The “Perfect” Sega Genesis Database

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. 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.

This looks great! Excellent work.

I especially like the layout for the box art. It's nice to be able to browse through the covers like you would do back in the day at a store.

I assume you're just focusing on the North American releases now, but eventually, it would be cool to be able to select a region (primarily, North America / Europe / Japan) and have the games / box art from that region displayed.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gryson

This looks great! Excellent work.

I especially like the layout for the box art. It's nice to be able to browse through the covers like you would do back in the day at a store.

I assume you're just focusing on the North American releases now, but eventually, it would be cool to be able to select a region (primarily, North America / Europe / Japan) and have the games / box art from that region displayed.

---

I'd love to do that. NA games are well documented so it's a good place to start though.

I'd love for this to encourage the completion of the NA Sega Genesis releases. We're still missing a bunch of manuals and bringing that to the forefront with the "What's Missing" page could help. I'd even like to setup a bounty system if possible.

That's looking very good!
A good platform where you can browse is definitely missing; search even, as segaretro is painfully slow.

I don't know if you'd have any use for this but here's my list, which needs an update on the bootleg/homebrew front but has 1k+ titles; it was originally lifted from the one on Guardiana and then added on or changed genres on some games, as you'll often find them not making any sense.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1179726476

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Goati

That's looking very good!
A good platform where you can browse is definitely missing; search even, as segaretro is painfully slow.

I don't know if you'd have any use for this but here's my list, which needs an update on the bootleg/homebrew front but has 1k+ titles; it was originally lifted from the one on Guardiana and then added on or changed genres on some games, as you'll often find them not making any sense.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1179726476

---

This is actually pretty awesome. I'm struggling with the concept of Action / Platforming games as most "Action" games involve platforming, so what is a true "Platformer" and what is a true "Action" game. At the very least at this moment I could deff use this list to guide me on that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HappehLemons

This is actually pretty awesome. I'm struggling with the concept of Action / Platforming games as most "Action" games involve platforming, so what is a true "Platformer" and what is a true "Action" game. At the very least at this moment I could deff use this list to guide me on that.

---

I think you've already got a good list of genres (missing a few, though). This kind of database is best served by broad categories. That's much easier for users to sort. As you say, if you separate 'Action' and 'Platformer' it becomes unnecessarily complicated. I generally prefer the genre labels used in Japan:

Action
Shooting
Fighting
RPG
Adventure (the specific genre of story-driven point-and-click/dialogue games)
Strategy (this one is sometimes called Simulation in Japan, but I prefer Strategy)
Sports
Racing
Puzzle
Tabletop (e.g. mahjong)

And also two that you've listed: Educational and Compilation

I think that's very intuitive, although there might be a few games that are hard to place.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gryson

I think you've already got a good list of genres (missing a few, though). This kind of database is best served by broad categories. That's much easier for users to sort. As you say, if you separate 'Action' and 'Platformer' it becomes unnecessarily complicated. I generally prefer the genre labels used in Japan:

Action
Shooting
Fighting
RPG
Adventure (the specific genre of story-driven point-and-click/dialogue games)
Strategy (this one is sometimes called Simulation in Japan, but I prefer Strategy)
Sports
Racing
Puzzle
Tabletop (e.g. mahjong)

And also two that you've listed: Educational and Compilation

I think that's very intuitive, although there might be a few games that are hard to place.

---

This is close to the direction I was going in.

Also some updates:

Games manuals are now populated
Devs and Publishers filters are now populated
Mobile version now functional

Very cool! It would be great to get any extra stuff that was included with the game added also (Like posters, registration cards, other inserts). To me, that seems like one of the most undocumented areas.

I actually agree with Gryson, separacting Action/Platformer/Run&Gun gets dumb.
I've just never put effort in mine (yet), genre-wise, and kept what I was given.

Just in case anybody reading needs to know: don't trust SegaRetro too much on publisher/developer. Also not my list at all either, as it tends to list the publisher as the developer (again, Guardiana).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Goati

Just in case anybody reading needs to know: don't trust SegaRetro too much on publisher/developer. Also not my list at all either, as it tends to list the publisher as the developer (again, Guardiana).

---

Could you give examples of why not to trust SegaRetro for publisher/developer info? I typically find it to be much more accurate than Wikipedia (which should definitely not be trusted).

Of course, games often had different publishers in different regions, so that's something that should be incorporated into a database (unless we're only ever focusing on the Genesis).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Goati

I actually agree with Gryson, separacting Action/Platformer/Run&Gun gets dumb.
I've just never put effort in mine (yet), genre-wise, and kept what I was given.

Just in case anybody reading needs to know: don't trust SegaRetro too much on publisher/developer. Also not my list at all either, as it tends to list the publisher as the developer (again, Guardiana).

---

I decided not to separate things, but add an additional Genre onto games for more accurate sorting. So SHMUPS, Beat 'Em Ups, Platformers ect.. can have a sortable method and not all grouped into "Action"

This looks really promising! I've actually wanted a site like this for a long time! Is there any way I could contribute?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gryson

Could you give examples of why not to trust SegaRetro for publisher/developer info? I typically find it to be much more accurate than Wikipedia (which should definitely not be trusted).

---

Sorry, I can't remember any examples, but there were definitely a few I've found over the years. It is a wiki after all, still a good source of info but I have sometimes found the correct developer listed on MobyGames and not on Segaretro.
As far as Wikipedia goes, I only consult the Japanese one from time to time and it's often got interesting lore bits hard to find otherwise!

