opinion, is writing a custom script and doing a mass-import of the tens of thousands of games in a feed, such as the Mochi Media games feed.

Third point… $20 for installation? Isn’t this just copying and pasting, then running “install.php”? If not, it should be. These scripts shouldn’t be over-complicated.

Fourth point… do these scripts look very good at all? If you are paying upto $600 for one of these scripts, surely it should be okay-looking? In my opinion, they look terrible and clunky. How come if you visit a free website like Facebook, Twitter, Google  or pretty much any other half-decent website on the internet, you get a quick, clean, (almost) bug-free service. However if you spend $600 on a script then it is clunky, slow and written in very poor English.

Fifth point… game site scripts seem to limit the appearance of these sites. They all look samey, have the same features, the same games and the same appalling default template!

In my opinion, game site scripts are a waste of money, and only degrade the website. Until a free and far more open game site script comes out, I think the most logical solution for site owners is to build a custom script. Hey, I’ve managed to do it twice, so other people should be able to do it easily too!

Play games & connect with Facebook

Facebook has had its service Facebook Connect launched for a year now. There are many websites which use the power of Facebook to integrate friends and social features into a website. Here are a few examples:

JibJab – send fun cards to your friends starring… your friends!

Widget Box – Widget Box enables users to promote widgets to their friends using Facebook.

FACEinHOLE – Similar to JibJab, put faces in pictures and send to friends!

Facebook has recently been promoting simple integrations of Facebook Connect within websites using the “Connect Playground” and “Connect Widgets”. One example of this integration is in Miniman Gaming, which uses the social commenting features to enable users to easily comment on games using their Facebook account.

If you want to see Connect integration in Miniman Gaming, check out a game page.