Remember demopacks? Yeah, we do too. They were a prominent part of at least the Amiga and Atari scenes in the late 80's and all through the 90's.

Starting today, we have full pack functionality in Demozoo - meaning you can add items that were featured in a pack, and have the packs they were featured on show up under the productions' own pages. The metadata this provides can prove invaluable in pinpointing release dates where none was mentioned in the production, and create clearer timelines overall for groups and individuals.

Productions, Graphics and Music can all be featured in packs, which is useful for packs from parties and such.

THe functionality should be surfaced for any production that has the type "Pack", so get going testing it out and be sure to let us know of any bugs or other problems you find :)

Message to Gasman: AWESOME :) ... but the Backlink is missing (like we have on Soundtracks). When you click on a special prod you should also see in which packs it is included.

It does for me. See http://demozoo.org/productions/794/ - at the bottom right I see PACKED IN: just above SOUNDTRACKS:

If you don't, try clearing cahces in your browswer perhaps?

Ok just figured out that it works on some entries but not on others: http://demozoo.org/productions/71850/

Cofirmed here too - bug report filed - https://github.com/demozoo/demozoo/issues/123

ltk_tscc: Oops, logic error there... fixed now!

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I wonder if we can also have this function for other prods ... for example diskmags... on the Atari they often came with some goodies (demos, tools...).

dunno about atari, but on the pc if there was some bonus stuff with a diskmag, it was included in the release zipfile, but not inside the coded interface like with packs.

Sure its not that different on atari but it's just another way a prod is "packed-in" another.

The point is, I'm not that sure whether we should reflect any bonus in-zip content through the DB. Because zip-file contents come and go - think about BBS ads etc. What's really stable is what is included in the coded release itself. But it's just my spontaneous opinion.

I still haven't finished the last pack in the series, but I've been dying to write this, so here it goes nevertheless. :) Much of what I do around here is work that NEEDS to be done, and is not necessarily fun or exciting, which is why I maintain a number of "fun" projects on the side to keep things interesting for myself. That way I can alternate between chores (like running queries on the backend to spot errors you lot do :D), and fun stuff. Squarely in the section of fun stuff comes a project I've been running to try and document a few pack series COMPLETELY. So, every issue detailed and screenshotted and all that data pooled togehter to create a clear lineage for that pack series and its contens.

Like I mentioned in my opening post of this thread, having a few examples like this set up gives us a timeline that can help greatly with pinpointing release dates (or at least estimate them). I've done similarly in the past when I was involved with BitWorld/Kestra/Janeway. Btw, go support those guys too if you're an Amiga guy - great site, great guys!

Anyway, so yeah. I've completed my first large project of that kind on here - for the pack Sweetest Perfection, primarily from Rebels. Go check the tag here, sorted by release date for all the issues: http://demozoo.org/productions/tagged/sweetest-perfection/?page=1&dir=asc&order=date - Please note that one issue is currently missing, so if anyone is sitting on that file, please let us know, or just upload it directly to ftp.amigascne.org, ftp.spaceballs.no or to scene.org.

I've slowly started looking for the next project to do a full series detail on - it should have all (or most) issues available somewhere, and somehow be interesting to me. It doesn't hurt if it has a magpart with news and stuff.

I hope other people pick up the glove and do some series too - if so, let us know here what you're working on :)

That's awesome! Great work!

I made tag descriptions to differentiate between the two distinct series of packs both called Infestation - one (90-93) run by NeXT, Rebels and Anarchy and the other (94-98) run by Scoopex.

http://demozoo.org/productions/tagged/infestation/
http://demozoo.org/productions/tagged/infestation-scx/

Small request to Gasman here (sorry if anybody mentioned it already). It would be nice to also have thumbnails on the pack contents.

Excellent idea - one of those 'd'oh, that's an obvious improvement' things!

I've made a ticket on Github for it - https://github.com/demozoo/demozoo/issues/147

Did you check who made the packs (the swapper). it was common at times for swappers to take their packseries with them when the moved to another group.

Just a small report... Content of pack-series by STAX, Animal Mine, POV and Ripped Off on Atari ST ... DONE.

CONS: Certainly. I like to call the person who made the series the "pack editor". If you for example check the varying issues of the pack http://demozoo.org/productions/tagged/sweetest-perfection/ you will see that at times there were several people credited as editors of this pack. If you mouseover on the tag, you will also see some metadata for that particular pack series.

Add some yourself! It's fun! :)

It's been a while, but I just completed all known issues of the Demo Dolly Mixture pack series from Cosy / Anarchy. Quite a few of these are lost, so if you should happen to have some in your collection, feel free to upload it somewhere (ftp.amigascne.org, ftp.spaceballs.no, ftp.scene.org are all good destinations) to share with the community :)

demozoo.org/productions/tagged/demo-dolly-mixture/