RF Generation Message Board

 :pirate: why is it so hard for me to find any pal games in the database when i want to add them to my collection like
Doom 3
grand theft auto: Lcs
grand theft auto SA

their are to many to list but please can we try to have the list updated with PAL games at the same time as NTSC GAMES

We've been holding off on personally adding PAL games to the database due to the current database system being somewhat restricted.  There are many different PAL regions and variants, and we (well, Eddie and possibly TraderJake ;)) are in the process of revamping the database to allow for many different regions.  Once that is in effect, we will have many of the PAL games added to the database in no time ;)

The plan was to get this done as soon as possible, but some other important issues arose, and the PAL update has been put somewhat on hold.  I'm sure that once the summer vacation kicks in for some of the staff, the PAL update will be taken care of in a timely fashion ;)  

By the way, you can add any missing PAL games in this thread:
http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=announce;action=display;num=1102736280;start=0#0

If it's a PAL game that is pretty much the same throughout all of Europe, go ahead and submit it and it will get added by the staff.  If it is a game that has several different variations, it might have to wait a little while until we get the new system up for variants.

Please be sure to read the first post and submit the games in the proper format. This will help speed the process of adding the missing games.  :)

How would you know if a game is the same throughout Europe? Surely each release in some of the major countries in Europe like the UK, Holland, Germany, France and Spain will all have minor variations such as text or titles on the boxes/ books due to the different languages spoken.

Also what will happen with all of the PAL games already in the database as these will not have been designated to being from a specific region when originally entered?

Also what regions/ variations would there be as there are quite a lot of countries in Europe (45 it seems when I googled it) so would each one of these have there own code?

This will be based on what is documented, and I assume should be adaptable if needed.  You are correct that most consoles have multiple releases within Europe, especially all of the recent ones.  This does not make any PAL games/info/scans submitted to the current database obsolete, however, as it could all be transferred to the new system in pieces.  There are some consoles, though, that, as far as I know, have the same releases throughout Europe, such as some of the Sega consoles.  



These will be reentered if needed, with all of the proper credits transferred as well.  So all credits from game/info/scan/etc submissions will remain the same :)  The majority of European PAL games that have been submitted include the product numbers, which can usually be used to trace it to a specific region within Europe (there are other means as well, such as scans, etc).  It won't be easy, but it should be doable, and as far as I'm concerned is something that needs to be done.  It will take time to get it all in there, but it will allow much more flexibility for PAL collections and can be used to document regional variants, etc.  

I think that's all that I can answer for now, if I've made any incorrect assumptions, please feel free to correct me Eddie ;)

Pieter I was totally being the devils advocate, not being negative about anything, it just seems like a lot of work to split and categorize everything. Like the orginal poster said there aren't that many PAL games in the database compared to NTSC but its still a big task.

Another question what would happen with peoples collections like my own which is mainly UK released games and someone like Captain QB who I think is based in Finland. We could have two different variations of the game but will have both just have it as an entry in our collections.

Any way whenever you start with spiltting the PAL games down I will help were I can. Just give me a shout. I might get back to doing some scans as well soon still loads to get through there's just not enough hours in the day :)

i thought most PAL games were nearly the same released throughout Europe.

Most Sega games have a Manuel in about 6 diffrent languages and Nintendo games did have the UKV or EUR code on them now they all have EUR.

Whilst most games will undoubtedly be released throughout Europe, we were concerned over variants, some games carry different box names and artwork dependent on where they were released.

Hopefully in the next few months we can set up a system to cover these regional/ country variants, and then I'll quickly fill the database with British releases for current gen/ next gen stuff. We just just need to bide our time for the next couple of months.