Confusion on sets

[actioncomics]

When last i looked into emulation there were no sets.  It was just game dumps and that was it (showing my age, I know).  What I am wondering is about the different sets that are out there.  I have seen different ones like tosec, nointro and nongood(I think).  I have seen different descriptions on each so i think I understand them.  But I am having trouble deciding which to get.  What i am looking for is all US based games.  But then there are alot of games that aren't released in US that I would also like to try...final fantasy series for example.  Is there a set that covers this as complete as possible?

[rexryan]

Oh god Oh my..Go with no intro..Welcome  to a young guys game as i feel your pain on age,,But these people and moderators are spot on with their knowledge..

[Lordmonkus]

Yes, start out with No-Intro sets for cart based consoles. These sets will give you 99% of everything you could ever need in your collection, they basically contain 1 good proper dump of each game from the US and Japan region and if there are any European PAL exclusives that will be included as well. If you want to patch a game with a rom hack or translation patch the chances are extremely high that you will need a rom from the No-Intro set to patch.

GoodSets contain a whole lot more stuff, their goal is to collect every dump in existence, this includes bad dumps and overdumps. These can have certain benefits in very edge case scenarios.

As for CD based systems such as Sega CD, Playstation, Saturn or PC Engine CD you will ideally want to look for Redump sets or games, Dark Water is another good alternative.

[actioncomics]

Thanks for the info, sounds like No-Intro and Redump are good starting points.