Ooooh, midis. I used to collect midis like crazy when I was a teenager--and kept them on 3.5 inch floppy disks, lol!
When I was putting together my Halloween midi collection, I just sorta scoured the web, including the geocities archives and archive.org, for songs. I haven't really found them in any one place, but kinda everywhere. I'll often plug in the song title in a search and cross my fingers, lol.
Are you tryna tell me people DON't keep their midis on 3.5 disks anymore!?!?
I have a USB floppy drive from 2000 that still works with a modern mac. GXSCC is great (I used it for the music on my VR page) I also really like using an MT-32 emulator called MUNT https://sourceforge.net/projects/munt/ but its a lil annoying to setup as you have to search from rom files.
And same, midi sites are hit and miss, Iv never found one where everything sounds good or that has everything. I'm surprised there is not a community of expert midi makers out there somewhere.
HI - this topic has now been ported over to the MelonLand Wiki! - You are free to modify and update it on the wiki, so please check here for the latest version! https://wiki.melonland.net/forum_community_guide
--- Archive version - will be deleted someday!!!
Hello, It struck me that some people arriving here may never have used forums, or not used them in a very long time. I know its been years since I used one regularly, so I wanted to add a few notes and memories about HOW to use them, what forum cultures were like.
NOTE, none of these are rules, they are more like unspoken social cues, you can ignore them or play with them as you like. Also if you have any to add or that you disagree with, reply below!
The forum: Forums have 4 levels of organization.
Categories - The overall theme that a group of boards share.
Boards - This is like a room, with a collection of posts related to a particular subject.
Posts - This is a talking point or thread that anyone can create.
Replies - These are responses to a particular post.
Categories and Boards are generally defined by moderators, Posts and Replies can be made by anyone.
Creating posts: Don't feel intimidated starting new posts! You are on a forum, this is what you are here to do, you can start as many posts as you like. However try to put some effort into your post, a good post has a few features:
A clear title that gives people an idea what the post is about.
A description saying what your post is and why - this helps people know what kind of replies you are looking for!
(Optional) Text formatting and images; These help make the post more fun for people to read!
A lot of people on this forum are into making static sites, so its worth noting; a post is not an alternative to a static page, a post is about creating a discussion, so help people to know what you want to discuss and make them feel happy to reply to you!
You can style your posts using BBCode, this is like a very simple HTML. You will see buttons when your making a posts or reply to paste in bits of BBCode, here are some examples:
Code
[img]PASTE AN IMAGE URL HERE[/img] - Post a regular image
[img width=200]PASTE AN IMAGE URL HERE[/img] - An image with a width set to 200px
[url]URL goes here![/url] - Post a link
[url=URL-GOES-HERE]Text that you would like to be a link[/url] - Use this if you want to make text a clickable link.
[color=#00ff97]You can use HEX codes for colour too![/color]
Don't forget you can press the preview button to see what your post will look like before you post it! TIP: Sometimes the web goes wrong; if you put a lot of effort into making a post, copy it before posting it just in case your post is lost due to web traffic issues.
Replying to posts: A reply can just be a sentence, or something much longer and formatted like a post, that's up to you. There are a few guidelines to replying though.
Replying twice in a row is a bit of a tabo. If you want to add more to your last reply; instead of replying again, click the button that says "Modify", go to the end of your reply and add the word "EDIT" followed by your new text. You can do this again and again by doing "EDIT 1" "EDIT 2" etc. This helps keep the post clean and readable for others.
If you made a post but it has dropped down the board you may be tempted to reply to it yourself to make it jump back to the top. This is called Bumping! In some situations its fine, in others its something you want to avoid. On some boards like the showcase, you may want to bump your posts to tell people about new features you added, in this case its fine. However if you asked a question but got no replies, bumping may not be a good idea as people may not have a reply for you!
Keeping the forum usable for others: Forums are early web technology and there are a few things to be mindful of.
This forum will not automatically format your images so that they load quickly like Discord or Facebook will. Please resize your images so they are not too big before posting them on the forum! - You will also need to be able to host your own images to display on the forum! You can use an image hosting service like Imgur or your own site, which I recommend.
Happy foruming and good luck on your posting adventures!
Hello, just a fun mini contest for anyone interested in pixel art. You may have noticed the message icons you can set on posts, I found most of these in gif archives AND some are cool, others are just Ok.
I think it would be fun to get some new ones that are more relevant to this forum and what people are into.
SO the contest is simple, make pixel art icons and post them below! I'm not sure when the contest will end, but we can hold a poll on peoples favorites!
Pick any theme you wish, however we have a request for an Art icon and a Video Games icon, so try those if you need somewhere to start.
The final icons should be 32x32px gifs, animated or non-animated.
For the font size, thats a BIG thing (I think) Id have to update it across the whole site, so Id like to know if more people have an issue with this? In the mean time, you can zoom in the site with Crtl/Cmd+ and it will make it all easier to read. What sort of device are you using?
Ok yes! I guessed you were basing it off what I said about mouse-locking, so you are the first prototype test case for that theory
What you did was not something I ever considered, you kept traditional WASD movement, but used unlocked mouse movement at the same time. So its like half of one system and half of another. I think that is difficult for people, they have to half relearn half of an interaction method they already know.
BUT I think it could work really well with a few edits, so these are my suggestions; make it clear the user has to hold the mouse to look, and when they do that, hide the cursor, and invert the panning directions from what you have now (so its like a first person camera). When you let go of the mouse button, unlock the mouse again. Ill dub this temporary-mouse-locking!
