dhaabi's VGC Database Work

[dhaabi]

To commemorate my submitting 10,000 entries, I decided to submit 10 really odd or really dumb items that lead up to entry 10,000.

9991: Pooplers
9992: Exotic Sushi
9993: Ugh!
9994: I'm in Love With Your Dead Grandmother
9995: How to Be a Complete Bastard
9996: Jet Set Willy
9997: Sex With Hitler
9998: The Founders of Daytona Beach Also Founded Dayton Ohio
9999: _____
10000: Kids, don’t eat your Halloween candy without having your parents inspect it first because there are SICKOS out there who will put RAZOR BLADES in it and you will CUT YOUR MOUTH and GET A POISONED INFECTION and DIE, all from eating your candy early. So don’t do that.

[dhaabi]

PlayStation [EU]
PlayStation [EU] is finally clean, although conflicting entry identity issues may still exist, albeit in significantly diminished numbers. If the Barcode and Item Number fields were empty, I added information to the best of my ability. Most typical retail items should have Barcode information, though.

In the event that an entry without a TLD as part of the entry name existed and it was not either the EU or UK release but acted as one of these two possibilities, I did my best to submit a new entry for the actual item missing. So, this means that the "standard" EU or UK item for a fair number of items have been newly submitted. For any European collector owning PlayStation games who may be reading this who also cares about the accuracy of their inventory, I would encourage going through your online collection because I am sure at least one item would be needing replaced, as the category as a whole was a mess.

This doesn't mean that the category is complete. There is no real way of knowing how many items are missing from the database, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were at least 2,000 at the time of this posting.

[dhaabi]

After writing the majority of a PlayStation ID topic in fall 2021, it's finally been finished and published, although it could still receive updates. I was wanting to ensure that the PlayStation [EU] category had been tidied before publishing it, but there was a long wait for the HTML bug around that time to be corrected which caused problems for many entry names.

Up Next
PSP UMD Video [JP]: I submitted a fair amount of entries before but then continued to do thorough research. I'll be submitting the remaining entries I've found soon.

[dhaabi]

PSP UMD Video [JP]
I've finally submitted everything I had gathered from my Japanese UMD research starting from late 2021. I can't imagine many more unique items being unknown that are left to add, but there certainly is a likely possibility that many variants are still unaccounted for. It seems that some items received subsequent prints while featuring different item numbers and often JAN sequences. There isn't really any ideal way to figure out which ones are like this without going through classifieds one title at a time while scanning back covers or (less likely) spines.

As of this post, the category grew from 29 to 933. The JP category is now more populated than the AU, EU, and NA categories combined.

Here is the PSP UMD Video [JP] spreadsheet which includes missing titles that are possible to exist alongside detailing which ones need information and which ones contain nudity with links. In the event VGC ever decides to allow images containing nudity, the image links will provide a quick resource.

Up Next
Submitting horror games across numerous platforms

[dhaabi]

Up Next
Submitting horror games across numerous platforms

This comment was made incredibly lightly. I didn't realize just how long this work would take, but it's nice to see everything come together once it's been submitted. So far, I've only worked on Resident Evil games. I'm not sure how many existing entries I've interacted with, but I've submitted approximately 1,600 new ones.

The source I'm referencing doesn't have every item listed, and especially so for more recent games. I've been collecting information in bulk that I send them, which has so far been for around 200 unique items. They generally update their site when they're in their home country which is only about half the year and not now, so it may take some time for new data I collected to be added there.

I'm still working on Resident Evil, although the mainline and spin-off games are done (but certainly not complete.) Next up is to add promos, demos, soundtracks, videos, films, books, and comics.

[dhaabi]

I quickly went through the 3DO categories to correct the Rating field since 3DO ratings have now been added. Many entries incorrectly listed ESRB, CERO, or None options, which is something that's bothered me for some time. There were a high amount of problem instances, at least 125. I didn't bother adding new information to the field if nothing was supplied already, so there are still plenty of entries missing rating details.

[dhaabi]

I'm nearing finishing up work on Resident Evil. I've moved on from the games, but I forgot to post a small guide of sorts concerning Capcom Europe. It's been in my working documents for a while, so I'd rather clear it out and post it here instead.

For Microsoft and Sony games published by Capcom Europe (CE Europe), they mostly all adhere to a specific back item number formatting. Here is an overview explaining it.

