Today, we're proud to announce BDwiki, a free encyclopedia focusing on all things Blu-ray.
It was created by Æ Firestone for enthusiasts, developers, and newcomers interested in the niche format. Though he admits he's not a pro, Mr. Firestone is obsessed with the format as he believes it's an underrated platform for multimedia content. He also believes that it's a neat platform for video games.
Since the lack of proper documentation and most of the technical specs are hard to find, BDwiki was designed to be a comprehensive source of information. Most articles are provided with legitimate sources, and some are from original research.
The wiki will highly focus on the BDMV application format (movies, music, video games), but other things related to Blu-ray will be added to the wiki as well. For those wondering, Blu-ray's successor, Ultra HD Blu-ray, will be in a separate category since that's more niche and adoption is slow, while BD is more widely adopted.
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| BDwiki's main page |
Unlike other wikis, strangers are not permitted to make edits on articles; only Mr. Firestone can do that - this is to prevent vandalism. If a person wishes to provide additional valuable information for an article, the person may comment below on the article's page with a legitimate source. You will be credited - unless anonymous. (Read the rules for more info before commenting)
Mr. Firestone is very proud of the wiki as he spent over a year and a half putting it together. While it may not perfect, it is intended to be a free source of information.
What inspired him to do this was when he published his article "Blu-ray - A Cool Multimedia Disc Format." After all of that knowledge and sources he gained, he thought he could use that to make a wiki since there's barely any. There are a few, but mostly inactive.
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| A page about the Blu-ray Disc |
Blu-ray is known for high-definition movies, but what interested Mr. Firestone the most was that it was also made for 2D Java video games. Mr. Firestone has been frustrated with consoles and PCs. Consoles are fixed and proprietary, and PCs are free but wild like a wolf. He believes that in the context of gaming (and multimedia in general), Blu-ray could fit the best of both worlds. Blu-ray has fixed standards and limitations like consoles but lets you have the freedom to develop games without restrictions like PC.
Of course, you must get a license to produce and distribute your desired media on a physical BD-ROM and use the official Blu-ray logo (similar to Nintendo's seal of quality) for quality control. (Alternatively, you can use BD-Rs or ISO files) But at least you have more freedom making and releasing video games than game consoles. PC is also about freedom, but it can be expensive and aggravating to an ordinary Joe. Blu-ray is also platform-independent, meaning it does not depend on hardware architecture or operating system.
Mr. Firestone believes Blu-ray is an easy-to-use platform for old-school 2D gaming since Blu-ray players are now a standard product in the household that's mostly cheaper than consoles and PCs. Also, the Blu-ray standard has limitations akin to 16-bit game systems from the 90s. He believes these limitations will spark developer's creativity again and make enjoyable games. That is why he made this wiki in the first place and thinks it's underrated despite its flaws.
But he also made it for movie and music authors interested in Blu-ray development and people interested in physical media (Mr. Firestone has hundreds of Blu-rays in his collection).
The website will only be in our subdomain, bdwiki.storyteller.pw, and won't have a stand-alone domain yet.
I'm not into this myself, respectively, but I think it's interesting, Mr. Firestone hopes this encyclopedia gets attention and draws more true enthusiasts.
- Joe Bloggs
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