I'm debating how to manage hacked roms. Is there a preferred/recommended method?

[PurpleTentacle]

I wanted to include Castlevania II Redaction, and initially I was going to bother to separate it since it's just one rom. But after coming across a collection of hacked NES/SNES/Genesis roms, I'm considering organizing it somehow. 

 

There are two methods I was thinking of using:

1) import them as regular NES/SNES/Genesis roms, and then adding "Hack" as a custom field, and then making a Playlist that includes that autogenerates based on that custom field.

2) Create custom Platforms for NES/SNES/Genesis hack roms (and potentially a Playlist that includes them all).

 

When I tried creating a custom Platform, Launch Box warned me that it was inadvisable (I did this on a test copy of my build so that I didn't have to worry about messing anything up). For now, it seems like the best option is to add the hacked roms as normal, but then adding that custom field. That said, I'd like a way to organize them a bit more (like using a separate folder so they're not mixed in). I'm open to suggestions.

[Lordmonkus]

Personally I would do it's own platform, this is what I do for my SNES MSU collection, but you can do it either way you want, just remember to add the new platform to the emulators associated platforms if you do go this route.

[PurpleTentacle]

Yup, added the relevant emulators to the Platform when I did a test run on a NES rom hacks platform. Also did that when I added "Nintendo Famicom" as a separate platform to my collection (still wasn't sure why that's not a default platform, but I don't know a whole lot about the Famicom vs. the Famicom Disk System (aside from the obvious). I'll probably still add "Hack" to the Custom Fields to make a playlist with all hacked roms, just for convenience sake.

Only question I have left is why Launch Box recommends not adding a new Platform? It didn't recommend it when I added Famicom by doing Tools -> Manage Platforms, but when I right clicked on an existing Platform, and then clicked add, it recommended to use the Tools -> Manage Platforms to make a custom platform. Not really sure why or what the difference is.

Thanks for the reply.

[Lordmonkus]

8 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Only question I have left is why Launch Box recommends not adding a new Platform?

No idea why though i'm sure Jason has his reasons.

10 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

It didn't recommend it when I added Famicom by doing Tools -> Manage Platforms, but when I right clicked on an existing Platform, and then clicked add, it recommended to use the Tools -> Manage Platforms to make a custom platform. Not really sure why or what the difference is.

I don't think I have ever added a platform using the Tools -> Manage Platforms method, I just drag roms in and make the platform during import.

11 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

Famicom vs. the Famicom Disk System

Famicom is just the base system that uses carts the disk system is an add on that uses a sort of floppy disk which has a much larger capacity and was a cheap way to save games without a battery requirement in the cart.

[damageinc86]

I like having them as separate platforms.  I put all my hacks/homebrews together, for example:  SNES Homebrew, NES Homebrew, Genesis Homebrew, etc.  I know a lot of people further separate between homebrew and hacks,...but I consider it all homebrew since even a romhack was still "brewed" by someone or a team, on their own. 

[Kondorito]

I have a platform called Hacks and Fan-made games, and placed there the hacks from different systems.

If you are using BigBox, then I am intrigued in how you will be displaying the hacks there; as I have like 500-ish, but not all of them have images/video and/or metadata, so finding a theme that displays them nicely was/is hard.

[Retro808]

Pretty much doing the same. Having separate platforms. Category of "Hacks and Fan-made" then list separated platforms for SNES Hacks, Genesis Hacks, and so on. Like @damageinc86 

[PurpleTentacle]

4 hours ago, Kondorito said:

If you are using BigBox, then I am intrigued in how you will be displaying the hacks there; as I have like 500-ish, but not all of them have images/video and/or metadata, so finding a theme that displays them nicely was/is hard.

This is the one thing that makes me hesitant to import the hacks/homebrews. Even though I don't have all that many, it's still a bit of a pain. My TI-99 4/a collection is a bit of a mess because a higher percentage of them don't have metadata, and even then, a lot of them don't have all the images I need (and especially the movies). I just kind of accept that my TI-99 4a stuff is a mess, so I'd probably do that with my hacks/homebrews stuff. Images aren't usually too bad to track down, but making/finding movies is a different matter.

[Kondorito]

1 minute ago, PurpleTentacle said:

This is the one thing that makes me hesitant to import the hacks/homebrews. Even though I don't have all that many, it's still a bit of a pain. My TI-99 4/a collection is a bit of a mess because a higher percentage of them don't have metadata, and even then, a lot of them don't have all the images I need (and especially the movies). I just kind of accept that my TI-99 4a stuff is a mess, so I'd probably do that with my hacks/homebrews stuff. Images aren't usually too bad to track down, but making/finding movies is a different matter.

I hear you. I am using Nosh's text list view for the Hacks platform, as it does not rely on metadata and media to look good.

Just thinking out loud now, I might switch for a theme with a text list view and just a video background in loop. Don't know. My OCD wants to have a lot of stuff displayed in screen, but with hacks is almost impossible, unless doing the scrapping of everything manually.

 

[damageinc86]

Yeah you have to really be dedicated to your hacks/homebrews to have all the images and videos and stuff.  I try as best i can, but some fall through the cracks.  I just deal with the gaps, but I have found a lot of videos on youtube, and made a lot of clear logos on my own.  It's tolerable, but not complete by any means.