That way the only thing a traditional games person needs to learn is to hold the mouse button, everything else would be natural.
This is an imaginary metaverse made of all the worlds I worked on during my time at college.
Here you will observe Ozwomp (a crocodile donut) as he is created and dropped into cyberspace. During his travels there will be strange and sometimes sinister places, do not fear though, Ozwomp with his arms wide open to the wonder of existence will meet no evil.
Worlds Ozwomp visits in chronological order:
Melonking.Net (2016~) landing page of the website
Yonkrip Gate (2020) – from the web game Ozwomp is Arriving
The Ozway (2020) – from Ozwomp Online, collaboration with SSS
Icona City (2019) – from Iconadrive a collaboration with COB
Snake Room (2020) – an in class 3D modelling project
Crow Island (2017) – my first web based 3D world
MoMG Gallery (2021) – a 3D simulation of a 2D website
Tornado Island (2019) – from the mini game My Little Tornado
General Info: This will be a short multiplayer exploration game, where you travel through different lands collecting discs and listening to weird music. Im hoping to allow it to be a semi-mmo so you'll be able to see other players even if you cant really interact with them much. In general it showcases many of the worlds Iv worked on so far.
Expected early release of the game: End of November - Early December 2021!
The first draft of this will be a download game, however I MIGHT do a web world later on, but it would have to have a lot of the visual extras cut out
Log: Early planning work on paper and thinking out ideas and tasks. I tend to try and have a loose plan of what Im thinking of doing and I find it helpful to break things down into tasks and types of tasks so the whole thing does not become overwhelming. Then you can be like OK THIS WEEK Im doing X and dont need to worry about Y.
Early view of the island world- The original project was Unity HDRP, the new one is URP, so some visuals lost BUT some things work better.
Trying to bring in complex lighting and messing with inverted light, it makes some weird but cool visual results.
A view of a mostly complete level with lighting, sky, textures, atmospherics and the disks players will eventually collect to move on! [/color]
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I bet your looking for a cool song?
WELL fear not, for this is where melon aka me, posts the ULTIMATE SONG OF THE DAY! Yes every day (unless I forget). Bookmark this thread and check back for a cool song every day
Disclaimer: song may or may not be cool, you are not guaranteed to enjoy the song.
Also feel free to post if you like a song or don't like one, or just want to talk about one in general, this is not only for me to post on!
OK SO, having cool textures is really important for websites and 3D work. Now you could download them from texture sites, BUT you can also get some way cool weird ones from old CDs.
Here is a running list of CDs Iv found, if you find any more post below, AND if you find any out in the real world, please upload a link! Also note MANY ARE UNTESTED - If you try one and can or cant get it working, please let me know!
You've had the good fortune of reaching the MelonLand Forum
This is a community for people interested in low tech & homebrew virtual worlds and websites. These include 3D games, virtual pets, multiplayer worlds, 2D games, text adventures, audio adventures, point and click websites and any other kind of digital space where the focus is on exploration, storytelling or adventure.
Why though? In general the world today just seems boring; the web is overly corporate and profit focused, games companies just keep remaking the same games. There was something magical about early digital toys, tamagotchi and neopets and weird interfaces like Microsoft Bob. They were imperfect but that's what gave them character.
So often people feel stuck in moulds of how things should look or be done. I'd like this forum to be an act of defiance, to be a place that people can gather and do things differently, not because its bettor or worse, but just because they can be.
Rules, Etiquette and Guidelines I feel quite strongly that world making and forum chatting should be a safe and fun hobby
Melon's micro pledge - "I'll write a personal welcome note to everyone who joins; and the day that stops being possible is the day we start limiting signups, this forum will always be about friendly small community on a human scale."
There are also a few forum specific rules:
Please keep the forum casual but on-point and sort things into the appropriate sections.
Please don't post memes, in-jokes or use acronyms, particularly if it requires context/external knowledge to understand.
Please remember a forum is not a chatroom, posts should be a full sentence or more, avoid short posts!
This is an independent community, so we don't preemptively accuse or ban people based on external sources; we will try and judge situations fairly on a case by case basis!
If you feel someone is behaving badly on the forum or are unhappy with a situation, please PM/DM me or e-mail webmaster@melonking.net right away!
What should I do now!!?? If you want to see some virtual worlds, visit the showcase or click one of the world portals at the top of the page! When you are ready to try making worlds head over to one of the tutorial sections for help and guides!
There are also sections for more social discussion of games, art, music, the wider internet and webdesign in general, feel free to post your work and be sure to leave some nice replies on other peoples work!
AND if you are new to web forums, you may want to take a look at this short guide. Finally you can introduce yourself and read about other members here!
Newsletter! I also send out a newsletter once a month with cool links, melonland updates and some of my favorate forum threads, if you like you can subscribe to it here!
I actually think about that game a lot when I'm working on things!
One thing about 2D worlds is that IMO they are harder to make. With a 3D world, the 3Dness distracts people from the limits of the world, but in a 2D world people look at everything, you have to put much more in.
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I have a USB floppy drive from 2000 that still works with a modern mac. GXSCC is great (I used it for the music on my VR page) I also really like using an MT-32 emulator called MUNT https://sourceforge.net/projects/munt/ but its a lil annoying to setup as you have to search from rom files.
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