[game_preservation] Game Database question

[Jan Baart]

As your two examples show I don't think a general rule to draw the line 
between version and different game can be found. In most cases it is 
obvious but in others it isn't and has to be decided on a case by case 
basis. And then there's the somewhat artificial concept of platforms 
too. Let's continue with one of the examples brought up earlier. Fate of 
Atlantis. It has seen releases on DOS, Amiga, Mac, Wii and probably 
Windows and if you want ScummVM. All of these have their differences, 
mainly in terms of control. But, in a discussion about the game it 
wouldn't matter at all which port you played. It would make a difference 
though whether you played the talkie version or not. At the same time, 
playing a cd compilation re-release of lets say Batman: The Caped 
Crusader for DOS is not different to playing its original floppy version 
at all but playing the CPC version instead certainly is.

I think mobygames does a good job of having a list of games and listing 
the variants within that entry. Something like this can never be perfect 
but I think they found a good solution.

About your comment on piracy. Are you referring to things like chinese 
spritehacked Super Nintendo games etc? If so I'd certainly agree that 
their dismissal is not very helpful.

On 15.03.2010 00:58, Devin Monnens wrote:

> Let me begin by emphasizing something that I think should have been 

> emphasized at the roundtable more: we need to work on standards that 

> all libraries and archives can agree on.

>

> For cataloging, I would go back to 'what is the minimum amount of data 

> required to indicate how the game is identified'? Beyond this, we 

> would want to know 'what does it take to run this game as intended?'

>

> Jim makes a couple good points here as well.

>

> First, how different do two copies of a game have to be for them to be 

> considered different games? Golden Axe on HG101 is a good example of a 

> comparison. I don't know where I'd even begin here.

>

> http://hg101.kontek.net/goldenaxe/goldenaxe.htm

>

> An easier example. In the NES and Famicom versions of Castlevania 3, 

> you have graphical changes like the vampire frogs (!) replaced with 

> hunchbacks. The game functions identically despite this graphical 

> change, but it could be argued there is a different interpretation if 

> there are hunchbacks. However, the handshake switch does change some 

> meaning in the game (Trevor is righty or lefty/he is shaking Sypha's 

> hand or holding it delicately). On a more dramatic level, the music is 

> superior in the Famicom version, so this is a something notable that 

> could affect a player's perception (better music makes players think 

> the game is better). However, there is also a rule change where the 

> damage taken is different - in the US version, damage is based on game 

> level while in the Famicom, it is based on what kind of enemy hits you 

> (which makes later stages easier). I'm not sure I would consider these 

> big enough differences though to warrant calling it a different game, 

> more like different version numbers. With the Golden Axe examples, I 

> think there's greater leeway in calling a port a different game. There 

> simply isn't an analogue to this in film or novels because the content 

> doesn't really change if it's on vhs or dvd or in times new roman 

> versus arial.

>

> http://www.castlevaniadungeon.net/Games/cv3foreign.html

>

> The second I think is this dismissal of piracy categories, and here I 

> think there needs some clarification. Game lists such as 'Goodtools' 

> can be very useful in documenting changes between two games. However, 

> these are not currently tied to metadata so we don't know exactly what 

> changes were made or where each version came from (usually). I 

> wouldn't completely dismiss this resource as a byte-to-byte comparison 

> of the games can indicate if there is a difference in two games for 

> the same platform.

>

>

> -- 

> Devin Monnens

> www.deserthat.com <http://www.deserthat.com>

>

> The sleep of Reason produces monsters.

>

>

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