Moderator Guidelines and Contributor Rules

[MITUB3R]

I have a question about the dashes rule. There is a game that has been exclusively digital and digital platforms use the dash instead of the colon symbol (:).

The question is that if the creators of the game have decided that the title bears the dash, would it be valid or should it be replaced by the colon symbol?

[Thanatos_Prime]

58 minutes ago, MITUB3R said:

I have a question about the dashes rule. There is a game that has been exclusively digital and digital platforms use the dash instead of the colon symbol (:).

The question is that if the creators of the game have decided that the title bears the dash, would it be valid or should it be replaced by the colon symbol?

Yes, for this database it should be replaced with a colon.

[MITUB3R]

14 minutes ago, Thanatos_Prime said:

Yes, for this database it should be replaced with a colon.

I understand, thanks for the information ?

[jophran]

Hi, I have a question I couldn't find answered. Under what category should a magazine cover picture be? I mean for those games that came in a cassete or diskette on a magazine. There are many of those in,for example, commodore 64. I've seen that ussually magazine covers are in "box - front" but I don't know if there is were they should be.

 

Thank you

[C-Beats]

2 hours ago, jophran said:

Hi, I have a question I couldn't find answered. Under what category should a magazine cover picture be? I mean for those games that came in a cassete or diskette on a magazine. There are many of those in,for example, commodore 64. I've seen that ussually magazine covers are in "box - front" but I don't know if there is were they should be.

 

Thank you

Advertisement Flyer - Front/Back (depending on the image)

[Thanatos_Prime]

I would disagree. If it acts as the "Cover" for the game then it should be Box Front.

 

[Jason Carr]

We don't currently have a category for magazine cover, but if  the game *only* came as part of a magazine, then it makes sense to use the magazine cover as the box front. We do not want magazine covers identifying as box front images in any other situation though.

[Krakerman]

I have created a category just for system and retro magazines as well as nested categories for each different magazine for the various systems on my setup and use the covers for my box art works really nice to be honest and looks good.

 I used a program that grabs the cover page from each magazine pdf (in bulk) and used those for my box art.?

Edited April 4, 2020 by Krakerman

[kurzih]

Hi!

It's really great seeing how much updates and additions to the database are made on a daily basis! I've been doing it myself for a few weeks and always checking sources etc.

Though recently there has been a lot of "launchbox software cannot handle accents in titles" moderation cases, which I think is a bit strange. Like Pokémon for example - someone wants to change those to Pokemon. These titles have been for quite a long time there and I haven't had any issues with Launchbox handling/finding them and EmuMovies works just fine with them too. So I don't understand the need for changing an official confirmed name to something that it is not.

I've also seen some debates about using a "-" after the second subtitle. I understand that after the main title there should be a colon ":". But two colons in a title is well.. doesn't feel correct. And looking at the second rule of this forum's topic. I don't see a clear message about this, since "-" seems to be allowed in certain cases. Main Title: Subtitle: Secondary Subtitle. Or Main Title: Subtitle - Secondary subtitle.

Any thoughts? I don't really mind other than giving my opinion, but I'd rather moderate new entries and new content rather than going back and forth.

[Thanatos_Prime]

1 minute ago, kurzih said:

Hi!

It's really great seeing how much updates and additions to the database are made on a daily basis! I've been doing it myself for a few weeks and always checking sources etc.

Though recently there has been a lot of "launchbox software cannot handle accents in titles" moderation cases, which I think is a bit strange. Like Pokémon for example - someone wants to change those to Pokemon. These titles have been for quite a long time there and I haven't had any issues with Launchbox handling/finding them and EmuMovies works just fine with them too. So I don't understand the need for changing an official confirmed name to something that it is not.

I've also seen some debates about using a "-" after the second subtitle. I understand that after the main title there should be a colon ":". But two colons in a title is well.. doesn't feel correct. And looking at the second rule of this forum's topic. I don't see a clear message about this, since "-" seems to be allowed in certain cases. Main Title: Subtitle: Secondary Subtitle. Or Main Title: Subtitle - Secondary subtitle.

Any thoughts? I don't really mind other than giving my opinion, but I'd rather moderate new entries and new content rather than going back and forth.

I can address the second question. Per game submission rules, no dashes as separators in game names, substitute : in all such cases. Take as many colons as you want in the title to replace dashes used as separators. It doesn't feel right but it is what we need. It really shouldn't be in any of the titles, but it sneaks through. Fix them when you find them, please. 

 As far as the Pokemon issue if it matches the box info I think that is correct, but I believe we were told that dashes are the only character that causes problems. I did see it recently mentioned that umlauts caused issues as well.

[kurzih]

Lately, like many others, I have been adding a lot of new entries that were missing from the DB. It's really nice seeing more of those Pinball entries added, whoever you are - thanks!!

Before I move onto the next platform I had in mind, I wanted to check if this game's name is OK: "Onna no Ko to Misshitsu ni Itara ○○shichau Kamoshirenai". It's how it's written on the Box Art. (Some sources use ** instead of ○○). You can find the entry on MG for example. Is there a way to test for special characters, like make a .txt file on windows and see if it accepts it?

I don't mind skipping it if we can't be sure that the naming doesn't mess something. But better ask first than be sorry later

Edit: another good example would be: Pictlogica Final Fantasy ≒ with the mark "≒" would that work with LB? - I can always add it as an alt name later, if it would work and use now the actual pronounced name. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by kurzih

[Thanatos_Prime]

20 hours ago, kurzih said:

Lately, like many others, I have been adding a lot of new entries that were missing from the DB. It's really nice seeing more of those Pinball entries added, whoever you are - thanks!!

