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Unlicensed, Aftermarket, Homebrew labels
 
Category: Naming
Closed (accepted) by: nnssxx.
Roo » 2022-07-05 21:56:45

Hi Hiccup,

The homebrew, aftermarket and unlicensed label combinations should not be used when tagging a title. I'll try my best to explain.

Historically, when an unlicensed title was sold during the lifespan of a console, it was always considered Unlicensed, think of publishers, Wisdom Tree, Tengen, Accolade, etc. So any titles during the console lifespan should use Unlicensed, unless proven it was never sold.

Anything sold after the console lifespan should be tagged aftermarket and only aftermarket, regardless of it being homebrew or not and should include re-releases of past licensed titles by companies like Retro-Bit.

The Homebrew label should be for anything not sold regardless of when was released. If a homebrew title ends up being sold later on, that should be changed to Aftermarket.

This should be applied to all cart based consoles.

I really hope this makes sense and would keep things simple and easy to understand for the community when new entries are added and updated. If things are still not clear, please let me know and I'll try my best to give examples of existing entries.

Thank you
Roo » 2022-07-05 22:39:53

I wanted to add this in response to DeeKnow's ticket regarding Pirate entries. I think they should be left alone and not be mixed in with Unlicensed as I explained above.
Hiccup » 2022-07-06 05:56:04

Hm, why do you think the labels shouldn't be combined?
Roo » 2022-07-06 19:17:51

I'll try my best to explain and I apologize if I sound confusing and keep repeating the same concepts.

To me the label Aftermarket means it was sold at one point. From a historically standpoint, was this title sold or not and this label shows it was sold regardless if its homebrew or not.

Adding homebrew to the aftermarket label can appear conflicting if it was a commercial product. Now if a title that used to be a licensed game during the console lifespan and re-released after the console lifespan, then it should be ok to use Aftermarket-Unlicensed label.

some examples, the game 8-Eyes for NES. during lifespan, it was licensed during console lifespan so no need for label other than region right. Now it was re-released after console lifespan and sold. It should use the aftermarket-unl label.

Something like Jay and Silent Bob for NES is perfectly fine just to keep the Aftermarket label. Putting the (Unl) label to it takes away the meaning for games like 8-Eyes knowing its release history.

I feel homebrew and aftermarket when combined are in conflict because of what I explained above. if homebrew title was free, then keep it homebrew regardless of time period, but if ever sold during console lifespan, just use (Unl) and if sold after console lifespan it just becomes aftermarket.

Pirate games are a different situation, but I won't get into this now as I feel the aftermarket/unl/homebrew labels is the bigger bulk of the dat entries.

I hope some of this made sense, if not, I'll keep quiet lol :)
Hiccup » 2022-07-07 09:19:48

Yeah I guess "Aftermarket" isn't normally a distinction that is made with homebrew, so that makes sense.
Roo » 2022-07-07 19:40:05

and if it's known the homebrew title ends up being sold, the label just changes from Homebrew to Aftermarket.

That's not to say you can't change things up with the homebrew label. Maybe just add the year it was released if that's available.

And to bring up the Pirate label is another issue as I said before. Do you know if present day romhacks are put into dats? and would that be considered Pirate or Homebrew? I always thought Pirated games came from physical dumps, but I'm not sure that's the case anymore.