I’m trying to build what I’d consider to be the “Perfect” Sega Genesis database for finding new games and getting complete in box game docs. What my “perfect” database trying to be? Being able to find & browse games visually by box art or screenshots. Being able to easily filter games with things like multiplayer options, release date publisher ect.... Most important of all, having all of the contents of games being complete (Manual, Cart, Front and Back Boxart) and easily accessible. Right now I’m only supporting the letter A, and numeric games and remember, this is just a prototype Check it out here: https://www.vgcomplete.com/genesis-boxart-ntscu Know bugs are: Can’t stack filters after searching by name or letter Would love to hear thoughts on this so far. Does this have value to anyone? Personally, I’ve always wanted to browse the entire Genesis library by box art and screenshots. And when playing a new game I have always wanted a place where I can easily get the manuals of said game. This is just something I’ve been doing in my free time and would love to build out the entire library if people care about this & it's a project worth completing.
It'd be better if all this info was added to Sega Retro. But it's neat you've been archiving all that stuff
Actually, my “That’s Missing” page re-directs to Sega Retro so it can be contributed there. I encourage anyone who wants to help complete the Sega database add it to SegaRetro first, as anything I backup will be added there as well! Also all the translated manuals are linked within SegaRetro as well!
This has been my source of truth for populating these games. Quick update! Games manuals are now populated! Devs and Publishers filters are now populated! Mobile version now functional!
Looks nice, though treating every game as if it only ever had one box/instructions/cartridge per region is already a big flaw for an attempt at a perfect database.
I'd love to support this, but I'd need to come up with a solution on the backend to handle it. Alt boxart support is on the list of things I want to take care of sooner vs later. What are some examples of games that have multiple Instructions / Cartridges' within the NSTC-U region?
Based on what your purpose is, does it matter if there are different versions within a region? I want to note that you said 'the “Perfect” Sega Genesis database for finding new games and getting complete in box game docs', not a perfect database of every piece of info imaginable. Sega Retro is more going for the latter. But Sega Retro has... not so good options for easily browsing and discovering new games. I think some people in this thread may have been under the impression you were just trying to replicate Sega Retro, so I wanted to point that out.
There are ways to fix that. I've spent ten years living with Mediawiki's quirks so it's easy to forget how the average user interacts with Sega Retro. That being said, I'm not personally in the mood right now to take screenshots of 1000+ Mega Drive games. But it should totally happen - grab an emulator and take shots of "interesting" things - the only reason it hasn't been done already is there's a finite number of hands (and server performance doesn't help!). Also technically you can filter games by a load of options, but it's a high barrier to entry if you don't know how SQL joins work. The database is fully viewable, it's just not very user friendly.
I think what Sega Retro is doing is perfect, though - in terms of being a complete information database, which is what I think it's going for. What I love about VGComplete is the simplicity: A simple, clean presentation of box covers and, when you click on one, a brief presentation of the most relevant info for discovering games: back of the box, screenshot, video, manual. I'm not sure that's compatible with what Sega Retro is aiming for. As I said on Sega-16, the only thing I'd really like to (eventually) see is the ability to switch to releases based on region with art/manuals from that region, so if you collect PAL games you can make use of it that way. Two other databases like this with really cool presentations that come to mind: The PC Big Box Collection has 3D rotating models of boxes (some are in German, though). https://bigboxcollection.com/ Not video games, but 3DJoes has one of the coolest presentations of toys, with 3D rotating models. https://www.3djoes.com/the-gi-joe-yearbook-a-visual-index-of-carded-figures.html What I like about all of these sites is that they try to recreate the visual appeal of packaging and back-of-the-box art and screenshots that we used to drool over in stores as kids. I think there is a huge interest / demand for this kind of stuff.
I think SegaRetro is a awesome resource, but I don't think it's great as a game browser. For people discovering the Sega Genesis library, using a List of Mega Drive games ( @Black Squirrel ) is just not an enjoyable way to find games. Even game pages only have title screens with just a bunch of select games built out with more info, and boxart at the bottom of the pages. We know the library, but for casual users or someone looking for a new game to play, but this isn't it. We're the "user friendly" option to use your words. A huge goal here is completing the NTSC-U manuals collection. Within a week of posting this, we've gotten at least 12 new manuals scanned (that need to be uploaded) with a lot more coming. If there's a good way to find NTSC-U manuals that haven't been uploaded on SegaRetro, it's not very accessible. I ended up making my own list here: https://www.vgcomplete.com/missing . This will simultaneously help add to SegaRetros database as well. The scope of this goes beyond Sega Genesis, but I wanted to start here as it's my favorite system. tldr: My goal is simple. Build a fun way to visually browse games and complete the NTSC-U manual collection. I don't think anyone else was doing this, so I wanted to
The letter B is now implemented! We're only missing 3 manuals and working on finding them now, but if you have them (Blaster Master, Bubsy II & Beast Wrestler) please let me know!
