1 (edited by cHrI8l3 2009-07-02 16:17:04)

I think it's good time to explain basic ideas of my new project
http://vg-database.com

It is a tool dedicated for video game enthusiasts and collectors.
Closed community of professionals, partially open for everyone.

It's allowing to gather and properly order/inter-connect/relate information about almost everything that is related to video games, like:
- companies (developers/publishers/platform manufacturers/rating systems)
- platforms (consoles/computers/handhelds/cellphones/webgames)
- models of platforms
- perihperals for platforms
- titles (not only games, but also video discs related to games, soundtracks etc)
- editions (related to title)
- dumps (related to edition)
- reviews/descriptions for most of the data

And from another point of view it should gather some data related to various games:
- high quality scans of covers (related to edition/s) and manuals
- wallpapers
- firmwares
... and maybe books in the future

There is a very similiar project for anime, known very well within anime collectors community: http://anidb.net
I was missing something like this for video games and I decided to start my own...

Whole internet gamers community is totally divided, first between various platforms, then by data they collect (dirrent website for covers, different for manuals, etc), and by those who dont allow dumps and those who just dump, and of course there is a scene which is completely partitioned...
There is ofcourse alot of big commercial web-services that have very good informations about lots of games (because they are paid to have them), but they are mostly dedicated for typicall John Doe gamer and they lack other very important, more professional informations..
There are some groups of people over the internet that share my idea, but everytime in limited way (f.e. only one platform), and most of them don`t have proper scripting resources (like ps2ptt with their wiki or snesorama's psx datacenter with their 19th century html).
Basically there is no one place where you will get everything you might be looking for easilly without spending whole evening browsing various websites.
VG-Database should be that one place...

The fundamental idea is that It will be managable by users (like mobygames). Users will be able to submit data that is missing. By submitting any type of data users will gain specific amount of.. reputation points.
With many rep points user will up-rank and have access for hidden content (like 300dpi stuff), or be able to add data without waiting for moderators approval.
The rep points system should distinguish between typicall users and people who know what their doing smile
By providing invalid informations small amount of rep will be removed from user account.
I think that this will be good system to see which user provides credible/good informations and which just junk to build up their rep.
And for users that provide something beyond typicall (like quality/rare stuff or are just dedicated to the community) there will be more bonuses in rep and in priviledges and maybe in something else smile

For changing data there will be something like CREQ (change request) system from anidb. Users request will be gather on a board, free moderator then will be able to take the change case and approve it or reject.

And... we come to the point ot typical video game collector... for collectors there will be private lists, when they will be able to gather stuff they have (consoles, peripherals, dumps) - redump have private lits but very simple, you cannot sort the list, search inside, compare it to others lists or manage it in any other way than just add/remove.
And redump lists are public, any users that have account can see others lists. In vgdb users can decide who will be able to see their collections.

Im also planning on making lots of tools that will make administrating of this website easy + some tools available for all users, like automatic comparing of dat files, auto adding games to private lists by user dat, and maybe some data parsers...
+ Dedicated forum... and wikipedia-like script for gathering guides, tutorials, and other informations that not qualify anywhere else.

OK.. so thats only the basics. I already added some data to the website to test how it's working and give some examples

At current point of time, site is in early development state, only administration tools that are available at the moment are forms for adding new data. However I'm working on this project constatly and more and more features will be available soon.
Registrations are open if anoyone would like to check for themselves.

If you were patient enought to read up to this points - thanks smile Next few lines of text are aimed to you

I'm currently all alone in this project and I'm looking for people who will help me, first in adding informations, second in moderating and third in providing data.
Of course I mean people with solid knowledge about games.
If someone would like to help please contact me smile
If someone here have high quality scans (f.e. of their dumps) or is willing to help by scanning, also please contact me smile

And thats basically it...
I'm open to suggestions , if anyone have the idea about a feature let me know.
If you don't understand something - I'm not a good writer + english aint my native lang smile - just ask.

Very Nice site, i visited it yesterday and loved the site, unfortunately other visiting it frequently i won't be of much help coz of time constraint.

Thanks for ur work.

PS: and is there any plan to have a offline version of this also.

3 (edited by cHrI8l3 2009-04-18 19:07:20)

and is there any plan to have a offline version of this also.

yes I was thinking about it... but thats a job for distant future, first I need to finish web version and fill it with data, then i have in plan making some AJAX scripting, and then ill try with offline version, maybe something like widget for desktop...

edit: just thought one more time about your question and ... did you mean HTML offline ? smile because thats not a big problem to generate reports in HTML

Offline data should preferably be in XML, so you can parse it with a tool later to display it smile

yup, XML is also good choice, and even easier to code...

6 (edited by daftsquare 2009-04-20 14:35:06)

Wow, I absolutely love this site.  I have been thinking of a database like this for years and wish one existed, but I'm not very good at programming, so there would be no way I could start something like that.

I've been collecting games, and archiving as much as I can find for many many years and I have quite a large collection of USA consoles/games/etc.  I would love to help out in any way possible, like adding data, scans, and what not.

edit: i tried adding some titles just to get a feel for the site and see how everything works, but i got a database error.

Glad you like it smile
Your help will surely be appreciated

edit: i tried adding some titles just to get a feel for the site and see how everything works, but i got a database error.

dont have that error on logs... but Final Fantasy Tactics was submitted somehow smile
I've updated the script and tested and it seems working... but let me know if that error still present

And... I've created DEMO version of the site, it's available at:
http://demo.vg-database.com

its using different, empty database so data added there wont be visible on main site
and... every account registered on demo will automatically have administrator status + all priviledges maxed out smile
you guys can play around with it and add whatever you want
it should be good way to make yourself familiar with structures of vgdb
...at least until I prepare documentation or guides smile

i tried the regular site again, this time with firefox (the first time was with chrome).  I tried adding the PC Engine to the console list.  Same error.  'Database Error'.

I tried the demo though and everything seems OK.  Haven't ran into any errors.

must be something with submition system, Ill check that out

I get a Database Error when trying to register hmm

Was looking some place to add/contribute my recent scans of the covers/label/manuals of a few PS2 games I dumped recently.

ah shit, thx for the report
I fixed the registration error

(keep the manuals plz for some time before i figure out the script for uploading sets of files)