Reviewed 2010-05-18 l Last update on 2018-09-16
Here at Vintage Gay Loops you will find a growing collection of old masters. Masters and sometimes slaves perhaps. This site is all about saving movies from the past, re-mastering them and then letting its members collect them. You will find scenes from the 1970s onwards here, with some screen caps, and a page about the history of gay. It's a great place for collectors and anyone interested in catching up on times gone by with hardcore scenes. They don't make em like they used to.
So far there are 50 scenes collected together in a site that has a design right out of the 21st century. You can get interactive, save things in your favourites are and rate the content. You can also catch up on news on the excellent blog and read the history of the gay movement from right back BC. That's great background for the main attraction; the collection of vintage scenes that Vintage Gay Loops has not only found but has also re-mastered and presented in HD format in a user friendly way.
Check what's new on the home page and then click into the main videos area. It is here that you will find the scenes, and their upload dates and it looks like new content is being added every week, which is good news. You open a scene and there you find a high resolution Flash player ready to stream. You can choose a smaller version if you are on a slower connection, and beneath this are two download options for higher and lower WMV versions. There are also trailers to be viewed and screen cap galleries, where images number around 30 per set.
Now then, don't expect sparkling quality of the original product here, these movies, after all, were not originally made for anything more advanced that a cine audience, or for video tape. But Vintage Gay Loops has done a grand job getting them to as an acceptable level of quality as possible, and the top quality version is HD. There is some blurriness, some scratching and some lack of quality on the film but that's fine, that's what we expect from oldies such as these. And you can try out the high or low res versions to see which best suits your eyesight. But what the scenes contain remains as hot now as it was then, with muscled hunks, jocks and younger guys in hardcore, pre-condom scenes; yes, there is much bareback here of course.
You may even recognise some names from the past and some titles. (I am still on the lookout for one of my all time favourites, so I will be back to see if it gets added.) It would have been good to have had some more information about each scene. That really would have been the icing on the cake. To know who the director was, the studio and when the scene was made would be a neat addition to what is otherwise perfect. There are category lists though and links to other scenes from the same category, and these will grow in time. And there is the blog which holds more news and information and which is a great place to keep up to date with what's going on.
And for interested collectors there is a link to the store where you can find all kinds of things hot and horny. There is that history page too and easy links to your account and support. All in all this is a good and growing collection of scenes that might otherwise stayed forgotten in a bottom draw, fading and never seeing the light of day again.
Although the content here is, in some cases, nearly 40 years old, the design of the site is right up to date. The black background and electric blue outlines give us a modern feel which works well against the old movies and pics. The links are clear, the technical things all work well and quickly, and the text is easy to read. So, there are no problems with design or with navigation here.
There are a few interactive options; you have a favourites area in which to sore your best scenes, and there is a chance for you to rate each one. The video viewing choices are well set out and the buttons work just fine, and there is information on runtimes and image numbers. The screen cap galleries open in Flash with individual images popping up one at a time.
And as for other little extras, don't forget the blog and the history page, and you're going to find links to other hot sites too. You've got an Account function so you can check out your membership status to this site and any other from the Nextdoor Network that you may have joined.
Coming from Nextdoor you can expect to be well looked after as a member, and you certainly get what the tour promised you. The movies may have suffered in terms of age but they are still perfectly viewable and they are great to see again, and again. You won't have any trouble moving around the site and finding what you want to see, there is a certain amount of background and interactivity, but the important thing is that they are here, preserved.
