Should there be a separate category in the database for ROM Hacks?

[ThePowerPlayer]

Hello. I am new to the LaunchBox forums, but I have a good amount of experience with LaunchBox itself. I have a collection of Sonic the Hedgehog ROM hacks which I would like to import into LaunchBox. I tried importing them into the Sega Genesis section, and several hacks, such as Sonic Classic Heroes and Sonic 3 Complete, actually have boxart attributed to them despite not being official Genesis games (instead being modified from an existing game series). bHowever, having many Sonic ROM hacks in the Genesis category without descriptions or boxart attributed to the vast majority of them makes me feel that there should be a seperate category for ROM hacks for a certain system, such as the Genesis or NES. On the other hand, a separate category could definitely overcomplicate things more than necessary. Should there be separate categories for ROM hacks? Thank you in advance for any replies.

[Freestate]

Hacks need to be separated, i really hate to see the db stuffed with tons.. At least an option to ignore them when scrapping or keep them apart.

[Zerodoujin]

Hiya :)

This most certainly is an issue. ROM Hacks are one thing, there are hundreds of variants and tbh LaunchBox with enough configuration can host all your hacked roms with custom fields quite beautifully in its current form. There is no reason to add 700 variants per NES title to the DB, thats insane.

 

But what I am suggesting is a feature to allow 'Bootleg Support'

 

Table the idea of all the different SMB and Super Metroid ROM hacks, but in the Arcade and Fighting Game community there are certain established variants that are part of the culture. Two prime examples would be: The King of Fighters '97 Plus & Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2003 Super Plus alternate, both for the Neo Geo AES. There is also dozens of Arcade fighters such as Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 that have a Phoenix Edition version which is both the acclaimed community version (based on what MAME dump you are playing) and the region free version most likely matching the real world board you play on.

 

These all lack representation in the Metadata DB. And I would think coming up with a solution to incorporate some Bootleg Support would clear up a few dozen "What do I do about 2 files with the same name" threads.

[OKTrashPanda]

Zerodoujin: The solution is to add bootlegs to the DB.  There isn't a guideline saying "no bootlegs", just that the game in question has to exist for the specified platform.  If it's supported by MAME it can go in the arcade section with ease.  If it's Neo-Geo specific, put it there as well.

ThePowerPlayer: Why do you want a separate category for hacks that play on the same platform?  I'm not sure I understand your position.  The hacks that are lacking info would probably still lack info in a separate category.  If what you want is to separate your hacks from original ROMs you can already do that with a custom platform but I feel like that's not what you're after.