SupraKarma

As usual, the HyperList database was a mess in regards to the <manufacturer> field. It's like someone used inaccurate sources like Wikipedia exclusively, copied the information badly, and didn't bother to check anything.

I checked the offical thread, it didn't look like anything was done with the Hyperlist database - so I am declaring this the new official. The name on the box is the name in the manufacturer field - none of this 'Turbo Technologies, Inc.' in small print on the back of the box (who was the *distributor* in many cases, not the developer or the publisher). I check the box labels, not a 3rd party source - so if there are errors, they are mine alone. Also note that I give priority to the label name given on the box above all else. If a game was developed by Data East, has the Data East logo on the front, but then in small print on the back it says "Published by NEC," yeah that's getting labelled as a Data East game.

Database work isn't fun to me... but I get seriously annoyed when I see inaccurate data. The PC Engine database is about 10x worse but I just don't have the motivation to do that right now. Just trust that the name of the publisher (?)/developer(?)/distributor(?) has about a 50/50 chance of being right every time you see it.

There's room for improvement with this database - I didn't check years or rename games pedantically according to the name on the box (the *right* way to name a game). But publisher data is one thing I'd like to always see right, so this is my contribution.

If you find fault with this database please bring it to my attention. I hate inaccurate data just as much as you do, trust me.

A collection of 976 2D box arts for NES. May contain some duplicates. Contains a high number of hard to find artwork for unlicensed games and prototypes.

Also, a custom database that I am using to go with it, since many games are not in the official database - only 16 games are missing artwork, and 10 of those are prototypes. There are a handful of Famicom and FDS games in there. Use it or don't, I'm providing it as a convenience.

I decided to go ahead and upload my wheels too, since I created several from scratch, and updated some from the FTP set that were incorrect. All games in the database have wheels at least.

A 'Console Hacks' wheel I made using the 'Pretendo' font in a faux Nintendo logo, and the word 'Hacks' made from SNES letters I made myself.

Enjoy.

I noticed that most (almost 2/3s) of the games in the Magnavox database use only a few fonts on the box art (Arial Bold, Helvetic Now Text Medium being the most prominent), and was surprised to see that nobody has put together anything authentic in the way of a wheel set.
 
I tentatively use the 'HQ' expression, there were a couple of wheels that came from poor sources. I did the best I could with them (I am a weekend warrior, not a pro), and overall I am happy with what I've created. Accuracy was my highest priority. Most of the wheels are quite large (only 15 are less that 800 pixels wide), and as far as I can tell it doesn't slow down HyperSpin at all, since most of them are just plain text, and one color. So, I don't recommend resizing them, why sacrifice quality if you don't need to? That being said, I included a folder with 400x175, if you must have it.

This is going to be long, there's a lot to cover.
First of all, credits and thanks. I couldn't have done anything without the resources already available to me as a result of all the hard work by the community. There are too many people to name, and I don't even know who all to name, so please, just consider this pack as my way of saying 'Thank you,' and trying to give a little something back.

Thank you to brolly and phulshof for the incredible MAME 0.181 database that all this work is based on, and phulshof also for maintaining an unofficial MAME wheels pack, that saved me a ton of time. Thank you to krakerman for doing many of the wheels in that project. Thank you to the Rocketlauncher devs for answering all of my dumb questions, helping me fix problems, and for making such an awesome piece of software. Thank you to the HyperSpin devs, for giving me an awesome new hobby. Thank you to the creator of Don's HyperSpin Tools, without which I would have given up on this project a long time ago.

Now, onto the download.
The primary goods you'll find in this download are a near complete MAME 0.181  working games (the 9815 games list), 'parents only' logos collection. The only genres that are not complete are 366 Casino and eight Utility ROMs. Everything else, including Mahjong, is done. I have no plans to ever do Casino. The work is too great, and the payout is too small. A lot of the existing logos in that genre also need resized/edited and in some cases completely redone to look better in the HyperSpin Wheel. That is not happening either. I just don't care. 
I started out with just the official MAME wheel set. All of the logos that I have added to that set are one of 3 things.
1. A crop of a flyer, marquee, logo I found online (always tried to make sure it was authentic), or title screen shot, preferably in that order. Sometimes the title screen was still favored, because the quality of the preceding options wasn't the best, or wasn't a substantial improvement.
2. An edited version of someone else's work. It was very important to me that the logos actually look good on the HyperSpin wheel. The canvas size and the location of the logo on the canvas were edited with HyperSpin in windowed mode while I made on the fly adjustments. I tried many times to make sure sequels lined up with each other as you scroll the wheel. I also used drop shadow, stroke, and outer glow quite often to make the logos more visible.
3. An unaltered download of someone else's work.
I have altered or added 931 logos total. That number seems awfully high, but I'm basing that off of the date the files were modified. I have included a database called 'Other Games,'  (just tap the genre key/button and select it) for anyone to look through and do a quality check. I think the number that I have personally added/altered is closer to 500-600. I have saved all the added/altered files, in most cases, right after extracting the logo from a title screen, before any resizing occurred, in the form of .psd files. So if anyone of greater talent wants to do some custom work with the logos, I've already done all the legwork and extracted them. They can be found in the 'Media\MAME\images\wheel\modified by me\photoshop files' folder.

