[game_preservation] Cataloging Standards?

[Devin Monnens]

Actually, I know Ritsumeikan has their own catalogue system, but I don't
remember how they did it. VGMDB simply adds new catalogue numbers whenever a
new album is discovered (for ease of the database). It might be interesting
to hear what other libraries are using.

On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Devin Monnens <dmonnens at gmail.com> wrote:


> A catalogue system was something I had been thinking about myself. These

> numbers would be something that all libraries would recognize and so they

> could list their catalogue in an online database that could easily be

> cross-referenced. Certainly, you could use a citation list with all the

> information I listed, but it would be easier to reduce it down to a few

> numbers. These should be pretty easy to recognize too. We could use any of

> the common abbreviations for system (AT = Atari (or AT2 for Atari2600, AT5

> for 5200, AT7 for 7800), GC =Gamecube, W98 = Windows 98, etc). Publishers

> and developers would have numbers or abbreviations as well (I'd stand for

> abbreviations though as they are easier to understand). You could probably

> number games based on year of publication in case a new version was found

> (that way, you're not adding new entries alphabetically). So you might say:

>

> System.Number.Version.Developer.Publisher.Year

>

> AT2.001.v1.US.Ata.Ata.1977

>

> From this, you could tell that this is an Atari 2600 game published in 1977, version 1 (it's a first print), it's

> the US

> region and the developer and publisher are both Atari, Inc. This narrows it down. If you can't guess the sample game, it's Combat :)

>

> NES.001.v1.JP.NCL.NCL.1985.9

>

> First see how much of this you can recognize. This might be the entry for

> the Japanese Super Mario Bros. Note that we can also add another number at

> the end indicating the month (or even the day too).

>

> DOS.143.v1.21.US.Bli.Bli.1995.2

>

> Ok, here is a PC game. We can tell it runs on DOS and that the version (or

> rather, patch) number is 1.21. It was published in the US and Bli stands for

> Blizzard :P A Feb 1995 release date narrows this down to...*drumroll*

> Warcraft.

>

> However, we might want to list the patch separately. You could probably

> list .pa for 'patch' or the medium (fl for 'floppy', CD, etc).

>

> DOS.142.v1.US.Bli.Bli.1994.fl [Original Floppy]

> DOS.142.v1.21.US.Bli.Bli.1995.2.pa [Patch]

> DOS.142.v1.21.US.Bli.Bli.1996.CD [CD version]

>

> This way, games get listed together based on whenever they are added to the

> catalogue.

>

> You can then

> have extra fields in the extended catalogue entry that indicate any special hardware

> or software you need to run the game (maybe also if the entry actually runs

> or has succumbed to bit rot?).

>

> An online catalogue would make it necessary to indicate if the library has

> box, manual, game, and inserts lines as

> well (in case someone was looking for one of those).

>

> Is this system closer to what you were thinking of? Is this level of

> complexity too much? (you could probably just have say

> DOS.142.v1.21.US.1996.CD and skip developer and publisher altogether). I

> think maybe this privileges release date, too so that the name of the game

> is associated with its release dates. You could divide these into genre with

> say 1.XX as 1 (action), 2 (rpg), and then the second number is the entry

> number.

>

> -Devin

>

> On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 8:11 AM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>wrote:

>

>> With that being the case, standard archive and library systems can easily

>> do "(Game) Name(s)" "Date" "Publisher" "Developer" "System" (or game type)

>> and possibly "Credits", and maybe (a broad) "Genre" or "Category" one, as

>> well as if it supports it a "Cover picture".

>>

>> What more do you think a library system catalogues? Looking at the

>> University I'm working at, that's what they do for DVD's, books, etc. etc. I

>> don't think archives would do much more, as a baseline for finding things in

>> their collections. Perhaps someone working on one can tell us. The only odd

>> thing would be the comparison to book's categorisations. Oddly, the

>> University of Nottingham uses an American system, which is odd mainly

>> because it has massive sections for "American History" but, say, UK history

>> gets dumped into tiny categories in "World History" I think, which I found a

>> tad silly, but hey ho!

>>

>> If we need to standardise those fields, well, are there any I've missed

>> out? We can put up some suggested fields as to allow people to, for example,

>> provide SQL database copies of what they have with those fields with

>> standard field names so that, perhaps, they can be shared (or just searched)

>> for historian's sakes if that was part of your intent.

>>

>> Do you want to write it up somewhat, with more what your intent is?

>>

>> Anyway, it's more fun talking about bigger databases, I'm glad it went off

>> topic a bit :)

>>

>>

>> Andrew

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>>

>

>

>

> --

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>




-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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