[game_preservation] Cataloging Standards?

[ommail at cox.net]

It would be for everything related to games--data/physical boxes/development documentation/photographs/ephemera/etc.
Having a method that would work for all aspects of gaming would be paramount to a universal standard.
That's my dream, anyway--more to come soon.

Joe

---- Martin Goldberg <wgungfu at gmail.com> wrote: 

> Is this a game cataloging system, or game and hardware?

> 

> On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 6:13 PM, Devin Monnens <dmonnens at gmail.com> wrote:

> > It's similar yes. But I noticed a few flaws in the system (mainly, no way to

> > catalogue them alphabetically. It's also harder to track games

> > cross-platform).

> > I suppose the whole idea behind it is to have a catalog system that can make

> > it possible to cross-reference, kind of like an ISBN for games or the kanji

> > catalog numbers. That way, we know that when you're talking about a

> > particular game, you are talking about this one specific version that had

> > one specific bug. This would go hand-in-hand with a reference system for

> > APA, ACM, and MLA citations of games.

> > -Devin

> >

> > On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 5:00 PM, Andrew Armstrong <andrew at aarmstrong.org>

> > wrote:

> >>

> >> Looks like what libraries would (or do?) use. Would be worth seeing if

> >> anyone on the list who's working on their archive or library of games has an

> >> existing system and methodology. I'm not for reinventing the wheel for

> >> something that is so simple, and really needs no discussion if someone has

> >> something worth using (or an idea worth standardising properly).

> >>

> >> Andrew

> >>

> >> On 28/12/2009 16:54, Devin Monnens wrote:

> >>

> >> 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

> >>>> _______________________________________________

> >>>> game_preservation mailing list

> >>>> game_preservation at igda.org

> >>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

> >>>

> >>>

> >>>

> >>> --

> >>> 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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> >>

> >>

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> >>

> >

> >

> >

> > --

> > Devin Monnens

> > www.deserthat.com

> >

> > The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

> >

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> > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/game_preservation

> >

> >

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