This Github contains a front end I developed. There are better front ends--this was mostly an exercise to learn C#. However, I think there is some value here in the database, which is freely available as a sqlite file to anyone who wants to use it.
This is open-source, anybody who wants to contribute can add an issue or pull-request in the Github and I should respond pretty rapidly. Likewise if anybody has an issue. Like I say, the world may not need this front end, but I do believe the database is valuable (see below). Also, obviously, any of the code is available to be pirated for other front-ends.
The driving purpose of this project is to sort and eliminate the mountains of crap in the ROM world and boil it down to unique, playable, non crap games. The project is not finished, but without help, or at least outside interest, it may be dead.
Database features: - 25,960 seperate releases sorted into 12,100 unique, playable, non-crap games - All platform data up to 4th gen - Essentially limited to sprite-based consoles and handhelds - This is beacuse later gen games are impractically large - I have tools to pretty rapidly add any requested platform in a matter of minutes, especially a platform in Datomatic. - MAME data for .195. - Note that this is limited to playable games and their parents, in keeping with the purpose of eliminating crap. - Note also that the MAME version can be easily changed--up or down given access to a MAME exe file. - Based on Datomatic (no-intro) for release, region and title data--this is after a lot of painful research to choose the cleanest data - Metadata pulled from GamesDB, GiantBomb, LaunchBox, and OpenVGDB, cleaned and merged - The DB as a by-product contains matches between all of these databases, as well as Datamatic - A major feature that would be hard to find anywhere else is the cross-reference here between ROM checksums and games in these major databases - All standard metadata found in any of these DBs and some custom metadata that took some putting together. - Crap: 509 games - Adult: 230 games - Not game: 710 games (for instance, TI-89) - Mess machine: 703 games (not a standard video game, for instance LED hand held or arm-wresting machine) - Multiple releases (clones) are gathered into games in order to bundle and hide duplicates
Front-end features - Goes through your mountains of ROMS, tosses garbage and duplicates, and sorts and identifies the good stuff (nothing is deleted) - Shows what you have and don't have - Filtering in milliseconds on 13 metadata properties - Autofiltering shows only valid remaining filter choices - Real-time, very fast text filtering - Display by individual release, or grouped into unique games - Display platforms and emulators - Update database with latest and greatest from online DBs, search for new matches - Rudimentary CLRMAMEPro style functionality. - Orders of magnitude faster than CLRMAMEPro or ROMCenter - Not as good as either of these excellent programs, yet, since it is just started. Still, faster.
So, again, the front-end is what it is, but I think the database could be a resource for developers.
Quote: 25,960 seperate releases sorted into 12,100 unique, playable, non-crap games
Oh, one of these front-ends. The problem is that "non-crap" is incredibly subjective. It comes down to personal taste. Let's give some examples:
I hate slot machines, while others love them. Some people think Cherry Master is great fun. I'm not in a position to assess which of the many Cherry Master revisions/clones/hacks are "non-crap" because I don't appreciate these games.
Some people hate video mahjong and would say all video mahjong is crap; other people love it.
I like some objectively crappy video mahjong games (e.g. Nichibutsu's Second Love), because I have fond memories of them from when they were in arcades. This kind of thing happens a lot - many people like playing objectively terrible games for nostalgia reasons.
I dislike the coercion themes in Mahjong Hyper Reaction 2 (I love Mahjong Hyper Reaction, though), but I'll admit the animation and AI are pretty damn good. Is the game crap, or non-crap?
Games that are odd-one-out in a genre often get written off as "crap" because people don't understand them. The Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon beat-em-up feels strange and unbalanced until you understand that you have to make the most of knock-on damage from throws and knock-down attacks. Also, Usagi takes some getting used to because of short reach and points where she doesn't step forward on a hit in her combo pattern. But once you understand the mechanics, it's a lot of fun. Also, the first stage music is terrible, and it's questionable whether any of the better music later in the game compensates.
That brings up another point - games may be crap in some ways and great in others. There are games with crappy art and terrible AI, or great art and terrible AI. There are games that are only really fun with two players, or where two-player mode is a poorly-considered after-thought. What about games where the localisation is so poor only a single regional variant in a certain language is any good? How do you decide whether the crappy aspects outweigh the non-crappy aspects?
