How do you Catalog your Game Collection

[schi0249]

I am looking for a free computerized method to catalog my game collection. I suck a$$ at Access so if someone knows of a good template, that would do too. Currently I have a huge list in word. It would be nice to have something cool.

For all you comic book fans who might be interested, Comic Base just released a free version of their popular program. It is limited to a collection of 500. I am just giving that a try, as I was using word for that too. I don't know how many books I have, so hopefully its under 500. Anyone have a good Access template?

 

[ratfish]

[cough]vgrebirth.org[cough]

 

[VertigoXX]

VGrebirth might work, but if you want to add any custom fields (IE: condition, original vs. cdr, etc.) or export your list to a spreadsheet you can put on your PDA/iPod/PSP/etc, you're SOL. Personaly I use Collectorz.com's Game Collector program. It ain't free, but it does everything I need it to.

As for my comics, I just use ComicsPriceGuide.com. Free account is limited to 50 books, but a year's membership costs less than a subscription to Wizard.

 

[schi0249]

Vgrebirth is cool, but I'm looking for something with custom fields. Also, something I can export. In summer i go to flea markets/swap meets and like to bring a list of what I have. I am trying out collectorz.com program. It's nice, I just don't know about the price. Have you ever used their comic book program?

 

[mtxblau]

If you have access, my suggestion would be is to buy a used copy of 'access for dummies' from amazon. Once you get a handle of it, it will more than fit your needs (since you'd make your own customizations).


I'm using Access97 for our office, and picked up three access books (including programming and the access bible) for a grand total of $12 (after shipping). It's not a huge database, but I've made forms and a database that is more usable than the commercial offerings specific to our type company (which starts at $1K).


Realistically, the free stuff isn't going to cut it (usually) and if you're going to pay a membership might as well pony up 2 or 3 years worth and get something done that is a lot more flexible.

 

[Amon]

I am actually writing a program to catalog game collections for a school project. Title, Genre, Description, System, Status, as well as notes or which memory card the save file is on are some of the fields I will be including. So far I do not have much, and I was going to post it up here when I had something running. Any suggestions as to what I should include?

 

[ratfish]

Oh, hey schi, I didn't even notice it was you that posted, heh...

I've been messing around with Excel recently, so if I happen to come up with anything miraculous, I'll post the workbook linkage up here.

I barely remember using Access back in college (keyword being barely) and that actually might be a good one too.

The way I see it, there's 3 pretty Accessible (pun not intended...well yeah it was ) options. XML, Excel, or Access. Each of which will require some preproduction building the template unless there's some tool out there that does it for you.

And yeah, screw VGRebirth. I just went back there recently and noticed how time consuming the user input is required to catalog details.

 

[VertigoXX]

No, I never used their comic program. You have to manualy enter prices, and I want something that'll track prices automaticaly. Comic Base may do that, but when I got started cataloging it wasn't free and you had to buy annual updates to get new pricing. ComicsPriceGuide.com has daily price updates for only $45 a year. As for Game Collector (and Movie Collector), $40 ain't bad. That's less than half what a copy of Microsoft Word costs alone. Try out the free edition and see if it'll do what you need. If you find something that works better, please let me know.

 

[schi0249]

Thanks for all the advice. I think I'm just gonna play around with Access, maybe even get a book. It seems like one of the best options. If I get anything cool running, I'll post it up. I just have to dig out my Office 97 copy now.

 

[Amon]

I am making a program to catalog games what features do people want?

 

[schi0249]

Game collector is a good example. I just don't have $25 to spend. It would be nice to have the following info either populated or fields to enter in:

• title
  
• platform
  
• genre
  
• release year
  
• publisher
  
• region
  
• media type
  
• maybe something were you can import a jpeg
  
• someway to indicate if you are missing boxes or instructions
  
• some custom fields where you can put personal notes. i.e. strategy guide, greatest hits/platinum hit/players whatever release

 

[Amon]

Thats totally do-able... if someone emails me a few game releases lists (or points me to a place with them) I could have most of those populated, if not just empty fiends to enter.

 

[ratfish]

A context sensitive option for platforms and regions would be awesome.

Say for instance, you enter Saturn for the Platform field and JP for the region, it could insert a new field by detecting that:

if (Platform=Saturn and Region=JP) then

insert new Field of type Spine_Card

Or something of that nature.

Pardon the quick and dirty psuedocode.

 

[Amon]

that I can also do , one question though which context sensitive options would there be other than jp saturn having a spine card?

 

[ratfish]

that I can also do , one question though which context sensitive options would there be other than jp saturn having a spine card?