There are 8,082 wheels in this collection. Obviously a lot of them are clones. I didn't find out until way later into my project that I can set up HyperHQ to make clones use parent wheels, and by then, I was already commited to finishing the job of having individual files for the following publishers: Atari, Bally, Capcom, Cave, Data East,  Gaelco, Irem, Jaleco, Kaneko, Konami, Midway, Namco, Nintendo, Psikyo, Sammy, Sega, Seibu Kaihatsu, SNK, Taito, Tecmo, and Williams. In many cases, clone games for those publishers got their own unique wheel art, if they happened to have a unique name from the parent ROM.

I did all of this for my Atari Classics, Capcom Classics, etc. wheels that were independent of MAME. Then after I was done, I decided to just go ahead and see what else I could do to improve the MAME wheel. I finished up missing artwork for most genres, then came to the forum and found phulshof's unofficial MAME wheel project, and got to work with his set, doing some edits and quality control, and also re-doing many of them (I couldn't verify authenticity for some, and the quality was too poor for others).

The quality now, in my opinion, is very good. What it is not: There are no redraws, professional looking, flawless, perfect logos, like you'd probably find in the 'official' thread. However, I have put quite a bit of effort into making sure everything is sized, proportioned, and spaced in the HyperSpin wheel. I have very amateur-ish photoshop skills, but I have fixed many logos, e.g. a logo with an object obstructing it, the top of a logo being cut off, etc. So while I am not sure if what I've done is quite up to 'official' standards, I can say with confidence that the work I've done is going to be acceptable to most, and I'm basing that on the art that already existed prior to my work.
I used 400x175 as a size limit for most games. However, as many of the 'mahjong' logos were quite vertical in nature, I allowed 400x300 (124 games total, everything else conforms to the 400x175 standard). I didn't want to lose quality smashing everything down. Some of them were very skinny, and exceeded 500 width, but I didn't shrink them down any more to lose quality.  This was only a total of 8 games. kot.png is 706x76 for example. 

Other things in this download include many custom genre databases, and genre wheel art to go with it (I didn't do a majority of the genre wheel artwork or genre backgrounds artwork, credit goes to the community). I'll discuss a few of those here.
Main wheel: The main wheel has a complete set of parents only, minus casino, rated red games with sexual content, electro-mechanical, and utility. A handful of select clones have been added. I wanted 'Pac-Man' as well as 'Puck-Man.' I am a huge Capcom Vs. series fanatic, and to me, X-Men Vs. Street Fighter version 1, 2, and 3 are three separate games. So all the versus games have one of each version. I chose Data East's "Two Crude" over "Crude Buster," because that is what I remember playing, being from America. There are a handful of other examples (very few) that I can't think of right now. This database has all of the non-used ROMs from the complete MAME database (16,000 games) disabled, with the enabled="0" feature. So if you happen to use Rocketlauncher fades, and a game is chosen from a genre wheel database not found in the main wheel, it will still display relevant information, like year, publisher, rating, etc.

From the Genre wheel.

All Games: Takes you back to the Main wheel. It really serves no purpose, other than a sort of 'starting point.'

