Few weeks ago I wanted to try to see how many oric games had been released on DSK format, and could not find one single working download link. The best I got as a "part one out of three" rar file.
If you want people to test something, it should be easy to find (ie: at a fixed location, not some random miror that can disappear when Kim dot com gets busted by the FBI), and with a clear explanation on how to use the thing.
I downloaded the "oric.rar" that was recently linked, and here is my experience:
- First, it's called "Oric.rar", not "Oric-gamebase-v3.xxx.rar" or something that would make it easy to reference the file. That means that if somebody is googling for download links to the oric game base, it will not be found.
- Then, the choice of "rar" instead of "zip". I know that RAR packs better, but ZIP is supported by default by most operating systems without having to install software to handle rar. One more hurdle for the potential user. (and the potential size win is probably dwarfed by the fact you forgot to remove a 20 megabytes AVI file from the oricutron folder).
- Then after unpacking, there's no explanation. All there is is a "help.htm" that says the following:
There's nothing that tells you what actually is a gamebase, where to download it, what it does, etc...This file is named "help.htm" and is pointed to in the file "credits.ini" within your GameBase database folder.
Please check out "credits.ini" to see how you can customise GameBase's Help menu and create links to your own Web Site, Email address and Database Documentation.
If there's one thing I learnt by providing stuff to people on the internet, is that you have to be like the parent birds: You have to pre-mash everything, else you will just miss opportunities to connect with people.
Based on what you wrote, what I would suggest is:
- Make sure there is a task on the Oricutron bug tracker regarding having an easy way to take screenshots, explaining how you would like the feature to work (ex: I'd like oricutron to automatically save screenshots in a folder called "screenshots" using the name of the currently loaded tape or dsk file and automatically incrementing the name with a number each time I press the key, and I'd like screenshots to be in PNG format. Or something like that), explaining that you need the feature to maintain the gamebase or to make it easier for people to post screenshots on Oric.org, and saying that because of this one feature you need to use Euphoric. I'm sure that will motivate Xeron and the other.
- Find a fixed/reliable location where to put the gamebase, with a clear name and version number. (hint: If asked, the owner of defence-force.org may be considering providing a direct link in an easy to remember place on the site, even possible a custom page and subdomain. I'm pretty sure the same would be possible on oric.org)
- Make sure there's an easy to follow "how to use" that explains how to install the whole thing, with the list of know issues or common mistakes, with possibly a link to your email for people to send feedback, and making sure the archive itself contains information about where to get the updates - in case somebody gets the archive from somebody who did not bother to indicate where it came from -
Then when this is done, only then, advertise about it.