This does not pertain to earlier published games from companies such as Eidos Interactive, Ubisoft Entertainment, or even Capcom Eurosoft. Earlier items such as some regional variants for Resident Evil 4 for PlayStation 2 do not adopt this formatting, though. Other games around this time may not feature a back item number at all. By the next generation, however, it is the standard. Games generally share the same base number. So, for instance, nearly all copies of Resident Evil Village for PlayStation 5 share the 62000 base (62009 for SteelBook.) Before this information, a prefix is attached depending on what kind of release the item is. After this base information, a regional suffix number is attached. This suffix number may be attached with another suffix based on re-releases such as with the PlayStation Hits line or with certain special editions like the lenticular slipcover items.

Capcom Europe back item number guide:

prefix
IS = standard/Not for Resale/lenticular slipcover
OR = SteelBook/Collector's Edition (PS4/PS5/Xbox One/Xbox Series)

suffix
01/01ENG = UK
03/03AK/03BR/03GER/03USK = DE
03PEG/37GF/357 = AT/CH
04SPA = ES
05ITA = IT
06/06NOR = DK/FI/NO/SE
07/07FRE = FR
08DUT = NL
09/09RUS = RU
09EE = PL/general Eastern Europe
11/11ANZ = AU
45/45SI = ES/IT
78/78FAH = BE/NL
X1/X1ENG/X1EXP = general EU
X1ME = general Middle East
X1SAUDI = SA
X1UAE = AE

suffix+
ESS = Essentials
HITS = PlayStation Hits
MV = PlayStation Move
SE = lenticular slipcover

[dhaabi]

For the first time in 12 years, the Videos sub-cat is fully clean.

For any entry submitted to this category, the media type must be included as an entry name descriptor for future programming purposes. If there are multiple media types included, separate them normally with a forward slash ( / ). Below are the media types among existing entries:
- Betamax (Beta)
- Betacam (Betacam)
- Blu-ray (BD)
- Blu-ray 3D (BD 3D)
- Digital (Digital) *only in conjunction with other media types, such as with this example
- Digital Video/Versatile Disc (DVD)
- LaserDisc (LD)
- Ultra High Definition (UHD)
- Video Compact Disc (VCD)
- Video Home System (VHS)

[dhaabi]

Relevant James Bond items have all been given updated names in accordance to the recent community poll results. I easily could have missed some items since there are so many, but the majority should follow the correct format now.

[dhaabi]

I've reached 100,000 approved edits. A lot of them were made while updating incorrect information or supplying missing details to fields like Barcode and Item Number (arguably the two most important fields) for new entries on a daily basis.

[jason]

I've reached 100,000 approved edits. A lot of them were made while updating incorrect information or supplying missing details to fields like Barcode and Item Number (arguably the two most important fields) for new entries on a daily basis.

Thank you for your help

[dhaabi]

The Magazines sub-cat has finally been cleaned.

I prioritized front title name information simply because confirming spine information for these items without having them in-hand is often a challenge. Only when I couldn't utilize anything from the front cover did I refer to the spine for Name formatting.

One point needing mentioned is that digital items do not belong in physical categories. So, any entry for a digital version of a magazine was removed. Similar action has previously been taken for digital soundtracks.

Nintendo Power entries were the worst. All of them were formatted as MagazineName - Volume NNN (Month Year) alongside the Description field being utilized incorrectly. Many duplicates for specific issues also existed due to the erratic formatting.

It's important to remember that entry names should reflect what the product is actually titled. Before, this was ignored so that entries can be organized in the database in sequential order, but this is not important for our site. So, I will mention Game Informer as an example. Before, all entries were formatted as Game Informer #NNN. However, the below formatting styles are used across Game Informer's long-lasting library:
Season Issue 199N (1, 4-5)
Mo/Mo Issue 199N (2-3, 6)
Month/Month Issue 199N (7-12)
Vol. L Issue N (13-20)
Issue #NN (21-89)
#NN (90-99)
Issue NNN (100-361)

[dhaabi]

Developer/Publisher
This is work no one with the means to do ever wants to do due to how tedious it is, but I've finished a somewhat focused clean-up of the Developer and Publisher field options. I merged the following types of duplicate selections:
- Typos: Psycnosis merged into Psygnosis
- Corporate abbreviations or incorrect formatting: PACK IN VIDEO, PACK-IN-VIDEO CO., LTD., and Pack-in-Video Co.Ltd. merged into Pack-in-Video
- Selections featuring multiple names: Sega/Activision merged into Sega
Relevant items were merged with first company name listed. For any entity that was only selectable as part of a pair which did not have its own unique selection, I created one.