Good question.

The only other one I know off the top of my head are the JP Dreamcast spine cards.

Maybe other people know of region-unique things.

Edit-

Oh, don't forget a condition field.

I prefer a word-based rating system as opposed to numbers, e.g. Poor, Acceptable, Good, Excellent, and Mint instead of 1-5. That is if you're building it as a dropdown menu or letting the user enter it themselves (which actually might be better to think about in the future)

2nd Edit-

Oh, and maybe even a "how found" field, such as how you aquired it; Retail New, Used Game Store, Thrift Store, Trade, Auction.

 

[Jedi Master Thrash]

I just picked using Excel (or any free spreadsheet program). I looked at Access once, but it took so much effort just to create the record types and field options. With a spreadsheet, I could just create one header row with the fields, and then fill them in. And the drag+fill features make it easy to copy field values across multiple selections (and the auto-complete sometimes helps, and sometimes is annoying, but sometimes it's nice to be able to just type "Ge" and it fills in "Genesis" for you).

And any queries I'd want to make with a database I can accomplish with the auto-filter feature of the spreadsheet. For instance, pretty much the only queries I do are searching for all games by one system, or searching for all games missing the manual, or something like that. And auto-filter handles that perfectly.

And for the random info I put into the "condition" field, I can just use regular CTRL+F search to find it.

I usually never like software that pre-categorizes things for me. Like most on-line game databases always categorize all games generically as "shooter" or "simulation" or something. I'm quite picky about whether my game is a horizontal, vertical, 1st person, 3rd person, or isometric shooter, and know the difference between a platform shooter, an action platform, a beatemup, and an adventure game.

Like all those music organized softwares that are bundled with everything... I hate how they force-categorize all your music into their imaginary world of "genre". Everything is either "rock/alternative" or pop or country... and they're usually all categorized wrong anyway. I'm quite picky about which of my CDs are melodic metal, prog metal, neo-classical metal, symphonic metal, 80's metal, true metal, power metal, power-prog metal, and opera-metal. None of which would I be caught dead classifying as "rock/alt"...

Here's a small sample of my spreadsheet format (html output from excel, so it might not work in anything but IE 7):

http://www.jedimasterthrash.com/sega/GameDB.htm

The most handy use of the database was for finding missing parts. For instance, I could never remember if I needed an extra power supply or an extra Rf switch for all my genesii. Or which games I'm missing manuals to. And then of course should I be dumb enough to go to DiscLand's 20% sale or manage to get over to Hi-Score of Toyriffic, well then I definitely better remember which games I already have. The other purpose was just for figuring out which game I should play. For instance, if I have a friend over, I might want to find all the 2-player shooters and pick one. Or I can search for games without a filled-in Category field, because then I know I haven't even tried them out yet...

 

[schi0249]

Totally off topic here. I forgot you live in MN too. I shopped at Discland when they were next door to the current location. Back then it wasn't rare to find a good deal. I picked up a complete copy of X-mas Nights for like $.50. I also got my X-Eye from them for only $25. Last few times I went there, I couldn't any killer deals.

 

[Amon]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I should have a beta out later this week if all goes well. I'll have it connect to a database over the net to store the data... (this is a requirement for the project. I will also have it output to a file as well (might not make the beta). Also it will be using the .Net framework, my appologise in advance (again a requirement). I believe there are too many games out there for me to parse

through and include in my program so a lot will be user input and check boxes.

Heres what I think I should have... please let me know if I am missing anything or if I should take something out

System (drop down menu),

Type(drop down, including accessory),

Title,

Release year (can be blank and drop down),

publisher (can be blank),

region (drop down),

media type (drop down),

max players(drop down),

condition(drop down and or user input)

online play (check box),

extras (check box + input for things like spine card collectors edition stuff etc),

box (check box)

manual (check box)

status (drop down of options along the lines of havent started, started, near complete, finished)

save file (input box or drop down where you can specifiy where the save file is located can be blank)

notes (can be blank input box for general notes)

If you guys think this is worth while I may do this as well...

if pc game thats installed have an input box or a dialog box to get the location of the game and have a button to lanch the game

 

[schi0249]

Sounds like a great project. I can't wait to see it.

 

[RevQuixo]

And yeah, screw VGRebirth. I just went back there recently and noticed how time consuming the user input is required to catalog details.

Such hostility.

Amon, let me know if you want to tie your program to VGR. We already have an xml feed that isn't being utilized after a creative differences disagreement with the collectorz.com folks.

RevQuixo