Publisher genres:  Atari, Bally, Capcom, Cave, Data East,  Gaelco, Irem, Jaleco, Kaneko, Konami, Midway, Namco, Nintendo, Psikyo, Sammy, Sega, Seibu Kaihatsu, SNK, Taito, Tecmo, and Williams genres have full wheel art. Clones are included for all of these. No filters for any publisher genres, so you may find 'adult' or 'casino' themed games in them, if a company made some.
Other publisher genres (Neo Geo MVS, CPS2, Sega ST-V, etc.): These databases are simply taken from the official hyperlist, and then ran against phulshof's MAME 0.181 list, with all of the renamed games re-added by me. A few games in these databases are missing wheels, simply because the game has 'non-working' status. No plans to change that.
Nintendo Classics: I took the official Nintendo Classics Hyperlist, merged it with all working Nintendo games from phulshof's list, and added all the missing games running Nintendo Vs. hardware, and all the missing Playchoice 10 and Super System games. Even though other companies published said games, they were released on Nintendo hardware, and I consider them 'Nintendo' games.

Complete Mame 1: All working MAME games. No filters.

Complete Mame 2: All MAME games. No filters.
Parents Only: All working MAME games, parents only. No other filters (contains Casino, electro-mechanical, utility, and 'adult' games, unlike the main wheel - that is the only difference here).
Top 100: A completely subjective list of classic arcade games, favoring the old school 70s, 80s, and early 90s.
Themes: Every game that has a theme.
By year: I have made databases for games by era, typically 5 year periods, like 1980-1984, 1985-1990, etc. Parents only.
Other Games: All of the wheel art that I have edited. If you don't want it, just edit the genre.xml file, and remove the 'other games' line. I included this only to get feedback on how the new wheels look.

Every other genre from here on out is 'parents only,' and have mature rated red games (with sexual content) filtered out of them. These games have their own genre, called 'Mature,' if you want to play them.

Two Player Games: Self explanatory
Multi Player Games: 3 or more players.
 
Action, Beat'Em Up, Gun, Sports, etc.: Your typical genres. The only thing missing is electro-mechanical, and utility.

Casino: All of the Casino games, including ones without wheel art.
Mature: All games with sexual content, in it's own genre, separate from the other genres. If you don't want this, you can edit the 'genre.xml' and delete the 'Mature' line.

Handheld games: I grabbed this data from a MAME 0.177 database set. These games are MESS ROMs, and are the handheld games, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (handheld), Contra (handheld), and also has Gameboy and other MESS systems. You will need MAME's artwork files to make some of the handheld games display properly (TMNT and other Konami handhelds will explicitly state that the machine is non-working, even though it is. You just have to hit 'tab,' and go into the video options, play with the bezel/display options). If you choose Gameboy, or another system capable of loading mutliple games, you will need to press 'tab' to bring up the MAME menu, and go to 'file manager,' and select a game from the 'software list,' assuming you have all of that. This genre has no wheel art, except for a few like Gameboy. I have no intention of changing that, as this is a frivolous and unnecessary genre (but fun to play around with, nonetheless).
MESS: A handful of 30+ consoles (including some handhelds) that MAME/MESS emulates. Included in this pack are wheel arts and videos for each console, all properly named and ready to go. Any system that you choose from this wheel, you will be required to press 'tab' on the keyboard once a system is loaded in MAME, go to the file manager, and load a game from the 'software list,' assuming you have one. Also, for systems with full keyboard emulation, like Commodore 64, and MSX2, don't forget you have to first press the 'scroll lock' key to enable UI functions like the 'tab' menu. This was a completely unnecessary addition, obviously most people are not going to want to load games this way. But there are advantages. 1. A way to easily use MAME as an alternate emulator for a few consoles, to see what it can do 2. If you have cheat files, MAME has many cheats for many different consoles, particularly NES, all easily accessible from the 'Tab' menu once configured. It's a lot of fun. It's like having a built in Game Genie. The cheats will only work if you loaded a game from the software list however, hence, the advantage.

 
That about covers it. This is my 'ultimate MAME setup,' it is the result of many months of work, I hope you all like it.

Depending on how well this is received, I have my 'ultimate NES' setup I am considering uploading, complete with a ridiculous number of custom genre databases and artwork.

Edit: Bakuretsu Breaker logo was displaying too large, I just uploaded an edited version of it.
 
 
 

I've corrected the 'manufacturer' meta data to reflect the developer/publisher accurately.  I've also added the following games:

Dragon Slayer V - Sorcerian (Japan) (Translated En)
Nyancle Racing (Japan) (Translated En)
Xak - The Art of Visual Stage (Japan) (Translated En)
Xak II - Rising of the Redmoon (Japan) (Translated En)
Ys III - Wanderers from Ys (Japan) (Translated En)

Also please note there is a game in the database called Ys III - Wanderers from Ys (Japan) (Translated En) (Disk 1) (Alt for Tiger Quarry crash). You will need the Japanese version of the disk for only the Tiger Quarry area, otherwise, the game will crash when you enter. This game isn't actually worth playing if you ask me, as the SNES version and TG16 versions are far superior, but it exists, so it's in the database.
 