There are still plenty of options which probably should be removed or updated, but I did not go through that much lengthier process.

NES [NA]
I've recently come across a valuable resource documenting NES variants. I've gone through some games on eBay to validate the existence of such variants, and, while the differences are minor, they're valid. The site claims that they've identified approximately 1,200 different cartridges, so there is a lot of work to do.

Magazines
When I last posted about the Magazines sub-cat, I didn't mention that I also spent time to submit new entries for select survival horror franchises and Final Fantasy IX, in particular. Just for items related to Resident Evil, there are around 225 entries now.

PC-98
For a short while, I decided to start submitting game entries. The platform's library is quite large, yet very few have entries.

PlayStation 3 [NA]
When searching for the edition term, I cleaned up every result alongside any entries appearing in the Also on Platforms field. I updated any entry needing to adopt colon edition formatting ( : ) from hyphen edition formatting ( - ). Also, I removed every use of marketing collection images such as the one below.


PlayStation 5 Consoles
400 entries now exist. Near the end of my recent work here, I began adding "yellow dot" releases. In searching what these items are or where they were releases, I've come across numerous past discussions, yet they all seem wrong. In my own observations, I first thought these items seemed to be European PAL releases which were released in countries outside of the European Union (EU.) However, I then discovered that the only items released in Bulgaria, a member of the EU, feature the yellow dot. So, what the yellow dot may instead signify are items released in countries who aren't members of the European Economic Area, but it's still speculation. All that said, there are now entries for less prominent countries, such as this [BA][BG][KZ][RS] item.

Resident Evil
I'm still slowly working on Resident Evil movies. I'm trying to be as thorough as possible, so I'm burnt out of this section and have been for a while. No one's documented these items in detail before, so I'm fully spearheading research for this subset of items. I'd like to have it done sooner than later since I've been working with Resident Evil for about a year now and am nearly done, but I may need a break.

[dhaabi]

NES [NA]
I've recently come across a valuable resource documenting NES variants. I've gone through some games on eBay to validate the existence of such variants, and, while the differences are minor, they're valid. The site claims that they've identified approximately 1,200 different cartridges, so there is a lot of work to do.

Below is just one game with its recorded eight variant entries (there are actually nine, but the ninth relates to internal components), which I'm highlighting as example entries.

It's also worth noting these comments:
- 5906 originally featured conflicting front and back artwork, the former with a circle Seal of Quality (SOQ) and latter with an oval SOQ. I also updated its cart art, since the previous image was watermarked.
- 11510's cartridge art was watermarked, so it was removed. A later edit submitted NES-EB-USA to the Item Number field, yet no 5-screw cartridge variants feature a Nintendo serial. The back art (submitted at the same time as the front art) featured the oval SOQ, which is only present in one 3-screw cartridge variant.

Excitebike (5 screw cartridge / Nintendo Entertainment System)
Excitebike (5 screw cartridge / Nintendo Entertainment System™)
Excitebike (5 screw cartridge / Nintendo Entertainment System®)
Excitebike (3 screw cartridge / Nintendo®)
Excitebike (3 screw cartridge / ⓂNintendo®)
Excitebike (3 screw cartridge / ⓂNintendo® / NES-EB-USA)
Excitebike (3 screw cartridge / ©ⓂNintendo® / circle Seal)
Excitebike (3 screw cartridge / ©ⓂNintendo® / oval Seal)

I'm not sure how much work I'll put into submitting variant entries (which also means cleaning the category), but I am wanting to establish a decent amount of entry work to exist as quality references. With that said, I don't plan on doing any research on which cartridges were packed in certain boxes. It's too difficult of a task since there are so few CIB copies being sold to notice a trend, usually. It'd be more beneficial and a better use of time to instead submit the variants in some capacity for others to know that they exist and for them to someday fill out entry information.

[nathan776]

Its cool to see all the different variants as it relates to some of the older items. Its always a pain when identifying even some of the newer variants due to case swaps etc. While I don't plan on making a lot of edits to the category (at least at the minute haha), I'd assume we should post matching listings such as Ebay in "Error listings and rejected edits" thread when submitting variant edits?

Also out of curiosity, what occurs when merging Developers and Publishers? If a listing has a Developer of #1001 and that gets merged into #1002 will the listing now show the developer as #1002?