What about games that seem may seem crappy in retrospect due to technical limitations? Vs Battle City has great gameplay balance and stage design, but it doesn't push the graphical abilities of the NES very hard. Tank Battalion feels like an unfinished prototype of Battle City, but is it really crap when you consider that it's a stepping stone to a solid game?
What about games that are crappy on their own merits, but had a big influence on game design, or are historically significant in some other way? Mortal Kombat has lame, dumbed-down gameplay and the digitised graphics look terrible next to its hand-drawn contemporaries, yet it commercially successful, spawned a string of sequels and ports, and was highly influential on game development, and even had significant influence on cinema. NBA Jam is an unashamed "quarter-muncher" that had great voice acting for the announcer and ended up being highly successful. Is it crap?
What about games that relied on a gimmick? After Burner had repetitive, predictable gameplay, but at-the-time great 3D effects and cool motion cabinets. Golly! Ghost! isn't the best lightgun shooter, but the Pepper's Ghost effect with the mechatronic diorama was great - I mean, doors opened and closed, and ghosts could come out of or disappear down the toilet!
I could carry on for ages, but there's no objective way to decide which games are worthy of inclusion. You're doing people a disservice by excluding games that you write off as "crap". People will miss out on things they enjoy because they don't meet your subjective criteria.
Quote: Note that this is limited to playable games and their parents, in keeping with the purpose of eliminating crap.
Oh here we go again - the parent/clone relationship is arbitrary. The parent may be poorly translated, or have compromised gameplay, or game-breaking bugs. For example with Capcom fighting games, the Japanese releases often have better gameplay balance, but English releases are the parents. Taking the Sailor Moon beat-em-up again, only the Japanese release has the full cut-scenes (they didn't bother to translate them for export versions and cut them off instead). But that aside, people may be attached to one version or another due to familiarity, nostalgia, etc. It's another case of imposing something arbitrary/subjective on your users.
Quote: Adult: 230 games
This is subjective again. Is a bit of cartoon boob "adult", or does it have to be at least somewhat realistic? What about boobs in non-sexual context (e.g. armour coming off in Blandia) - still "adult", or does it need to be suggestive? And speaking of suggestive, how suggestive does it have to be? King of Fighters 2000 obviously has "bouncy Mai", but it also has topless Takuma, Benimaru's skin-tight top, and a bunch of other sexualised depiction of men. What about gratuitous violence, gore, or shock content? Or are you going with "adult" implying nudity/sex only? How are you actually defining "adult"?
Quote: Not game: 710 games (for instance, TI-89)
There are actually lots of games for TI calculators (see ticalc.org and other community sites). Unfortunately it's not easy to load them on the 68k family in MAME right now (need to edit NVRAM files), but you can load them onto the TI-82 and TI-85 by using the GraphLink HLE slot device.
Quote: So, again, the front-end is what it is, but I think the database could be a resource for developers.
I think you're doing a disservice to user, and especially developers. Applying arbitrary and subjective categorisation prevents people from finding hidden gems, and things they never knew they'd like.
> If you think what mamedev sets as parent is the preferable set that shows how little > you know.
I know you're not entirely happy about some of the choices, but posts like the OP here are one of the reasons most people are kinda happy to see it done, as you can legitimately put forward arguments that the parent sets aren't the best rather than allowing this poor opinion that 'all clones are disposable' to propagate to the point where everybody just deletes them. If we actively made the *best* version the parent, rather than following a simple set of rules, it would be a lot easier for people to just delete everything else.
There are many, many cases where the clones are more interesting / better versions.
It's an important fight to keep fighting, because there seem to be too many tools out there designed to whittle people down to '1 game / 1 rom' for both MAME stuff and stuff being used with other popular emulators. It's a worryingly destructive attitude.
> There are many, many cases where the clones are more interesting / better versions.
Understatement of the decade...
One of my top reasons... 2p vs 4p versions of Gauntlet and the various Konami games.
In all of the 2p versions, you can select any character, vs being tied to the coin slot you put your quarter in... 'twas a happy day for me when I first realized I could play as Donatello without having to re-assign the control assignments of Player 3.
RELAX and just have fun. Remember, it's all about the games.
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