Changed hyphens to colons in the descriptions.
 
Final notes - I realized I didn't follow the existing name scheme of "Disk 1 of 4" and just opted to use "Disk 1" on my new additions. I've already got everything set up on my end, and I am uploading my work as a courtesy - but if this bugs you, by all means, drop by the development thread, and upload a corrected database for others to use.

Development thread:
 

I said I didn't have the motivation for this one, but I lied. It was just too offensive to allow it to stand. It had to die a fiery death.

There were at least 7 instances where the developer name was seemingly made up out of thin air - ITL, Inter State, Now Production, Pixel, Sankindo, Sting, Tenky, Tomcat System, and West one. There' s no mention of these developers on the jewel case, the hucard, or even the title screen.

However, after some googling, I was able to link *a few* of them to the games in question. But it doesn't seem right to put some obscure name as the manufacturer.

So, as always - the standard here is the *name on the box/jewel case*.

Note that with this particular database, since it was such a mess to begin with, I went the extra mile and listed *multiple* names (e.g. Sega/NEC Avenue) for games where there were multiple names mentioned.  I used http://www.pcengine.co.uk as a source, which is very accurate, and then checked that source with actual ebay photos if I could find them.

Game names were not changed. The only data that is a massive improvement here is the publisher/developer data.

I declare this the new official. May the old one never again see the light of day.

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: 
 

It's a bit confusing the way they did things for this system. Many games are distributed by 'Turbo Technologies, Inc.' But the label on the front of the box will be for the developer. So who then, is the publisher?

I typically favor the publisher when making these databases, for one reason, and one reason only - I get irritated when the name of the manufacturer in the description above the game name is different than the name on the box. That's it! That's the only reason I do this. People remember the name on the box. That is the company people will almost always associate a game with.

But in this particular instance, I went with the label on the box *regardless* of whether or not they were the publisher. The publisher would be NEC in almost all cases, and to put 'NEC' in every field is useless information.

Things get confusing here also, because sometimes the developer will have no mention on the box, but maybe in small print on the back of the manual or on the CD.

I solved this little dilemma for myself simply by naming the manufacturer after whatever entity took credit on the box.

If Hudson Soft or Icom Simulations, Inc. put their label on the cover, then it is a Hudson Soft or Icom Simulations, Inc. game. If that label isn't there, an in it's place there is simply 'NEC,' then it is an NEC game.

In one instance, the name on the box was 'FTL,' but when you load the game, the name is JVC (known as Victor Musical Industries). So in this situation, I put FTL/Victor Musical Industries, Inc.

Maybe that's the way it should be anyways - just put the developer/publisher. But things get confusing and messy fast.

HyperSpin 2.0 database development seems to be addressing that issue - with a dedicated field for publisher, developer, and distributor.

But for now, I'm happy with what I've done here. It certainly beats reading 'Turbo Technologies, Inc.'  - a useless entity as far as I'm concerned - for half the database.
 
You can find the development thread here:
 

