...And We're Back!

If you tried to visit PixelatedArcade or PixelatedImages over the past day or two, you may have noticed we were down! That outage certainly took longer than expected, but our hosting provider was performing some maintenance to address performance issues. Everything is back now, and hopefully loading much quicker. In the past month another code update was pushed live which also should help improve performance as well as add some new features; most of these resolve some behind the scenes bugs and make administration easier, but there are also some improvements to the mobile experience and some foundations to begin improving how companies vs. their publishing labels are represented. In the meantime, we're rapidly approaching the end of year holiday season making real life extra busy; hope everyone stays safe and enjoy the rest of the year!

[Edit: There are still some screenshots missing, and work to restore those is in progress.]
[Edit 2: Restore should be complete now with all missing screenshots and images back in place.]

Also, just for fun, here's a few other things worth checking out:

• 
  From the early Sierra days, Oil's Well was a fun little game that was essentially a copy of the arcade game Anteater. Versions for several platforms including the IBM PC and PCjr had been released, but like other early titles the PC version is particularly difficult to find. While copies were out there on the internet, they were corrupt; the PCjr data wasn't working. A working copy of the disk has finally been preserved, and you can now view all of the levels on Great Hierophant's YouTube video Oil's Well - IBM PCjr. True Version Real Hardware Playthrough. It's nice to finally see the full game with the PCjr's 16 colors; too bad the sound is only through the internal speaker and not the TI sound chip, it's otherwise a pretty decent version.
• 
  While it may seem like everything there is to know about PC games is out there (even if some games haven't been located yet), there are still surprises that pop up from time to time. Have you played Juno First? This is such a case; Originally an arcade game, it eventually found it's way to many home platforms. Datasoft also published a version for the IBM PC, however this version is so obscure it was unknown to even exist until 2020! Luckily it has now been preserved and you view an example of the game in action in the video Demonstration - Juno First for the IBM PC. The PC version unfortunately only supports CGA, but does at least make use of CGA composite graphics.
• 
  Authentic, or Fake? This would be a good thing to know when purchasing vintage games in their original shrinkwrap. Unfortunately, there are indeed some fakes out there so identifying these before you lose your money would be ideal. I've posted this before, but want to remind you of Trixter's awesome video on the topic; check out Authentic, or fake? Identifying Big Box Computer Game Shrink-wrap to learn more tricks of the trade.
• 
  I do still get to play some modern games too; What have I been playing recently? Shin Megami Tensei V! I am a huge fan of the series, and this entry doesn't disappoint. If you like RPG's, especially turn-based Japanese RPG's, I highly recommend grabbing a copy of this; you may have already, it was released about a year ago, but just in case here's a reminder to give it a try!

That's all of the updates for the moment...I'm hoping all of the the recent updates do indeed prevent more downtime and keep performance snappy, and there will definitely be more gaming fun to come...so until next time take care!