iPhone app question

[drakfyre]

Hey, I am considering working on an iPhone app that supports several emulated music formats. One of the things I would like to include in the app is a browser that directs to music section of this site. All advertising would be retained and I would not direct-link to any files, but I wanted to confirm that this would be considered acceptable by the staff here.

I am a long-time user of the site but only today registered on the forums, I have a lot of respect for you guys. And I realized that if I were to make an iPhone app and have it be usable by a lot of people, it would need content, or access to content. The success of the app would hinge on access to this site, and honestly, I am expecting the answer to be "no" because, as I understand it, the site is operated at a loss as-is; I worry that the extra ad revenue would not counteract the extra traffic costs. If this is the case, PLEASE tell me no, I don't want to jeopardize the site.

Thanks again for running such a great site!

 

[InVerse]

You'll probably be told no because the forum administrator was molested by an Apple IIg as a child and has had an irrational hatred of anything connected to Apple ever since. But building an app that relies on a site that's very likely going to die in the near future seems like a horrible idea to me. Why not build your own subscription based service with it's own custom built server? Hosting is cheap, the bandwidth required for such a service would likely be cheap enough that you could charge $1/month or some such and cover your costs.

Also, aren't there already multiple iOS based console music emulators? I seem to recall a discussion on this forum at one point (in the news section, I believe) between the authors of two such apps.

 

[drakfyre]

But building an app that relies on a site that's very likely going to die in the near future seems like a horrible idea to me.

They've been around this long, what makes you think they are going down soon? If they are, maybe we can come up with something to make it more profitable/break-even-able.

Also, aren't there already multiple iOS based console music emulators? I seem to recall a discussion on this forum at one point (in the news section, I believe) between the authors of two such apps.

There are several, but they are pretty bare-bones; bad or non-existent on-device music management, little or no playlist support, and none of them support N64 format. They all play the music pretty well but I am pretty sure I've identified the open-source libraries they are using for that.

 

[InVerse]

They've been around this long, what makes you think they are going down soon? If they are, maybe we can come up with something to make it more profitable/break-even-able.

The site has been around for a long time, but under multiple managerial schemes and owners. The current batch have made it clear that they're unwilling to put any effort into reviving the site. Emulation as a whole is dying. Very few people give a shit anymore. The likelihood of turning anything emulation related into a profit maker is even less likely than making a profit selling books or CDs. It's not like the old days when Marat Fayzullin, Martin Korth and the Bleem Company were rolling in dough thanks to emulation. The bones have been picked dry. There might be some money to be made briefly in the mobile markets but this site will never cut a slice of that pie.

 

[Reaper man]

why not develop for android... you know, a phone that doesn't suck where you don't have to go through some draconian app store at all, not to mention the higher smartphone marketshare.

When it comes to something like this though, Edman would have to give the green light, as it's his site.

 

[drakfyre]

why not develop for android... you know, a phone that doesn't suck where you don't have to go through some draconian app store at all, not to mention the higher smartphone marketshare.

Honestly, it's because I have an iPhone and not an Android. I have nothing against Android and while I don't like their dev environments/tools quite as much as the iPhone, (Mostly personal preference save for memory leak debugging which is AMAZING for iPhone) that's not the main reason I don't dev for it. The primary motivation I have in my apps is I make something that I'd use and if other people like it, that's great. I may get an Android device in the future as they are pretty neato, but I don't have a need for one yet.

When it comes to something like this though, Edman would have to give the green light, as it's his site.

Cool, does he read this forum or is there a more appropriate contact method? Thanks for the info ahead of time.

 

[InVerse]

Cool, does he read this forum or is there a more appropriate contact method? Thanks for the info ahead of time.

Edman only visits the site whenever there are massive technical problems. Your best bet would be to send him a private message and then crash the servers so as to entice him onto the site.

But seriously, why would you want to rely on a shitty site that can't even post music collections above 25GB when you could just spend $10/month on your own hosting?

 

[drakfyre]

But seriously, why would you want to rely on a shitty site that can't even post music collections above 25GB when you could just spend $10/month on your own hosting?

It doesn't seem to make much sense to me to re-host all this well organized content in any capacity other than as a mirror (Something I would consider!). It seems wasteful when it's already here, already organized, and, as far as I can tell, well maintained, despite the assertions of a lot of forum dwellers here.

Also, two questions for you:
1: What do you mean about the 25GB thing? It doesn't seem to affect the library available if it's a limitation at all.
2: If the site is so shitty why are you on here arguing about it?

 

[InVerse]

If you consider the file archives here to be "well organized" then I fear for whatever spaghetti code would comprise your app.

With your complaint about "on-device music management" I assumed you were planning to create a streaming app. That obviously isn't possible with the music as stored here, which is one major argument in favor of hosting the files yourself.

And it's generally a bad idea to create any software that relies on someone else to operate. If you don't understand why that is, the entire discussion is pointless because you'll never create anything worthwhile anyway.

1: The site can't accommodate files that are bigger than 25GB. There are some soundtracks that have been left off of the site for that reason.

2: Because that's what I do.

 

[Edman]

But building an app that relies on a site that's very likely going to die in the near future seems like a horrible idea to me.

Oh I'm sorry, I noticed this just now.

Just to be entirely clear, Zophar's Domain currently gets more traffic than when I took it over. Additionally, when I took the site over it had a clear downwards trend - now there is no such trend. It gets around 10,000 visits a day and a million pageviews a month, and has been doing so for quite some time.

I know I haven't been around at all. I wish I had more time to work on this site. At the same time, the site works and is doing quite OK without me.