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Missing platform, Sort of, PC Engine


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Yes you have the Supergrafx but thats just a later release. Having the PC-Engine as you have the TurboGrafx 16 would be a good way to go in my opinion. I know NEC has a lot of different names for theyr different releases but its generaly PC-Engine(TBG16), PC-Engine CDrom, (Both combined PC-Duo) and PC-FX. If im not totaly wrong, as the handhelds use the same type of Hu-Cards
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If that is the case why do Genesis and MegaDrive both have there own DB section? I prefer the different regions to have there own category personally so I like that there is a Genesis and Mega Drive and would like to see this be expanded to allowing NES/Famicom SNES/SuperFamicom TG16/PCE all to have separate sections but it seems from what I read it would more go the other direction and Genesis and MegaDrive would be merged instead of the other systems being split.
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They'll all be merged, at least where it makes sense (like we won't merge Genesis and CD). The hopeful Idea is to clean up the Database and provide alternate naming, dates, and developers similar to the Images. It's just taking us time to get where ever we do end up going. Anything that is in place now (except for PC and MS-DOS being split) was a carry over from GamesDB. Also keep in mind that scraping is going to evolve too so that if you do have two regions split, it wont matter and it will still download properly. Everything can change, we could decide to split everything and adopt a "Scrape As" system as well, who knows. With everything combined though it should, hopefully, be less trouble.
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Okay here's my thoughts and bare with me I've been smoking a little this morning. If you were to open new platforms in the DB for Famicom, SuperFamicom and all the other systems that fit in this category and the mods were to approve platform changes for all of the relevant games or make new entries for games that were from both regions then couldn't the users then start scrapping the information under those names right now with only minimal changes needing to be made to LaunchBox.
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Changes are already coming to LaunchBox, right now the Metadata is only distributed when LaunchBox goes through an update and it's Local XML is updated. The end goal, and what Jason is working on this week, is to make LaunchBox fully communicate with the Database. As it stands, it only partially does. The changes are going to be made to LaunchBox regardless, how we handle what we do with the Platforms will be irrelevant as long as it works. The "Scrape As" option does make sense if they're all separated, however I believe that is another layer that we don't specifically need. The merged platforms with alternate naming should work as is because all of that data will be on the Database, it will just be merged and cleaned up instead of all spread out all over the place. It can eliminate extra bandwidth usage and many duplicate pages. We don't need some games 2 or 3 times on the Database when the underlying system is exactly the same, like Famicom and NES. Regardless of what we choose the changes to allow either of those are already going to happen this week.
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I hate the idea of merging systems from different regions. Each system should be treated separate with their own metadata and images. Lumping the PC Engine, PC Engine CD, TG-16, TG-CD and SuperGrafx is a complete nightmare when sorting the game titles and calling back to Emumovies for correct videos. I can assure you that is going to put a lot of people off and keep them away from LB because you are limiting the database. The only way around this is importing your rom folders separate, let it pull down all the meta data from the lumped TurboGrafx 16 or sometimes TurboGrafx-16 folder (it likes to split sometimes) and then going to platform management and rename it to the correct system and do it all again. I have been able to make separate library for all my NEC systems this way and it you prioritize Emumovies over the images it will pull mostly correct data. Now the Nintendo systems are a whole other beast but I wont get into that.