I've fact checked the entire database for accuracy of the <manufacturer> field, and this is the result. Five new games have been added. I've been given the ok to release this as official.
List of some of the changes:
Top Gear Rally - Publisher is Midway instead of Kemco
Electro Brain changed to Electro Brain Corp (as per their logo)
Changed games released under 'Acclaim Sports' sub label instead of Acclaim
Changed games released under Activision O2 (Tony Hawk Pro Skater Series) sub label instead of Activision
Starshot - Space Circus Fever - box label says Infogrames Entertainment, changed to reflect that
NBA Live 2000 - EA Sports instead of Konami
Mindscape Inc. changed to Mindscape Entertainment (the label they used on this platform)
F1 World Grand Prix II (Europe) - Changed publisher from Nintendo to Video System
Diddy Kong Racing - Changed publisher from Nintendo to Rareware (says 'published by Rareware' right on the box)
All games developed by Rare and published by Nintendo, changed from Nintendo to Rareware/Nintendo (because Rareware was a huge presence and deserves to be acknowledged)
Changed Rare Ltd. to Rareware (as per their logo)
All games published by Nintendo with the name of the developer on the box, changed to (developer)/Nintendo.
Changed Donkey Kong 64 from Rare Ltd. to Rareware/Nintendo (was officially published by Nintendo, even though it has the Rareware logo)
All instances of Ubisoft changed to Ubi Soft Entertainment (as per their logo during the N64 era)
F1 Racing Championship changed from Ubisoft to Ubi Soft Entertainment/Video System (has both logos, Ubi Soft Entertainment developed the game and published it in Japan, while Video System published it in Europe)
UFO Interactive changed to UFO, as per their logo (I don't like unnecessary additions like "Co." and "Inc.", these things should only be added if the company used it in their logo during the era of the platform)
Finally, I added 5 games. I went through romhacking.org's N64 translations section, and added four of the games that are playable. The other two I couldn't get to work, and if I can't, I doubt anyone else can. The four games are:
1. Bomberman 64 (Japan) (Translated En) - Japan got an exclusive 'Bomberman' title that was released in 2001, which is different from the 'Baku Bomberman' (Bomberman 64 in the USA). Translation works great in Retroarch/Parallel core.
2. Chameleon Twist (Japan) (Translated En) - Japan got a superior version of this game, and someone translated it. Has extra features not in the USA version. Works with RetroArch/Parallel core.
3. Densha de Go! 64 (Japan) (Translated En) - A train simulator. Works in Project 64 only, and you have to fiddle with some emulation settings to make it work (game conifg, change from recompiler to interpreter)
4. Wonder Project J2 - Josette of the Corlo Forest (Japan) (Translated En) - This game has some weirdness. After the initial story fades out, the game actually seems to freeze. There's nothing you can do except reset or end the emulation. But when you go to play the game again, your file will be there, and when you load it, the game will start. I don't know if this is perhaps the way it is on real hardware. But regardless, the game is working and playable.
5. Tetris 64 (Japan) (En) - This game is fully in English without having to patch anything. It is published by Seta and is different from any of the USA Tetris games.
I added CRCs to all the new games I added.

I decided to make a fade screen out of the work I did for the pointer.

This is supposed to look like the Nintendo Vs. Unisystem arcade cabinet side art:


I spent way too much time on this, and it didn't even turn out as good as I'd hoped, but meh. Here it is if you want it. I've included my .psd files (they're a mess) if anyone else wants to work on what I was.

Credit goes to Tonesmalone, chex, and Retro Goonie. Special thanks goes to Kondorito for already having box art for the entire database - that made my job a lot easier.

Game names were not changed at all - if you were already using the development thread database, switching to this one should not break anything, and you will get the benefit of improved meta data.
I have taken the development thread [Official] database, and done the following

1. Corrected errors in the <manufacturer> field. I am primarily concerned with the name reflecting what is written on the box - and I tried to be as accurate as possible. So if one game uses the typical 'Taito' logo, but another one uses 'Taito Corporation,' I entered the data accordingly. Sometimes there is no logo, and I had to use the small print on the back of a box or the cartridge. And some cases, I had to use the title screen. I tried to give respect to any situations where there were multiple names on the box. In that situation, I entered the data in the format of developer/publisher, or in some cases, developer 1/developer 2/publisher.

2. Re-added two games that were taken out of HyperList - Super Mario Bros (25 Anniversary Edition) (Japan) and Super Maruo (Japan) (Unl) (Translated En). Super Maruo has the enabled="0" feature activated, and if you want it in your collection, you will have to manually alter the database and either change it to enabled="1" or delete it, so that it it is the same as the other entries. It is not just an 'adult' game, it is also pornographic and vulgar. It should be in the list, simply because it exists - but it's also trash in every sense of the word.

3. Changed the Shufflepuck Cafe rating back to HSRS - GA. This game is harmless. There were rumors back in the Amiga days that the scantily clad female would flash you but they are bogus as far as I can tell. And I personally played the Famicom version - there's no nudity.

4. Added 4 new games.
Downtown - Nekketsu Koushinkyoku - Soreyuke Daiundoukai (Japan) (Translated En)
Gimmick! (Japan) (Translated En)
USA Ice Hockey in FC (Japan)
Venus Senki (Japan) (Translated En)

USA Ice Hockey is not a translation obviously, but any Japanese game with 'USA' in the title fascinates me.

I've included a genres.zip download, that includes custom manufacturer genres for every single developer/publisher, years, ratings (even though Super Maruo is the only 'Adult' game), and two custom genres - Translations, and Sports Complete.

That about covers it. 

