These are general guidelines that were formulated in order to provide consistency to the site. I ask that you please look these guidelines over, and make any necessary comments. Once the general guidelines are complete, we can begin the process of working on the department specific guidelines, of which the most pressing guidelines are needed for the hardware and Japanese Database.
Couple of Things to take Note of:
- Regular Members add to the site as well. As such, all the guidelines (save for staff guidelines) need to be written for not only a staff audience but also a member audience.
- We aren't looking to be anal. I don't really think it is necessary to determine how many spaces should go after a period. We are looking for general rules of thumb, not super-anal I hate the world guidelines.
- We need to get this done as soon as possible so that we can move forward and get hopping on new additions.
Now, let's start formulating. I'll begin.
General DisclaimerThe staff at RF Generation is proud to be part of the team that helps make RF Generation The Classic and Modern Video Games Database. We do our best to keep our databases growing, and we wouldn't be able to do that without your help. However, as our site grows it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain consistency throughout every game page. As such, we've created these set of guidelines as a manner to bring some uniformity to the database. We appreciate any and all submissions made to site, but we implore you to please follow these guidelines. Doing so will allow your submissions to be approved faster, cause them to be less likely to be edited massively or rejected, and make those of us who approve submissions much happier people. So, we'd really appreciate it if you make submissions following these simple guidelines. It will make our lives easier.
Verifying InformationSometimes, if the title you are submitting is really obscure, a staff member will private message you to ask you about the title, to make sure that the title really exists and to make sure that the data submitted is factual. This may be in addition to the sleuthing our staff members already do prior to PMing you. We don't want to add erroneous information to the database, and I am sure that you, as a gaming enthusiast, collector, or both, do not want to visit a database with improper information. So, please make sure a title exists with the information you submit. We wouldn't have to reject your submission because of erroneous information.
Submitting ImagesWe really enjoy it when new images are submitted. However, we do have some guidelines regarding the submission of images.
First, scans must be in the JPG format. As a general rule, all scans should be 550 pixels on the SHORT SIDE. Thus, the other dimension will be greater than 550 pixels. Just set the short side (height of a Genesis cart, width of an NES box, height of a CD case, etc) to 550 pixels and let your photo editor adjust the other side to scale. There's no reason to mess up the aspect ratio. For hardware shots, you are allowed to add more than photo or scan to the database for each entry. Extra Media also allows for multiple scans to be uploaded, and in addition to that a description can be associated with extra media scans. If you need something that will resize a large batch of scans automatically and much more quickly than by doing it by hand, Arrhalomynn found a free program that you can download here:
Batch Image Resizer: EasyThumbnails v2.8
For screenshots it's almost the same but a little different. First, screenshots can be in PNG or JPG format (remember that scans are JPG only). If your emulator or screen capture software takes them in bmp you can use this program to convert them to JPG or PNG Image Converter: Solid Converter GX 1.1
On the image search results page, in the In-game shots are actual gameplay. Only one image can be displayed here multiple submissions will overwrite the previous image. Title screens are the title screen of the game. Only one image can be displayed here multiple submissions will overwrite the previous image. An end screen is the screen shown when the game has been beaten (NOT "Game Over" screens, unless that is what it says at when the game has been finished successfully). Only one image can be displayed here multiple submissions will overwrite the previous image. Action shots perhaps should have been named in-game, as they can include both more in-game shots, FMV stills, menu screens, game over screens, and pretty much anything else you want to. Action shots are just for an assortment of screenshots from the game. This is the only listing you can submit multiple images for.
Please note that we expect scans and the like to look "nice". This includes making sure that Aspect Ratios are correct, the image is 'straight' and also cropped correctly.
A note about our Character EncodingCharacter Encoding is Evil. In an ideal world, UTF-8 would have came out before ASCII. Unfortunately, it didn't, and as such many sites are not coded in a consistent character set. For RF Generation, we use the character set ISO-8859-1 (Western European). As such, we can't display Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, or any other non Latin Script based language without using some form of Internet Magic. Perhaps in the future the site will transition to UTF-8, but boy is that a pain in the behind. So for the time being, we'll work around our limitations, and we'll strive to bring the best darn website that the Western-European Char Set can bring.
TitlesTitles should be the actual name of the game or piece of hardware as it was called in the country that it was released in. For example, if a title is in French then the title should stay in French. Sometimes a title might need to be Romanized. If this is the case, then I recommend that you check out the region specific guidelines for the proper way to Romanize.
Also, Titles that begin with the word "The" should have the "The" at the end. For example,
The Legend of Zelda should be entered in the database as
Legend of Zelda, The. Lastly, we ask that if a title has a Colon operator in it that you include the colon operator,
it is part of the title, regardless of how insignificant it may be.Variation TitlesFor games, the variation title is variation title that appears on the box. For example, the variation title of an N64 player's choice game would be Player's Choice. Simple enough, right? For hardware, however, it is a little bit more difficult, and I recommend that you check out the hardware specific guidelines for inspiration as to how to add that controller variation you have.
Alternate TitlesLet's say you have a foreign title, and you want the world to know it's translated title. Perhaps there is another title that this game or hardware goes by. If either of these scenarios are the case, than the Alternate Title field is where that alternative title goes. Straight forward, no? The alternate title should conform also to the same guidelines as the Title field.
Regions and CountriesRegions and countries can be a bit confusing. To guide you through the process, there is this little blurb on the subject. The only required field in an addition or regional variation addition is the region field. Simply stated, select the region that the was released in. What if the game exists in multiple regions, such as North America, Japan, and Europe? The game would need to be added three times. If the game is region wide, the region field is all you need to fill out and you can disregard the country field; however, what about games that only work in certain countries in a region? In that case, you would need to select the countries from the Country field. To select more than one country, hold down CTRL (or whatever the Mac Equivalent is) and select the countries that you need. If you want to deselect a country, click the country while holding CTRL. It should be noted that countries will only work with its associated region, with one exception. In order to allow for PAL-A variants, Australia can be selected in Europe. For the record
an entry will always be tied to a region, even if it only works in one country in the region . Keep that in mind. If you find that a country needs to be added to the system please contact an administrator.
YearPretty self explanatory. This is the year this title was released. Not the year that its regional equivalent was released, but the year that the title was released in its specified region.
Part NumbersPart Numbers are the unique identifiers associated with each piece of hardware or game. For example, the part number of the Wii Remote is RVL-003. To learn more about Part Numbers and for guidance as to where to find part numbers, see the database specific sections.
Barcode / UPCUPC, or Universal Product Code (or EAN, etc), they mean the same thing. The UPC (Barcode) is the product bar code for a game or hardware title. If it is a barcode then, how the heck is it added to the database? Well, a bar code is an encoding of a number (in the case of the UPC), and you will generally find that number above or below the bar code. It should be noted that on these bar codes there are sometimes two small numbers at the corners of the bar code. Those are also part of the UPC, so don't forget to include them. Lastly, do not put spaces in the barcode, it should be one long number. For now, we only allow one barcode per entry, but that may change in the future.
Media FormatPretty self-explanatory. Select the correct media format from the list. A media quantity field will then show up once the media format field is entered. If the media quantity is not 1 then we ask that you enter the number of CDs, DVDs, etc. that the game came on. Sometimes a media size field will show up, if you know the size of the cartridge then we ask that you enter that size. If you need a media format added please contact an administrator.
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