When we came up with the idea of retroplace in early 2017, it quickly became apparent that we wanted to build the site on three pillars: a comprehensive video game database, a super fair video game marketplace and a free video game collection management tool that looks great and is insanely easy to use.
Each of the three parts is a pretty ambitious challenge on its own, but we found it especially challenging to come up with a great way for users to add games to their collection without typing a single letter if possible. Why? Well, ask your collecting buddies with several thousand games how they feel about spending the rest of their life setting up their collection online.
New Option: Instantly add details to new games in the collection.
Sure: A database with 181,565 releases is a strong foundation. Together with the search function, matches can be found quickly and added to the collection. Nice, but not good enough. We wanted something that was still fun to use if you had to add not only a few dozens of games to add but a few hundred or even thousands.
Scanning instead of typing
One possible solution was identified real soon: retroplace could support the standard barcode scanners, those devices you plug to your USB port. Then all you need to do is scan the games, and the system could use the EAN code to match the game. The only thing is: Who has a barcode scanner at home? Nobody, right?
And then it made… click!
Because actually: Almost everybody has a barcode scanner in their pocket: It's called a smartphone. We just had to find a way for a web application to make the cell phone camera usable for its purposes. Looking for barcode scanner libraries, we found Quagga JS by Christoph Oberhofer. He took an existing library and extended it so that even web apps could scan barcodes with the (smartphone) camera. Precisely what we needed. To be clear: We're not talking about an app that you have to install first. The barcode scanner is integrated into the website – how cool is that!
retroScan supports an estimated 80-90 percent of all recent smartphones (by the way: we are the only ones that can do so today. All other websites we have found either have no scanning on board at all or do not support Android devices). You can add any game with a barcode in a split-second to your collection. Many games from the mid-80s and most games released later will feature a barcode. Even fairly big collections can be added within hours instead of weeks.
Maintain an extensive collection? Not a big deal with retroScan
How do I add games to my collection?
Easy! Get your phone out and click the barcode icon (either at the top of the search box or the bottom of the toolbar). If the camera does not focus or if the wrong camera is pre-selected, you can switch between all the cameras your mobile phone supports until you find the one that works best for you. Once you've successfully scanned a barcode, retroplace remembers the camera for the next time. Can't find the barcode icon? This means your device probably does not support our barcode scanner.
If we have the barcode in our database, the corresponding results are displayed. Yes, you read that correctly. Results, plural Contrary to common belief, barcodes are not always unique. They should, of course, but they are not. Sometimes manufacturers have used the same barcode for several versions of a game. Sometimes there are even completely different games with the same code. retroplace will show all hits for you to choose from. Besides, you will see if a game is already in your collection or wishlist. That's pretty handy if you want to buy a game at the flea market but have forgotten if the title already made it up on your shelf or not.
You can not only add the game to your collection and – optional – immediately add details about your specific copy. Likewise, you can add it to your wishlist or sell it on the marketplace.
Barcode not found?
Nobody is perfect. Neither is our database (yet). Surely enough, there will be games of which retroplace does not know the barcode. In this case, the keyboard and the search function have to serve again. Now it's up to you: As you have that very game in your hand that features the barcode retroplace is missing, you might want to take a second and add the information to the database. We have compiled a little Guide to editing that briefly explains what to watch out for when editing database entries of retroplace.
Native apps can be a great supplement to a website, but: Are they always necessary?
Where is your app?!
Some users ask us, "Why don't you have an app?" The answer: Because there is no benefit in having one. An app would look and feel just like the website. So we had to ask ourselves: Why an app in the first place then? Okay, you save one click because instead of opening the browser, you open the app and are right there (which can be achieved on most smartphones by simply adding a webpage as a button to the home screen anyway). But does this justify the development costs for an app? And therefore: No app for the time being.
But: We're working on an API that allows programmers to develop their own retroplace app. Just contact me if you are interested: armin@retroplace.com
