About This File
I've decided to take this one in a different direction. Included as a separate file are genre xmls, Publisher/Developer xmls, year xmls, ratings xmls, and two custom xmls - Sports Complete, and Translations. Also included is the genre.xml itself already sorted the way I prefer things on my system, for all the included files.
This database actually wasn't terrible to begin with - there were errors of course for the manufacturer field (my personal source of OCD), but there didn't seem to be any bogus developers that I was unable to verify.
I've given much more respect to the developers in this database than I have in the past. I am still primarily concerned with the manufacturer field reflecting the name on the box - however - the source site I was using (http://www.pcengine.co.uk) made it *extremely* easy to include both developer *and* publisher data in most cases.
The format is typically Developer/Publisher. If the developer was the publisher, then only a single name was used. If there were multiple developers, the format is Developer1/Developer2/Publisher. In some cases, a game may have been developed previously by another company, but had nothing to do with the current port - e.g. Sega/NEC Avenue for 'Bonanaza Bros.' In this situation I felt it to be relevant information. Knowing this stuff as you scroll your games makes HyperSpin more fun.
The reason I decided to include genres this time (and possibly in future database contributions) is because with the multiple entities being listed in the <manufacturer> field, it's actually a lot of work to create a genre for every single listing. But that's what I want on my setup. And, if I'm going to put in the work anyways, why not share it with the community? That's what it's all about. If you've done something to make things cool on your end, why not let everyone else enjoy it too? A strong sense of community = a better HyperSpin for everyone.
This is more or less one of my 'ultimate' setups without any graphic art. There are no plans to create custom wheels for every single publisher/developer - I'm ok with having plain text for most of my wheels. But if you want the graphic art for the main genres (action, adventure, etc.), all you have to do is copy and paste it from one of my 'ultimate' setups (or better yet, sym link it) into the genre\wheel and genre\backgrounds folder.
I didn't touch the file names, except for two. I added 4 translations. No corrections to year or ratings. But the manufacturer data is now top notch - which is my thing.
Enjoy.
I've made a development thread here, for anyone who wants to contribute to development:
