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DOSGuy
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Post by DOSGuy »

Edit: Split from this thread.

December was one of our best months in most categories, and set a record for page views and hits. 12 100 unique visitors visited 14 713 times, viewed 70 636 pages and generated 173 102 hits, and used 18.44 GB of bandwidth.
Last edited by DOSGuy on November 23rd, 2007, 8:06 am, edited 2 times in total.
Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article.
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DOSGuy
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Post by DOSGuy »

Just a little update on how the site is doing.

Unique Visitors
visitors.png
Notes:

20 September 2005:
Classic DOS Games is mentioned on a Japanese website called 100shiki.com. The story is picked up by japan.internet.com, Livedoor, and Yahoo! Japan. 1982 people visit within 24 hours. The site never has less than 2400 visitors in a month again. Google mistranslated the final line of the article as "Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article." I liked it so much, it became the site's unofficial slogan.

15 March 2006: An article about Classic DOS Games appears on Metafilter. Links appear on bbspot,
del.icio.us, and diggdot.us. Over 2000 people visit per day for the next 3 days (2313 on the 15th, 2744 on the 16th, 2590 on the 17th), and things don't return to normal until March 21. 300 visits per day becomes the new normal.

18 May 2006: Classic DOS Games is declared "Link of the Day" at userfriendly.org, and 3867 people visit within 24 hours, a record that lasted until March 2009. They gobble up 4.82 GB of bandwidth in a single day!

9 March 2007: Tired of downtime and unwanted changes from PowWeb, I switched my webhosting to 1&1 in December 2006, but PowWeb continued to be my registrar for the classicdosgames.com domain name. A few days before the domain expired, I initiated a transfer of registration to 1&1, and PowWeb told me that I hadn't given them enough notice. They told me that the domain name would expire unless I paid for another year, and that I had one month to renew before the name would be archived, at which point I would have to pay a fee to get it reactivated. After all the crap I had taken from them over the years, I refused to pay them one red cent, and bought classicdosgames.org. When classicdosgames.com expired on March 9, virtually all traffic disappeared until, after a month of fighting, I was finally able to transfer the domain on April 9. By then, the damage had been done. Classicdosgames.com disappeared from search engines, and loyal visitors assumed that the site was gone. It took months to recover.

Trivia: Other than the first few months of site operation (the last time being 12 June 2005), Classic DOS Games has had 0 visitors due to server downtime at PowWeb on two occasions. The second occasion, caused by a server outage from August 20th to August 23rd of 2006, allowed only a single visitor on August 21, 0 on August 22, and only 14 before the site went down on August 20. Since this broke PowWeb's 99.9% uptime guarantee, I asked for, and received, a month free on both occasions. Why did they make me ask for it? Classic DOS Games was never down for more than a few hours since switching to 1&1, and has never been down for any amount of time since switching to HostGator.

The problem with 1&1 was their customer service, which caused me to leave them in December 2008 and switch to HostGator. On 10 April 2009 the database for the DOS Games Compatibility Wiki was completely destroyed, probably due to HostGator's upgrade from MySQL 5.0 to 5.1. Unacceptable, yes, but these things happen. I had similar nightmares with 1&1. The difference is how difficult it was to get such problems resolved.

When something like this would happen with 1&1, I would wait on the phone for 20 minutes to talk to an agent, and they would create a ticket that would resolve the problem in a few hours. In the HostGator incident, I noticed the disaster shortly after midnight. I went to HostGator's website, clicked on the Live Chat button and reached an agent immediately. I explained the problem, he said that he would speak to an admin, and responded less than a minute later that they had restored the database from the pre-upgrade backup. My issue was resolved in seconds instead of hours! I was wasting my money with other webhosts.

Classic DOS Games has had over 10 000 unique visitors in a month on 22 occasions, and for the last 14 months in a row. If not for losing the original domain name, the site probably would have been over 10 000 per month since October 2006.

Human-translated version of the article from 100shiki.com, followed by a portion of the original Google translation, and how Google translates the site today.
100shiki.com wrote:Wasted time in days of yore... September 20, 2005.

Classic DOS Games

Say that when you're with an engineer and you'll have to choke down a story about how everything was the best in the good-ol' days of the PC era.

BASIC Magazine this.. acoustic coupler that.. this one time, I was loading from tape...

Those who don't know it will definitely never understand these stories, but the rest remember that strangeness fondly. Whatever the age, it seems so enjoyable to talk about your memories of that bygone time.

If you think like that, just seeing "Classic DOS Games" will make you happy.

This site collects cherished games of old that need DOS to run. Descent, Heretic, Wacky Wheels... it's so nostalgic... If you have DOS (I know you're out there) you should try it out.

Whenever I try to remember just what I wasted my time on back then, I wonder if we can ever make stuff like the things we had at that time.

* There is no excuse for today's articles catering exclusively to hobbyists.

Classic DOS Games
https://www.classicdosgames.com/
A site that archives DOS games.
Google on 21 September 2005 wrote:It spends to the past the time

Before the this, the person of the technician drinking, the @ it rose even in the story of personal computer type of former times.

BASIC magazine * & *, acoustic coupler * & *, load @ @ with tape * & *.

It is the story which is not understood at all in the person who does not understand, but you remember that it rises abnormally. The experience which thrusts considerable time in any age when speaking, is pleasant ones.

So when you think, the Classic DOS Games just sees the handle forcing.

With the sight of former times the handle it does and the game which can be played with the DOS thickly the @ @ it is. Descent and Heretic, Wacky Wheels * & *. The handle it does too much, * & *. As for the person who has the DOS (it will be?) It probably will be possible to try playing.

When by his past spends time to some activity and tries remembering high, whether it can make service and the commodity which are accepted to the same generation don't you think? the @@@@@.

* Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article.

Classic DOS Games
Http: //www.classicdosgames.com/
The sight which gathers the DOS game.
Google on 20 November 2007 wrote:This past week, engineers and people in?N and old computer system MORIAGATTA story.

Basic magazine, acoustic coupler, the tape is loaded.

Know who is a refreshing idea what to say, unusually excited to remember. What age is a considerable amount of time talking TSUKKONDA experience is not always pleasant.

I think Classic DOS Games sees only NATSUKASHII.

The site is the old DOS NATSUKASHI ATSUME game was played. Descent, Heretic, Wacky Wheels. NATSUKASHI too. Those who have to DOS (which?) Try to play well.

His past is any activity or time spent remembering it, the generation that will be acceptable to create products and services that may be.

* Today is a whole article in Maniac sorry.

Classis DOS Games Classis DOS Games
Http://www.classicdosgames.com/
DOS game collecting sites.
Google on 8 December 2011 wrote:Time spent in the past (Classis DOS Games.com)

Before this, the system raised in the talks that have old computer technician with people drinking.

The basic magazine, acoustic coupler, the What's on the tape loaded.

Know who has the slightest clue to say, remember that abnormally raised. In-depth experience in a lot of time every time is not always fun talking.

Classic DOS Games is so old and we just looking at.

The site has attracted the old nostalgic game was played in DOS. Descent, Heretic, Wacky Wheels · · ·. Too nostalgic. DOS is a person who has (or will have?)'s Probably time to play.

If you recall the time spent on any activity or my past, I might be acceptable to make the same generation products and services.

* Today was a maniac in the article as a whole sorry.

Classis DOS Games
https://www.classicdosgames.com/
The site has attracted a DOS game.
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Last edited by DOSGuy on December 3rd, 2007, 2:13 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article.
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Post by DOSGuy »

I wanted to point out an interesting trend among visitors to Classic DOS Games. The browser statistics are virtually the same every month. Here's November so far.

Code: Select all

Internet Explorer  52.3%
Firefox            37.6%
Mozilla             3%
Opera               2.6%
Safari              1%
Netscape            0.6%
Konqueror           0.1%
The first thing that this tells me is that the our visitors are much more knowledgeable about computers than average. That shouldn't be a surprise because DOS games are old and often need help running on modern computers, but the allure of free games will bring just about anyone to a website, and the fact that DOS games are simple and fun is reason enough for anyone to play them. I'm making my observation on the fact that the Firefox numbers are much higher than Firefox's global market share of 14%.

