Nintendo DS item number : the one from the packaging or from the cartridge ?

[jonathlela]

When I began to add and edit my Nintendo DS games on vgcollect, I found out that that the item number from the cartridge often differs from the item number from the packaging.

For example:

- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, I have NTR-C32P-EUU on the packaging and NTR-C32P-UKV on the cartridge.
- Advance Wars: Dark Conflict, I have NTR-YW2P-FRA on the packaging and NTR-YW2P-EUR on the cartridge.

My guess is that different packagings can hold the same cartridge: Packagings are more region specifics.

For Advance Wars, my packaging (as the manual) is in french (hence the -FRA), but the cartridge is multi-languages and I think it's the same cartridge in the others european packagings (hence the -EUR).

So I'm asking which item number should be in the vgcollect database (for me, it should be the packaging item number).

I think my questioning should apply to others games/packagings, so it may be an already solved issue, but I didn't find an answer in the style guide or in the forum, maybe it should be included in the style guide ?

[desocietas]

When I began to add and edit my Nintendo DS games on vgcollect, I found out that that the item number from the cartridge often differs from the item number from the packaging.

For example:

- Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, I have NTR-C32P-EUU on the packaging and NTR-C32P-UKV on the cartridge.
- Advance Wars: Dark Conflict, I have NTR-YW2P-FRA on the packaging and NTR-YW2P-EUR on the cartridge.

My guess is that different packagings can hold the same cartridge: Packagings are more region specifics.

For Advance Wars, my packaging (as the manual) is in french (hence the -FRA), but the cartridge is multi-languages and I think it's the same cartridge in the others european packagings (hence the -EUR).

So I'm asking which item number should be in the vgcollect database (for me, it should be the packaging item number).

I think my questioning should apply to others games/packagings, so it may be an already solved issue, but I didn't find an answer in the style guide or in the forum, maybe it should be included in the style guide ?

This is a good question!  I believe we go with what's on the cartridge itself (because usually if someone adds the game to their collection, it's usually because they have the cartridge at least).  I didn't realize packaging would have a different number, but it makes sense for regional purposes.  NA games in US may have English only on their packaging while the same game will have English and French on their Canadian packaging.

[badATchaos]

i've noticed that with modern nintendo products. sometimes they'll add a zero at the end or something like that.

[jonathlela]

For the time being, I will adopt these guidelines :

- In the item number field, put the packaging item number.
- In the description field, specify the packaging language(s) and the cartridge item number.
- In the title, add the language code as found on the packaging item number between parenthesis (as the style guide recommends).
- In the alternative title field, put the game title without language code.

Miles Edgeworth should looks like :

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (EUU)
Alt-Name: Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth
Item Number: NTR-C32P-EUU
Description: English/French/German Packaging. Cartrigde is NTR-C32P-UKV.

Advance Wars: Dual Strike :

Advance Wars: Dark Conflict (FRA)
Alt-Name: Advance Wars: Dark Conflict
Item Number: NTR-YW2P-FRA
Description: French Packaging. Cartrigde is NTR-YW2P-EUR.

I think it's the most consistent.

[desocietas]

I'd say try not to make too many of these records without us hearing from one of the admins (you could always PM @scott, for instance).  I wouldn't want you to go through all that work if they decide they'd rather it be different.

[pacpix]

I passed this on to Matt. As Desocietas said, please wait before adding information to the database.

[matt]

Interesting situation. Not sure if we have a good solution for this yet. Let me think it over and kick it around with other admins. Feel free to continue the discussion.

[pacpix]

For now I have rejected the edits you submitted yesterday until it is decided how this will be handled.

[jonathlela]

Sure, I'll wait for the upcoming decisions .

[badATchaos]

Took some pictures of some Nintendo serial numbers. The cases or boxes for the most part have different numbers. Most add a single number or letter, others add an extra string. Most notable out of the examples is Mario Kart 7.




So I guess the question is do you want to allow people to add both, or one or the other?

[jonathlela]

Is there any progress concerning this matter ?

[fazerco]

I always enter the packaging.

[pacpix]

There will be an update on this soon.

[jonathlela]

Hi,
is there any update on this matter ?

[pacpix]

Sorry it took so long to update this.

For all items we will now be using the item number on the box, not the cart/disk.