Clarification about conversions

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Gunness
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Re: Clarification about conversions

#16 Post by Gunness » Tue Nov 12, 2019 1:34 pm

Csabo wrote:
Tue Nov 12, 2019 12:33 am
Gunness wrote:
Mon Nov 11, 2019 2:59 pm
"Did the author of the game intend (or sanction) this game to run on platform X?"
Hmm, from the way you phrased this, I would say determining that is nearly impossible (unless you know the author personally :-) ). Case in point; when I converted those three, I included a screenshot with the news announcement that showed C16/Plus4 is officially listed as a platform. (See here.) With that proof, I could very well argue that the author did intend the game to run on that platform.

Eh, anyway, I appreciate the replies and I do understand your point(s). I'm happy to abide by this. To reiterate, my wish would be that when someone ends up on CASA, and views a list of games available on the C16/Plus4 platform, they get an accurate list. By accurate, I mean "these are the adventure games I can play if I have this machine."
There will always be borderline cases. And yes, maybe the author intended his game to run on a C16/BBC/Oric but he just couldn't get his act together and code the damn thing :)
In your case: As it stands there's nothing in this case that suggests to me that there was ever C16 version made back then, other than the fact that the marketing department stuck the info in the instructions. Maybe they thought it was a good idea. I can show you loads of examples of announced versions of games that never got beyond the "Hey, wouldn't it be nice to have an XYZ version of this game?" That said, I'm truly happy for all you Plus4 Petes out there, and if C16 owners can get access to a larger selection of games, well, more power to you.
Csabo wrote:That's clearly not the goal of this site though. Only we (Plus/4 World) do Plus/4 stuff right :twisted:
No, that's not our goal :) And I'm sure that dedicated sites do a better job of serving specific platforms :D As of this moment, we're doing our best to serve exactly 100 platforms, which leads to its own set of challenges.

Listen.... our work here is an ongoing process, like Strident wrote. I love uncovering new facts about rare and lost games, and there's a certain joy to watching the database grow slowly, but surely each day. I'm absolutely fine with the fact that there are some blank fields, because that just means that our database is a living, breathing and evolving beast.
But I also think that there's a limit to the detail level we should strive for, as Mr Creosote was also getting at. Sooner or later we reach a point where a) the effort becomes really large and b) very, very few users will have any interest in the result.
Ie, when Garry writes:
I'd prefer all games to be listed and clarification of history, changes of publishers, dates, name changes, ports, conversions, enhancements and translations to other languages provided in notes.
I just have to say that if you want a be-all, end-all list of conversion programmers, cover artists, audio artists, release dates, advertising bureaus, MSRP, etc etc. across 100 platforms, I don't think this site will serve your needs. Sure, some people will prefer that level of detail. For many others, including myself, it just becomes noise.

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