If you have any suggestions/improvements to offer, please visit the following thread:
 

I did some work on this database a while go, and I had big plans - I was going to have a 'players' field, a 'developer' field, and all kinds of other stuff. But I've scrapped that, because HyperSpin in it's current state can't even utilize any of these fields. Instead, I've opted to create custom XMLs. At the moment, I have a 'Two Players' and 'Multiplayer' XML finished - and they are quite accurate, as I compiled the data directly from the backs of the boxes, that clearlly state how many players the game has. Please note that this is for *english games only*. I found the Japanese games too frustrating to navigate menus, and I don't like compiling data from 3rd party sources, so that's that.
Otherwise, hyphens have been replaced with colons in the description field. The manufacturer field now accurately reflects the name of the publisher. It makes no sense to have the name of some obscure, uncredited developer as the name in the description, when we have nice box arts that clearly tell you who published the game. The publisher should be the standard for all console/handheld systems, at least in this version of HyperSpin. An alternative of course is to put both - developer/publisher - and that's always an option. But at the least, the publisher should always be there.

Prior to my work, this database was very flawed in respect to the manufacturer field. Sometimes the developer was used, sometimes the publisher was used, sometimes the data was completely wrong.
Special thanks goes to JSinn for having a complete set of box backs for me to use to compile the data for the two player and multiplayer XMLs.

If you'd like to contribute to GameCube database development, please visit the following thread. 
 

So I was looking for a Wii development database thread in the forum. There wasn't one, but I found this from 6 months ago instead:

"That Wii DB is a mess.
Someone did a CTRL+H to replace all instances of the word "Racing" with "Driving"
While all they had to do was change "<genre>Racing" with "<genre>Driving"
Then circo took that faulty xml and made it "official" =___=!"



I have zero plans to do anything special with this database. All I've done is correct the instances of 'driving' in the descriptions/game names, and replaced hyphens with colons in the description.

I've made a development thread - if you want to contribute to this database, please do. I am not the keeper of these databases, I'm just a contributor.
 
http://hyperspin-fe.com/forums/topic/34045-official-nintendo-wii-xml-database-thread/

Credit for this set goes to
 
@goofers - 3D PAL jewel case template
@Black Hazor - source scans, downloads, and photos
@Avar - source scans, feedback, and artistic direction
@fire10 -  PAL jewel cases, feedback and artistic direction
@SupraKarma - project lead


This set includes jewel case/DVD case 3D art for every game in the [Official] Sega Dreamcast xml, which you can find here. 

Special thanks goes to @JSinn and @Kondorito. Your insight and constructive criticism has made me more aware as a graphic artist. Thank you for taking the time to help me improve.

This set is dedicated to the massive media contributors. As much as I'd like to name people by name, I'd probably forget some very important contributors, and I don't want to do that. If you've sacrificed your time - the most valuable commodity we all have in this life - to make HyperSpin more enjoyable for everyone, this is for you. You are the backbone of this entire community, and in a very real sense - HyperSpin itself.

I had no idea how much work this project was going to be when I started it. I thought I'd have it done in a week, and I underestimated it greatly. There were many unforeseeable obstacles that slowed down progress and turned a one week project into a 2 month project. I have newfound respect for HyperSpin contributors that I didn't before. This set, while not perfect, is as close as I will ever come to putting out A+++ artwork. It is certainly better than I had imagined it would be when I first started it - and I am proud to present on behalf of my co-contributors the [OFFICIAL] HyperSpin Sega Dreamcast 3D Jewel Case Art HD set.

Enjoy. 

Credit goes to sercaljr for his set, I added about 79.

My motivation for updating his work is, I wanted more 'authentic' looking artwork than the other complete set I found on the ftp, e.g. actual jewel cases instead of generic boxes.

However, this set is far from perfect. I didn't bother putting names on the sides of the Japanese games, because the jewel case templates I used are not authentic to begin with. No sense putting lots of work into making something inauthentic pretty. I did manage to find a good template for Euro games, but I only used them for 3 of the games that were missing. I didn't bother fact checking any of the existing games.

So, I consider this an improvement if you want a complete set, with more authentic looking art. But I'm hoping someone else will step up and fix the Japanese and remaining Euro games (if any) for region, and we can have a truly authentic set.

I spent a day on this, and I'm moving on to my main project. If you're a fan of my other work, yes, Ultimate Sega Dreamcast is coming soon, so you can download this now or get this, and all the other goodies when I release that project.

