DAT-o-MATIC

Back to: Nintendo - Nintendo 3DS

Suggestion for many systems for a new tag "Superseded"

Fugus » 2022-10-09 23:55:56

Was thinking about this for filtering purposes. When you have games that have 2+ Revisions along with released on the ports onto other systems as well.

When it comes to those, would be a good thing to take all but the best or most complete version of those files and put a "Superseded" label on the rest.

Would be a good way to create DAT files that could filter out all but the single best versions of a game in a collection for those who want to keep their collections accurate but without repeating games.

Good for games like Super Smash Brothers on 3DS which has something like 11 Revisions or all those games that were released on Nintendo's virtual console that also got back ported into the original systems No-Intro collections.

Fugus » 2022-10-10 13:06:32

Here is an extreme hypothetical example here is a game list:

Final Fantasy Adventure (Demo) (USA)
Final Fantasy Adventure (USA)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 1) (USA)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 2) (USA)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev .3) (USA)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 4) (USA)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 5) (USA)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 6) (USA)
Mystic Quest (Collection of SaGa)

Now in this example, they are all different versions of the same game. The actual game supersedes the Demo so that would (Superseded) added.

Then when you looked at the original was replaced by revision 1-4 all of which added content or bug fixes. So the original and Revision 1-3 all get (Superseded) as well.

Now between Revisions 4 & 5, there is no new content or fixes with the likely changes being due to production change issues or something like that, in situations like that, take the newest version so Revision 4 would be (Superseded).

Now between 5 & 6. There was no new content or bug fixes included but the developer included some anti-piracy measure that made it harder to dump properly which made it harder for the modding community to hacks for it or maybe they introduced an error unintentionally. But either way it is functionally inferior to the previous version, at this point Revision 6 would be (Superseded).

Now we are down to Revision 5 vs "Mystic Quest", they are functionally the same game where even the company based it on Rev 5 because their Rev 6 made it hard for the switch to emulate. While Mystic Quest is the newest version functionally, it was not based originally on the system and the name doesn't match what players of the original game would expect was "Mystic Quest" would be (Superseded) leaving only Revision 5 and a list that looks like:

Final Fantasy Adventure (Demo) (USA) (Superseded)
Final Fantasy Adventure (USA) (Superseded)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 1) (USA) (Superseded)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 2) (USA) (Superseded)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev .3) (USA) (Superseded)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 4) (USA) (Superseded)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 5) (USA)
Final Fantasy Adventure (Rev. 6) (USA) (Superseded)
Mystic Quest (Collection of SaGa) (Superseded)

Where you can filter out the other version and leave you with the best version where if you have that one, there is not much reason to use the others outside of shear preservation.

The No-Intro collection has a massive influence on the overall community and this would also encourage mod creators to mainly all focus on singular revisions of roms as well for their mods unless they functionally needed a versions setup. That would make it easier for those who don't know much about modding to get into using a modded game as they don't have to search for a specific version as hard either.

Generally a win all the way around for all sides involved.

Hiccup » 2022-10-11 09:13:20

Hi. This is could be good idea, but long-form discussions aren't really suitable for the datomatic tickets. Could you re-post this on the forums? https://forum.no-intro.org/index.php
Sorry for the inconvenience - we can probably get a notice about this added to the "new ticket" page.

Fugus » 2022-10-11 09:49:26

Sure thing. Will get on the forum and post it.