Looks sweet. I would say if possible to add box art spines that would be great. Also as far as platformer vs action platformer it's tough because most games fall into both. Generally I classify games as platformer only if you can jump on top of enemies to kill them. There will never be a consensus though so for something like this action probably works as a catch all.

I do think run and gun can be a pretty solidified sub group. Maybe I am wrong and they wouldn't be enough consensus on those games either.

Bunch of bug fixes, added a roadmap and now all games have videos (And any new games will as well)!

We've hit our first milestone. The Letter A for NTSC-U is now 100% complete. (Manuals for every game!)

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!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cowboyscowboys

Looks sweet. I would say if possible to add box art spines that would be great. Also as far as platformer vs action platformer it's tough because most games fall into both. Generally I classify games as platformer only if you can jump on top of enemies to kill them. There will never be a consensus though so for something like this action probably works as a catch all.

I do think run and gun can be a pretty solidified sub group. Maybe I am wrong and they wouldn't be enough consensus on those games either.

---

I agree with this. In fact I would say if you're including manuals also include full insert scans.

This is a very ambitious project but I wish you luck. I also think including region availability would be important to include, even if you didn't have all the data.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by xelement5x

I agree with this. In fact I would say if you're including manuals also include full insert scans.

This is a very ambitious project but I wish you luck. I also think including region availability would be important to include, even if you didn't have all the data.

---

Things were set up early to to support other regions, but until a system is developed that will allow others to contribute it won't be deployed. Right now our goal is NTSC-U, but technically we can do this. It's more due to the scope of a 1 man team manually verifying and adding each game. Scans we get are a big help, but are often raw and need to be cropped and converted to PDF. That plus the dev, design and database population and data-scraping. It takes a bit too much effort to start supporting it.

If someone wants to take charge of adding spines to game, I'm open to the idea, so reach out if you do.

Also, the Letter C was just deployed, so feel free to check it out everyone!

Glad to see this going so swiftly!
It has been said before but it would be dreamy to have it browsable by Japanese boxarts/releases some day.
Will definitely make an effort to provide whatever manual I can on the other thread when I got time sometime soon.

Love it! Keep up the great work, looking great man !!

That's an impressive work.
But as one of the guys behind guardiana, I'm surprised reading some critics here... that were never made to us.
And I also struggle to understand why anyone would want to create just one more website from scratch instead of contacting us to help and improve the site.
I mean, we are a collaborative database making absolutely no money from it (not even to pay for the servers) so I really can't see the reasons...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Goati

Glad to see this going so swiftly!
It has been said before but it would be dreamy to have it browsable by Japanese boxarts/releases some day.
Will definitely make an effort to provide whatever manual I can on the other thread when I got time sometime soon.

---

I couldn’t agree more here. I have a placeholder for “Browse NTCU-U by NTSC-J / PAL Boxart” and I hope I can deploy it soon. We’re changing our web stack to support this so it might be a bit, but I 100% plan to add this.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cyberguile

That's an impressive work.
But as one of the guys behind guardiana, I'm surprised reading some critics here... that were never made to us.
And I also struggle to understand why anyone would want to create just one more website from scratch instead of contacting us to help and improve the site.
I mean, we are a collaborative database making absolutely no money from it (not even to pay for the servers) so I really can't see the reasons...

---

Cool website - If you’re curious I’d suggest reading out about section to get a better understanding why I’d make a new database from scratch and that should answer everything! But a couple points:

1) We’re a call to action to complete the NTSC-U manual collection. Seems like your website doesn’t support manuals. Within our first month we’ve gotten around 40 previously unarchived manuals which is pretty amazing.

2) We’re not just a Sega Database. While that’s all we are at the moment, our consoles will expand beyond that

3) I work on document translations for NTSC-J games, there’s zero home for this type of media (Which is what this website started out as)

4) We’re moving slowly because I want to focus on accuracy. No games will be added to my database unless it’s been manually verified first.

5) We support robust filtering. That means sorting games by Genre, Publisher, Multiplayer Options etc... This really doesn’t exist on any other database apart from MobyGames, but it only allows you to view games in a text based format. Not great for finding new games to play imo.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cyberguile

That's an impressive work.
But as one of the guys behind guardiana, I'm surprised reading some critics here... that were never made to us.
[...]

---

Heyo! Sorry, that came off wrong, let me clarify a bit:
the list I provided on page 1 is my google spreadsheet which keeps track of my personal twitch project. Well, it's a livestream thing, so it's public and all and not really personal... but that's besides the point, what I'm trying to say is that it was never meant to be a comprehensive thing or a substitute, just an assisting document to a stream format.
It was indeed lifted from Guardiana, which is a detail I wouldn't even know if I hadn't been told by the kind viewer who compiled it for me ages ago.

On a side note, when I started learning programming professionally I also kept a software project to aid me with stuff like that; I had a half goal in mind of eventually integrating in it pretty much what HappehLemons is doing here and I couldn't be more glad about it!
I hope it goes superwell and becomes the go-to resource for specs, boxarts and lore. It would be exciting to contribute it in a later stage in the form of a wiki (I'm getting way ahead of things here but I'd have a million paragraphs in sheer lore to write up).

Very nice to read that the Japanese artworks are already in the back of the head (and software).
Could add rom size in megabits and megabytes, sound engine used (pulling from gdri..)
Ah well best of luck with this noble effort.