This is a combination of the official hyperlist xml, the 'official' thread that Tonesmalones and others contributed to, and work done by me.
I'm trying to steer away from renaming 'ROM' names. It's a hassle for the entire community. At the end of the day the 'game name' or 'file name' is irrelevent, what displays in HyperSpin (currently, the description) is what matters. Big changes are coming with the way we do databases, but for now, I prefer to change the 'description' name only, unless the ROM name is particularly offensive to me (e.g. Sega Rally Championship 2 instead of Sega Rally 2: Sega Rally Championship.

Also note that Tonesmalones made it a point to utilize semicolons in the descriptions. I agree with this, it looks more 'professional' like a movie title. Hyphens will still be used for games like Street Fighter 3: Third Strike - Fight for the Future, also in certain instances, like Resident Evil - Code: Veronica. What I'm trying to avoid is double instances of anything. It looks sloppy. Again, these changes are only in the description, the filenames will use hyphens for everything.
I understand that the current consensus is to include 'everything playable,' even mahjong games that require you to navigate a Japanese menu to even play. I have mixed feelings on this. I didn't include stuff like this because I consider it culturally insignificant. If you take issue with this, speak up. But it's more work for everyone involved - it means someone has to make a 'Hentai Tentacle Master Gangbang Mahjong part 5' wheel, box art, video, etc. I have no desire for this kind of stuff in the official list, playable or not.
Games that are either 'unplayable,' undumped, or 'culturally insignificant' have been exported to an 'exclude' list. The idea is, you can easily merge the official list and the exclude list, to have every game if you so desire. This should please everyone. If you're mad that a game wasn't included, well, there's the exclude list. Feel free to add it yourself. If you believe there have been errors made, and some Japanese games belong in the main list, by all means, bring it to my attention, we'll make it happen.
Games have been checked for publisher and rating accuracy. The list is certifiably 96% accurate, there may be minor updates as I continue to work on my 'Ultimate Sega Dreamcast' project.
As always, if there are errors, feel free to bring them to my attention. We all want the same thing here - accurate data.
 

Unless I've overlooked something, there was no section to upload letter packs to, so I uploaded this pack as a 'pointer' instead. Someone should fix this.
These letters have been created using the 'Tahoma' font, which is the font used in the Dreamcast logo. It's very close to the actual font, only very slight differences (that you probably won't notice unless you're trying to).

I pulled most of the wheels in this set from one of Aorin's packs, credit goes to him for organizing it, and all of the contributors that actually made the wheels. All I've done is fill in blanks, so that we can have a complete set for the current database.
I've given the wheels a quick run through - quality ranges from acceptable to excellent. Many of them will need to be redone in order to pass as 'official.' But, that is beyond my ability. They're not terrible. You most likely won't notice flaws unless you are actually looking for them. My hope is that those awesome Adobe Illustrator guys get this system on their radar, and decide to overhaul the entire set. They will surely use at least some of the wheels already in this one. But in the meantime, if 'good enough' is good enough, enjoy this wheel set.
Included in this pack is a folder called 'Large.' It contains WIP photoshop (psd) files, a few alternate logos, and large versions of files before they were resized. I didn't bother to clean it up or organize it.
If you have a better quality version of any of these logos, please upload it to the following thread: 
 

You're scrolling through your awesome Sega Genesis collection in HyperSpin you spent many an hour scouring the internet to amass, and you stop on a game. Which one is it? Why, it's Spider-Man (World) (Sega). The box art that you downloaded clearly says "Sega." But the description above the game reads "Recreational Brainware." Recreational... Brainware?!? Who.... tf is that?

So you scroll through some more games. John Madden Football. Everyone knows that's an EA Game... right? WRONG. The description says Park Place Productions.

At that moment, did you feel like throwing a shoe at your TV screen? Did you get the urge to go through and fix the database to by hand, and fix every single entry, so that the name in the box is the name that appears in the description? No... that was just me, you say? Well, I did in fact change the database by hand, and it sucked. You're welcome.

This database is not as accurate as my 'Gamecube' database thread that I started. I resorted to using the Wikipedia database, (because I didn't want to spend 3 days on this like I did with GC) which actually turned out to be decent. I randomly checked games, and occasionally found mistakes. But what I have here is far more accurate than what I started with. To be quite frank, the original didn't even get the developer right half the time.

