Hi guys,  just wanted to add a bit of perspective from someone who's "been there".  To be exact, in case you don't know I'm an Admin on UKVAC and we too went through a quiet period for many years.   For various reasons a hard core of us VACcers decided to try and resurrect the UKVAC forum, it had a wealth of historical info that we felt was worth preserving and we wanted a what we felt was a less moderated place to hang out again.   Initially there were very few of us using it, but slowly but surely we built it back up again.   We started on the premise that we only posted when we had something "useful" to say, the idea was to try and keep the signal to noise ratio high, even if that meant only a few decent posts a day.   At the end of the day if you have 10 of you posting useful/interesting stuff it will be enough to draw other people in in my opinion.

The forum name is largely irrelevant in my opinion.   Nobody refers to this place as "Dragons Lair Fans", it's just DLF which just means "The European Forum" to me and I suspect many others anyway.   Also, not many people type in a URL these days, it's just a favourites click or similar.   

On containers I can see the point that road trips become somewhat pointless to an extent.   For me the hunt wasn't really part of the appeal.   The repair part was what did it for me, taking a broken piece of "junk" and bringing it back to life as a game I wanted to play was the thrill for me.   The fact that we can now access the US market with ease is I think a bonus not a hinderance.   Whilst saying that, I did always enjoy reading the crazy road trips that were undertaken on here

I really think you guys should persevere,  DLF is a unique and fun place and it's eclectic mix of members is definitely a showcase for Europe and European diversity at it's absolute best.  It has a vibe that's all it's own, there's very little back biting or other nonsense and there's always a calm and fun attitude amongst most of the posts I see.   A diversity of forums is a good thing, no one forum can get too "big for it's boot's" when there are other alternatives just a click away.   I really hope DLF continues as it is for many years to come.

Cheers,

DanP

P.S @Thwocker - the Brexit comment actually made me LOL

No one wants the Sinistar? Not even for €275?

I'd love it (no pun intended) but Berlin might as well be Boston in terms of my chances of picking it up 

From my perspective the "crash" wasn't really perceptible at the time, it was all a slow progression not one big bang moment.   Games were still coming out, new consoles/computers most years, etc.   Arcades did become fewer and farther between but the main seaside resorts were still full of them well into the 90's.    I worked at Silica shop (big Atari computer distributor) during this time and there wasn't a crash at all that I could see.   Atari's 8 bit line was still selling and almost seamlessly went into the 16 bit ST line.   You did notice systems coming and going (Vectrex, Coleco, etc) but it just seemed part of the game, new stuff was always superseding the old stuff.

Dan

Pman (on UKVAC) did some experiments years ago with using a vectrex monitor as part of a test rig and I think it was technically possible but just easier to use a real monitor or scope

Dan

Thanks guys, I'll drop him a PM!

Dan

..... in 2015

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1696467/star-wars-episode-seven-disney-lucasfilm.jhtml

Can it be any good without princess Leia?

It could still have Princess Leia, it's going to be based after ROTJ.   Dunno if you'd wanna see her in the slave outfit these days though...

I'll take the Multi Williams board please!

Dan

I'm usually the same as you Andre, I don't usually do well with an audience and need a few games to warm up, but this time I managed to get some pretty decent scores on my first go, even with someone talking to me all the way through my game of Tron.   We found at SCS that only having one go was a real leveller.   There were a few players there who are outstanding if given a bit of practice on the games.   Without that practice it was much more open, so much so that the top 3 were total unknowns as far as game playing ability goes (myself included)     

Dan