Most people use Windows, and Windows comes with Internet Explorer, so that's what most people use. People don't switch until a) they're informed enough to know that there are alternatives, b) they have the courage and desire to try alternatives, and c) they are savvy enough to be able to tell that one browser is better than another, or d) they select an alternative because they want to support the open source movement, or just want to stick it to Microsoft for perceived monopolistic practices. The fact that almost half of Classic DOS Games visitors use either Firefox or Mozilla is astonishing to me.

Also, in case no one noticed, Netscape is dead.

Now then, are we sure that visitors are using Windows? Maybe they don't use Internet Explorer because it isn't the default browser in other operating systems. Nope.

Code: Select all

Windows   90.1%
Linux      4.7%
Macintosh  2.3%
BSD        0.4%
Sony PSP   0%
BeOS       0%
Most visitors use Windows, for obvious reasons: Windows is the most popular operating system in the world, and it's a Microsoft operating systems, like MS-DOS. Most DOS games play quite well in versions of Windows up to Windows XP. Hopefully Vista users will discover DOSBox and still be interested in websites that are devoted to DOS games. If they don't, then I wouldn't be at all surprised if the percentage of Linux users rose dramatically.

Lots of savvy computer users use Windows primarily or exclusively, but almost everyone else uses Windows, too. People who use Linux are more likely to have an above average understanding of computers than Windows users for most of the same reasons that Firefox users tend to be more knowledgeable web surfers. Linux isn't the standard, so users have to have the knowledge and courage to try an alternative, they have to be savvy enough to appreciate the differences, or they have to have a desire to support open source software or a desire to reduce Windows' monopoly. Linux users are probably smart enough to know that software like DOSBox must exist, and they're used to using emulators or virtualization suites to run Windows software.
Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article.
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DOSGuy
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Re:

Post by DOSGuy »

DOSGuy wrote:Here's November so far.

Code: Select all

Internet Explorer  52.3%
Firefox            37.6%
Mozilla             3%
Opera               2.6%
Safari              1%
Netscape            0.6%
Konqueror           0.1%

Code: Select all

Windows   90.1%
Linux      4.7%
Macintosh  2.3%
BSD        0.4%
Sony PSP   0%
BeOS       0%
Some interesting trends since November 2007. Here's March 2008.

Code: Select all

Internet Explorer  48.4%
Firefox            39.1%
Netscape            4.2%
Opera               2.8%
Safari              1.9%
Mozilla             1.3%
Konqueror           0.1%
Internet Explorer continues to lose ground to all other browsers, and is now used by less than half of all visitors. But wait... what's up with Netscape? Netscape was almost non-existent, and then suddenly it jumped to 4.2% in March from 0.4% in February. A bug? A revival? Payback for declaring Netscape dead? I have no idea what that's about.

Code: Select all

Windows   85.1%
Linux      5.5%
Macintosh  3.4%
BSD        0%
Sony PSP   0%
OS/2       0%
BeOS       0%
Windows and BSD lost ground to Linux and Macintosh, down from 88.7% and 0.2% last month. Windows has been steadily declining, and the PlayStation Portable has almost caught up with BSD to become the fourth most popular platform for viewing Classic DOS Games.

Now then, I'm sure you want to know about Vista! These numbers represent the percentage of all visitors, not the percentage of Windows users. Windows represents 85.1% of all visitors.

Code: Select all

Windows XP     64.8%
Windows Vista  11.9%
Windows 2003    3%
Windows 2000    2.2%
Windows 98      1.3%
Windows NT      1.2%
Windows Me      0.3%
Windows 95      0%
Windows CE      0%
Windows 3.xx    0%
Vista isn't doing so well. Is that because Vista can't play most DOS games without DOSBox, or is it because our visitors are more knowledgeable than the general population and are less likely to switch from XP? There are quite a few NT/2000/2003 users out there. Although many tech savvy people use those operating systems at home, they are primarily used on servers and workstations. IT guys visiting from work? 53 people visited using Windows 3.xx. It's nice to know that Win16 is still alive. :)
Today entirely the maniac there is no excuse with the article.
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