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Well first CD won't be merged with 16 those are separate beasts. However, the consoles are the same with different names. They're not exactly the same, but they're largely identical. The database will be able to handle them being merged, im not saying right now it could be handeled well but the whole point of changing the Database and how it interacts with LaunchBox is that something like what I've proposed will work seamlessly and not change how you prefer to keep your Library. TurboGrafx 16 and PC Engine are largely the same, so they'll have one destination but alternate or regional dating, naming, descriptions, images etc. So if you specify two seperate systems in the TurboGrafx 16 and PC Engine LaunchBox will pull the proper information. As is there is no complete set for any system, let alone proper duplicates with the proper naming scheme. So yea Legend of Zelda and Zeruda no Densetsu probably have two seperate entries, most other games don't. The point is to try and fill in the gaps as best as we can. If we had complete metadata and images to at least within 90% completion, maybe splitting the consoles wouldn't be a bad thing but with them combined if you seperate them on your end, the average user should not know. If a game doesn't exist though it still wont exist, but this will hopefully ensure that more metadata can properly make it's way out there. What happens to the user who puts English games in to the PC Engine category where they don't belong? Right now, more than likely nothing happens or very little happens. That same user with the proposed changes should still be able to find the proper metadata that they want. I also won't pretend that this is a perfect solution, it's a solution among many. I will also admit that it will take some tweaking like any other path we choose to go down, but I think merging them and making the Database a more clean destination can help. There is no need to have two sections for the same console.
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The only issue I see with this is when two roms from two different folders joined under one database will conflict with one another. How does the system know that Super Mario Bros. 2 Famicom and Super Mario Bros. 2 NES (bad example I know) are different roms, are you using the crc to check against the roms? If so then one database that has the ability to split off is not a bad thing.
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That's true, that is a good point but can still be taken care of I think. Like I said, it's not perfect. Well a game is searched by Name first, then drilled down by what console you are searching under. So Super Mario Bros. 2 or Super Mario Bros. USA would be the two names on the page (probably displayed with the english naming front facing honestly... but who knows), and SMB2 would be marked as a NTSC / USA game while SMB USA will be marked as a Japanese NTSC-J game. Each with the appropriatly marked images. Super Mario Bros. 2 or Super Mario Bros The Lost Leves will be the same way. Further, each page has a unique ID attached to each page, but something like a a pop-up that asks you "Is this SMB2 / SMB USA or is this SMB2 or Lost Levels" ... potentially. There aren't too many of these cases I don't believe, but I think we can come to a way to figure it out... but I wonder if that would be too complicated. I wonder how it's handeled now... I don't have a Famicom specific section in my library but I am sure I have the original Japanese Super Mario Bros. 2. In the end, it's always been confusing so there may need to be a little leg work on some of these more confusing games unless we can also assign another specific marker to differentiate the games besides the Japanese and American naming not matching up. Final Fantasy get's a tad confusing too.
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Yeah it is a really complicated process but that is why we are all here. Regardless the future looks bright which ever direction the database goes. I mainly use the metadata through LB for all the description info and 90% of the time use Circo's images until the LB DB gets fully rolling. I wouldn't mind working on all the Japanese odds and ends entry's. I love the NEC systems which is why I have them all separated or my OCD twitches. The Famicom and Super Famicom really need some love in the image departments.
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A lot of the Japanese systems need love, they're some of my favorite too. To sum up pretty much what my posts are saying for others, it's complicated but regardless of the Database we want users to be able to have their library the way they want. Alternate Naming, Scrape As options etc.
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  • 2 weeks later...
PC-Engine and PC-Engine CD need to be separate from Turbograx-16. These are not the same systems. The PC-Engine was released 2 years prior to the Turbografx and as such has a lot of exclusive games. Hyperlist shows that the PC-Engine has 294 games that can be fully playable without knowledge of Japanese that were never released on the Turbografx-16. It also lists an additional 118 exclusive games on the PC-Engine CD. Not only that but the artwork, covers, carts and so on are completely different. They look weird together with the Turbografx-16. These 2 systems really need to be separate. The Sega Genesis and Magadrive were released at the same time with the same games. Not so for the PC-Engine and Turbografx-16.
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These are the same systems. Regional naming, release dates, images and etc are just common in the gaming industry and still happens to this day. That doesn't mean they aren't the same exact thing with a different regional scheme on the box. Also, PC Engine / TGFX16 is the distinction. PC CD and TurboGrafx CD is still seperate from the 16. Hu Cards vs Discs. Just like how Genesis, CD and 32x are still seperate but regional differences doesn't make it different per se.
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