Putting together a database is a lot of work. Tedious, mind numbing, unpleasant work. Props to whoever made the original Official Sega Genesis database. It must have taken days, and any mistakes made are certainly forgivable. I certainly do not claim that what I am offering here is without error. But at the same time, I feel overwhelmingly compelled to express my opinion that nobody cares about the developer. The name on the box is what people remember. The *publisher* should be the standard for the manufacturer field in the database.

If you agree, hit that like button after you're done downloading it. If I get enough support, I'll share more of them.

Have you noticed that some of the vertical games for Sega Naomi look terrible stretched out (even to 4-3 aspect ratio)?

Well, this is an attempt to address that. If you have bezels turned on in RocketLauncher, and set the aspect ratio to 'stretch' in the Demul module, it should display correctly for vertical games with this bezel. So far, I've only tested a few games.

Here's a before and after:



 
As you can see, in the 'after' shot the Naomi logo doesn't look distorted. When I was tweaking the display, I simply compared a Naomi logo (with the correct aspect) with a screenshot, and I made adjustments until it was close to perfect. (note that I cut out part of the bezel to make sure the sides are lined up properly).


So while I am not entirely sure if this is 'perfect' vertical aspect, Demul has no setting to do so, and this was a trial & error attempt at improvement.
I've updated the files, and figured out all (I think) of the vertical games. All you will need to do is unzip this download into your \RocketLauncher\Media\Bezels\Sega Naomi folder.

Tonesmalone had this uploaded over at the RocketLauncher forums. While perfectly fine as it was, I have OCD and reworked it to suit my own needs (namely, I cleaned up the artwork a bit, resized the main window, and took great care to get all 3 windows to fit pixel perfect).

Also included is a new 'pad.png' file for the PicoDrive emulator, to replace the default artwork. It's nothing fantastic, I just took what was already there and cleaned it a bit and skewed the perspective so that it looks right.

Lastly, I've included a user function for RocketLauncher that will move the mouse cursor out of the way while your fade screen is happening, then once the emulator is loaded, it moves the cursor squarely in the middle of the pad artwork, where it should be.

There are quite a few Japanese Sega Pico 'storyware' titles, as well as other countries, but this set is all of the ones that I am aware of that are playable in English. Not much point in playing any of them if you can't read them.
 
Enjoy.

Does it drive you crazy that the official database uses the 'developer' as the manufacturer data some of the time, and then the publisher other times? Do you like accurate data, free of mistakes and typos? Do you like consistency? Do you like the idea of someone sitting down with the official Sega Saturn database, and spending 2 days doing research, making sure that the manufacturer data reflects not the developer, not the distributor, but the publisher?

Well look no further, this is that database. The manufacturer field is the *only* thing changed from the official database.
9 times out of 10, the publisher will match the name on the box. However, there were some oddities with this particular system. For example:
1. Quake has 'id Software' on the box, but was published by Sega. I debated putting 'id Software/Sega' as the manufacturer but decided on Sega.
2. Some games, the publishers didn't bother to put their logos on. (VR Soccer, VR Golf '97). One could easily come to the conclusion that Sega in fact published the games, but did not.
3. Three very well known Capcom games, "Mega Man X3," "Street Fighter - The Movie" and "X-Men - Children of the Atom" were published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment, Acclaim Entertainment Inc., and Acclaim Entertainment Inc., respectively. But it didn't sit well with me, putting those companies in the description, so I solved this little dilemma by putting "Capcom/Virgin Interactive Entertainment", and "Capcom/Acclaim Entertainment, Inc." This is one of those instances where a judgement needed to be made on whether to make things 'black and white.' Capcom published the games originally, and the games are well known Capcom games. So I made it a point to make mention of them in the 'manufacturer' field.
I do not mean to step on anyone's toes by releasing this or any other database. Database work is thankless, tedious work, and I'm guessing that most of the official databases were done by just a few people.

If I were personally doing 30+ systems, I wouldn't be spending a whole lot of time researching and fact checking.

But since this particular system (and the few other databases I've re-done) is important to me, I decided to put in the extra effort. The 'official' HyperSpin artwork standards are very high. So are mine, when it comes to fact checking. I would not be making this available for download if I was not willing to stand behind it, and make the claim that the manufacturer field is ~ 98% accurate, and substantially more accurate than the original that I altered. The original used the developer most of the time, but was not consistent, and would occasionally use the publisher instead. And, it had a lot of errors.

So I consider this to be a substantial improvement, and I'm betting you will too, especially if you believe, as I do, that the publisher - the name on the box - should be the standard for the 'manufacturer' data.