Before I move onto the next platform I had in mind, I wanted to check if this game's name is OK: "Onna no Ko to Misshitsu ni Itara ○○shichau Kamoshirenai". It's how it's written on the Box Art. (Some sources use ** instead of ○○). You can find the entry on MG for example. Is there a way to test for special characters, like make a .txt file on windows and see if it accepts it?

I don't mind skipping it if we can't be sure that the naming doesn't mess something. But better ask first than be sorry later

Edit: another good example would be: Pictlogica Final Fantasy ≒ with the mark "≒" would that work with LB? - I can always add it as an alt name later, if it would work and use now the actual pronounced name. 

I would just put the primary name in the way you would read it and put these symbols in with the alternate names as you suggested. "Onna no Ko to Misshitsu ni Itara: shichau Kamoshirenai"? or The artist formerly known as Prince not Ƭ̵̬̊. .

[ziggy73701]

I currently have a LOT more time on my hands so was going to have a bash at some of the Atari ST stuff... is there a more effective way of updating/adding titles other than the website?? Are there any gotchas to look out for before spending HOURS on this :D

Is there a way for someone to import a pre prepared spreadsheet in to the DB with all the game tiles, publishers.. dates etc... and then media can be added after?

[Thanatos_Prime]

On 4/24/2020 at 1:39 AM, ziggy73701 said:

I currently have a LOT more time on my hands so was going to have a bash at some of the Atari ST stuff... is there a more effective way of updating/adding titles other than the website?? Are there any gotchas to look out for before spending HOURS on this

Is there a way for someone to import a pre prepared spreadsheet in to the DB with all the game tiles, publishers.. dates etc... and then media can be added after?

Effective is the key word. There is a plug in/add on for Launchbox that will allow addition to the database but my understanding is that it only works well on certain older versions. It also is responsible for a lot of extra moderation clean up as it will not notice that there is already a non region-ed box front larger than the North American box front you will be uploading or notice an existing entry with a slightly different spelling being created. Plus you learn a lot more doing it by hand.

[kurzih]

I've spent countless of time moderating some fan art cartridges and I'm seeing this happening AGAIN right now, this time with Game Boy Cartridges.

This is a really well made template, better than the one before but it is still photoshopped with original stickers copy pasted. Worst is that someone is replacing (deleting in the process) the genuine original pictures, like for example:

 replacing with  they are the same: 

And also this will take a lot of moderating to change those carts back to Fan art. We have Fan Art - Cart Front for a reason.. I'm sure many of us appreciate the original pictures even if not quite all same sized etc.

Edit: Anyway, wanted to add that on my part I would approve these reconstructions/fanarts as they are, since they are quite good. Hopefully we could get a new version of this GB template above with an actual cartridge image (not one reconstructed with a computer), for example I really like the new reconstructed 3DS cartridges that have been submitted recently for example. Really nice touch on those, doesn't really differ from the real thing.

Edited April 27, 2020 by kurzih

[ultrez]

On 11/14/2019 at 1:44 AM, Jason Carr said:

Per #3, I am in agreement that we need all arcade games under the Arcade platform, because that is what the platform is. However, I don't see anything wrong with duplicating them also in there subcategory "platforms". That way users can choose which approach they want and it should work well for both. I know we're missing a lot of subcategory platforms currently though.

So what is the solution here? Many platforms like Model 1 and 2 are empty and duplicated games often lag/differentiate in media. 

[kurzih]

21 minutes ago, ultrez said:

So what is the solution here? Many platforms like Model 1 and 2 are empty and duplicated games often lag/differentiate in media. 

Let's submit them, we have all the info and media we need from the Arcade section, right?  I'll start doing it with Sega Model 1 as I just rejected a move from Star Wars Arcade => Sega Model 1. Might as well do the new entry myself.

Of course if there would be a "copy to platform: X" or other way to keep the original entry where it is, but have it copied to another platform. that would make things a lot faster.

Edit: and in the process we might fill some gaps in the metadata and find more images - like the arcade cabinet etc.

Edited May 10, 2020 by kurzih

[ultrez]

16 minutes ago, kurzih said:

Edit: and in the process we might fill some gaps in the metadata and find more images - like the arcade cabinet etc.

Sounds good

[code88]

Hi, I usually take lot of screenshots of the games I play and wanted to contribute to the database with them. My question is if there is a limit in size or quantity. Lots of them are in 4k and can take more than 5 mb each, and for some games I have over a dozen. 95% of them are PC games but I also have some high resolution screenshots of emulated games.

[kurzih]

9 hours ago, code88 said:

Hi, I usually take lot of screenshots of the games I play and wanted to contribute to the database with them. My question is if there is a limit in size or quantity. Lots of them are in 4k and can take more than 5 mb each, and for some games I have over a dozen. 95% of them are PC games but I also have some high resolution screenshots of emulated games.

This is not a guideline, but rather what I would recommend myself:

File Size:
There is a limit in size. You can't upload files too big, the system will give you an error when trying to do so or if the file format is wrong.

File Quantity:
That Limit is probably just common sense. 2-6 Gameplay screenshots sounds like a good number to me - I usually just upload the title screenshot and 1-2 gameplay images, especially if one screenshot can be 5Mb. I don't think many would want to see their HD filled up too quickly

I wouldn't add more screenshot images where there are screenshot images already. But you can always try to submit a replacement to existing ones if you have for example a higher quality one, or with the correct aspect ratio expected for the platform. Or replace one that has a watermark (which is against the database rules).

Thank you for wanting to contribute! It would be great having more media especially for PC games, looking forward to it