[game_preservation] Game catalog and listings

[Captain Commando]

Jim and SIG,

Just found a game that wasn't on the database (Geom Cube, PS1, 1995,
American Technos Inc.), so I checked some of your strategies for finding out
information on the game. You can actually deduce a lot just by looking at
the contents of a CD.

First, you can tell a lot about when the game was finished based on the
dates of the files. Because discs are unalterable, these are stamped in from
the time the file was last worked on and the disc was made. Thus, with Geom
Cube, I can tell that they finished working on all the files by October 31,
1995 and likely sent it to the publisher by Nov 9, 1995. Historically, this
gives us a good idea as to when the developer's deadline was. Further, you
could probably compare two different releases of the game to see what
specific files were changed if you had access to the file menus.

Second, if you're interested in soundtracks, sometimes the developer lists
the filename of the music in something other than numerical format. It also
tells you something about the way the team made the game by letting you know
how they named the files. And sometimes it can be interesting in and of
itself to simply see what different types of file formats they used (not
just audio but video and data as well).

Third, if you're lucky enough to have the box and manual, you can tell quite
a bit about the game without playing it. This can be important if you're
dealing with a piece of software that is effectively unreadable.
Unfortunately, box and manual can be hard to find, particularly with older
games, so this isn't something to rely on.

Anyway, it's good to go through the submission process on Moby Games and see
how things are actually added. Everything is, of course, sent to reviewers
who verify the information. It's a pretty simple process and the only thing
I'd really add is a dropdown menu for finding developer names more easily
(as some have specific punctuation like commas and periods).

Best regards,

Devin Monnens

On Sun, Feb 17, 2008 at 11:49 PM, Jim Leonard <trixter at oldskool.org> wrote:


> Captain Commando wrote:

> > Of course, I don't think anyone else seems to have information like this

> > either...

>

> The reason we might not have this information is because 100% of the

> information is user-contributed, and, quite frankly, nobody has gotten

> around to contributing the information yet.  MobyGames certainly has the

> capability for that, but as you've found out it's not utilized much.

>

> > About the only other thing I can think at the moment is a list of known

> > games that currently have no data. Such a list would be quite large, but

>

> One of MobyGames' founding principles was that we would have "useless"

> game entries (like "title, publisher, year" and that's it, or

> something).  So while we aren't complete on some of the platforms we

> support, at least every entry has a useful chunk of info.

>

> > would fill a large chunk of missing information. I mention this because

> > one of the key things I see with a game catalogue is at least a note

> > that this game actually exists somewhere even if we don't have all the

> > necessary information on it.

>

> I agree, but MobyGames probably won't fill that space any time soon.  I

> founded MobyGames with my partner a decade ago specifically as a

> reaction to how many "empty" lists there were out there.

>

> > Currently about the only place to find

> > information like this is through something like Digital Press's

> > collector's guide. If such a listing were to exist in the digital

> > catalogue, then users could know exactly what information is missing and

> > contribute it. For something like MobyGames, I could see games on the

> > list having a disclaimer that it is incomplete and unverified

> information.

>

> Again, this is the opposite of our core principles so it probably

> wouldn't be good to expect this from us :-)  But who knows, maybe in the

> future things will change.

> --

> Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org)            http://www.oldskool.org/

> Help our electronic games project:           http://www.mobygames.com/

> Or check out some trippy MindCandy at     http://www.mindcandydvd.com/

> A child borne of the home computer wars: http://trixter.wordpress.com/

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>




-- 
The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

"Until next time..."
Captain Commando
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