TPX VGCOLLECT R&D LIST

[tripredacus]

NES [EU] was partially updated. I suspect many listings still have problems. There were many converted entries and many franken entries. Some instances of AU or US items made in EU category, have been moved/merged as needed. Franken entries changed to releases of these types in priority of existance: UKV, SCN, NOE

Still a great many entries missing.

Now onto a shallow cruise through PC [EU] -_-

[tripredacus]

Changed Arcadia parent to Emerson.
Split out the different Arcadia clones into their own sub-cats for games. Hardware should go into Arcadia consoles

Moved EACA Color Genie and Video Genie into Tandy cat and deleted the EACA cat.

[tripredacus]

Re-working the Commodore sections currently.

[tripredacus]

Atari computer sections reorganized completely. Instead of media-based categories, now have system based so it matches everything else.

Atari 400/800
https://vgcollect.com/browse/atari800
Atari XL series
https://vgcollect.com/browse/atarixl
Atari XE series
https://vgcollect.com/browse/atarixe

I didn't post here, but C64 also changed away from media based to regional based.

[tripredacus]

Finished update of ZX Spectrum section, which was to mainly add Spanish releases. The source I used was not complete and I only worked with entries that had scans of some sort. Now ZX Spectrum has 4,263 items and I processed 3,010 images, although not all were just for Spectrum releases.

[tripredacus]

I've been researching the Super Mario Bros European Version variants for NES. I have pretty much completed the research I can and have made this sheet
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NyrzKmPzTLag1kGahkApsSvcG9NUnaPFGzb_jpPMbTI/edit?usp=sharing

If I add only the ones marked in green (or the y/z entries) I figured out I can name them like so:

18369   (European Version / black Seal) [DE]
z1      (European Version / black Seal) [FI]
z2      (European Version)
z3      (European Version / white circle Seal)
z4       (European Version / white oval Seal)

125943    (European Version / Action Series) [FI]
y1      (European Version / Action Serie / FRG manual)
y3      (European Version / Action Serie / FRG-1 manual)
y4      (European Version / Action Series) [GR]
y5      (European Version / Action Series) [PT]

However, the ones marked with x are not confirmed as far as the box combinations, however it does include carts that are not accounted for.
x1 NES-SM-EEC / FRG
x3 NES-SM-SCN / SCN
x4 NES-SM-EEC / na

I'd like to hear any ideas about how to handle the x listings. I may end up just not adding those at this time which would probably be the easiest option.

[dhaabi]

I don't think these name considerations are ideal. Only z3 in particular is given the (European Version / white circle Seal) descriptor, but these characteristics also apply to seven other items listed. When an individual item can be confused with another based on entry name, I always find some other way to classify them. This is the case even if details are expanded upon in the Description field.

Also, how many of these items are actually worth submitting? Nearly half of the items only have one observed count, so any of them could be pieced together with various components or have modified cartridges with parts exchanged from others.

Regardless, I came up with the below naming solution. Because of site's limitations alongside specific formatting conventions, I don't think there's any simple way to format these items. I'll also mention that I don't think prioritizing lower tier components such as the instruction booklet for an entry name descriptor is ideal for the reason mentioned above. With that said, I broke down the items in two sets like you have but based on different criteria that prioritizes further outer layer variances, followed by cartridge details since most collectors owning these items would be more likely to own the cartridge instead of other included components:

125943 (European Version / rectangle box / NES-SM SCN)
x3 (European Version / rectangle box / NES-SM SCN) [FI]
x2 (European Version / rectangle box / NES-SM FRG) [AT]
y1 (European Version / rectangle box / NES-SM FRG) [DE]
y3 (European Version / rectangle box / NES-SM FRG-1)
y4 (European Version / rectangle box / NES-SM GPS) [GR]
y5 (European Version / rectangle box / NES-SM GPS) [PT]

x5 (European Version / square box)
x4 (European Version / square box) [NO]
z3 (European Version / square box / DAS cartridge back) [AT]
18369 (European Version / square box / DAS cartridge back) [DE]
z2 (European Version / square box / FRG cartridge back / 3 screw cartridge)
x6 (European Version / square box / FRG cartridge back / 5 screw cartridge)
z4 (European Version / square box / SCN cartridge back) [AT]
z1 (European Version / square box / SCN cartridge back) [FI]

[tripredacus]

I think the solution is somewhere in between. Why I didn't want to use your example specifically is because of the DAS cart back. In your examples z3 and 18359 have different cart fronts. Also because I found the example in Austria for the one, it is not confirmed it is an Austria release. I think for the 3 examples I found them in different countries, as would be expected decades later. So anything I had put as AT on the sheet is just for reference.

All rectangle boxes are Action Series / Serie so it is not important to put the box shape. The presence of the unknowns or 1 instance findings is what really causes the problem. I just can't find a good way to add the unique carts at this time. Also I don't want to put the box flap number in desriptor.

[tripredacus]

I will go for this, which will allow for all entries to be made. Note that I will not add x5 or x2.

z2      (European Version / 3 screw FRG cart)
x1      (European Version / 3 screw NES-SM-EEC FRG cart)
x6      (European Version / 5 screw FRG cart)
18369   (European Version / black Seal / NES-SM-EEC DAS cart)
z1      (European Version / black Seal / NES-SM-EEC SCN cart)
x4      (European Version / black Seal / NES-SM-EEC cart)
z3      (European Version / white circle Seal)
z4       (European Version / white oval Seal)
x5       dupe of z2

125943    (European Version / Action Series / NES-SM-EEC SCN cart)
x3      (European Version / Action Series / NES-SM-SCN SCN cart)
y4      (European Version / Action Series / NES-SM-GPS cart) [GR]
y5      (European Version / Action Series / NES-SM-GPS cart) [PT]
y1      (European Version / Action Serie / DAS cart)
y3      (European Version / Action Serie / NES-SM-FRG DAS cart)
x2       likely frankenstein

And also not add box pictures for x1 either since I only found it as a cart. With few exception I did not look at loose cart listings only the boxed ones. It already took many hours to just do the boxed listings, it would take longer to look at just cart pictures.

[dhaabi]

z3      (European Version / white circle Seal)

Again, this is the only one that bothers me, just since the same descriptor applies to multiple items. Couldn't the entire second set of items also use the (white circle Seal) descriptor instead of Action Serie or Action Series one? If that were done, then all of the entries would be more uniform and still have unique names based on the latest proposed format.

[tripredacus]

I think it is important that Action Series is in the descriptor for those. There will be images for them so it shouldn't be an issue.