Questions About Obscure NES Games

[Code Monkey | 2,011]

26 minutes ago, Khromak said:

Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

I would seriously consider not using a retail tag. It's a complete mess. Allow users to put their own tags in and THEY can decide what's a retail game. This is not something you'll be able to nail down to an absolute science, and even if you do, someone will later come back and say the pictures you used as proof were promotional and the game never actually sold. Or someone will come up with new pictures of some game which was thought to be mail-in only, being sold in a store which meets your criteria. This is a moving target and not something easily verifiable, which has different meanings to different users, and which is always hotly debated.

So when I list NES games, do I list Contra and Probotector as separate games in the long list? What about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles?

This could cause an on-screen list of NES games to have 677 entries or 2000.

[fcgamer | 4,725]

4 minutes ago, Code Monkey said:

So when I list NES games, do I list Contra and Probotector as separate games in the long list? What about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles?

This could cause an on-screen list of NES games to have 677 entries or 2000.

Asterisk them might be the easiest way. 

[Khromak | 768]

1 hour ago, Code Monkey said:

So when I list NES games, do I list Contra and Probotector as separate games in the long list? What about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles?

This could cause an on-screen list of NES games to have 677 entries or 2000.

I think these are all design decisions about how you want to present things to the customer. IMHO you could have different sections for PAL NES, Famicom, FDS, etc. even though they run on the same (very similar) architecture.

Or you could have TMHT just be a checkbox for region, and let the user track it themselves.

If you have artwork associated with each game, probably best to distinguish games by artwork.

Are you going to have 4 entries for Wayne Gretzky's Hockey because of the cover variants?

You'll end up in a hellscape if you try to think of everything every collector might want to track. Just pick the way YOU want to differentiate games and go with that. If you want feedback from the community you can ask and we'll all provide it, but the feedback will be different and it will be difficult to get a consensus. Maybe polls would help, so you can at least understand majority opinion? Or just go with what you would want to see.

I imagine these problems will blow up with more complex systems/ones you/we are less familiar with. Bless your heart.

[RegularGuyGamer | 2,013]

4 hours ago, Code Monkey said:

So when I list NES games, do I list Contra and Probotector as separate games in the long list? What about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles?

This could cause an on-screen list of NES games to have 677 entries or 2000.

Have you ever used a collection tracker? Price charting has 5-screw and other variants that come up in the NES category. I don't see anything wrong w that, especially if someone is sorting by price.

[MrWunderful | 2,927]

I think you should look at the gameye app, because that is the best tracker I have found so far. I am happy to pay their subscription fee because it is a very well rounded app and every variant that I have I’ve been able to find on there.

 

What is the goal with this tracker? To monetize? Or to satisfy your specific wants for “-1 USA” variants?  Because if its to monetize, the majority of people who track minor ROM variants or whatever probably track via spreadsheet and tailor to THEIR specific needs. 
 

It will be a futile to attempt to try and specify every single variant from every single region in every single location because there’s so much gray area. 

[rubyhoorn | 15]

I have an invoice from a shop in Austria (Europe). According to the bill, a Super Mario Bros. 2 and a "Sachen Game" for the NES 72pin were bought at the same time. That should prove enough that at least a few "Sachen games" were officially sold in Austria. In addition, I have 2 different posters with overviews of the "Sachen Games" in English and German. These posters were included with the games. In addition, there were adapters including connection cables so that the games worked. Also consoles of Sachen were sold in Europe.

Edited August 10, 2023 by rubyhoorn