Please Help Me Organize My Roms

#1 Dr Manhattan OFFLINE

Moonsweeper

277 posts

Posted Sun May 15, 2011 4:30 PM

Greetings everyone! I am currently looking for advice on how to sort my 2600 roms. I would like to create the ultimate catagorized assortment of games. Here are the genres I have so far. Please take a look and tell me what you think. What genres am I missing? And is there a list of Atari games by genre? That would be great. Thanks in advance for your help.

A to Z
20th Century Fox
Action Games
Activision
Adventure
Arcade
Atari Classics (games made by Atari)
Brain Games (Inludes Puzzle Games)
CBS Electronics
Driving Games
Fighting & Beat Em Ups
Flying & Flight Sim
Hacks
Homebrew
Horror Games
Imagic
Mattel - M-Network
Movie Games (Games based on Movies)
Multi-Carts
Pac-Man + Clones
Paddle Games
Public Domain
Pinball
Prototypes
Rare Games
RPGs
Shooting Games
-Shooting: Top Down
-Shotting: Side Scroller
Sports
Star Wars Games (I'm a Star Wars and Trek geek)
Starpath Games
Touch Pad Games
Trakball Games
TV Games (Games based on TV shows)
XXX - Adult Games

#2 A.J. Franzman OFFLINE

River Patroller

4,326 posts

Syzygyst
Location:U.S.A. - See 'Map' link above

Posted Sun May 15, 2011 10:38 PM

Here's what I have. It's a work-in-progress, subject to change -- most notably, the folders under "By Brand" are likely to change, as I don't intend to have a folder for any brand with less than about 10 games. My directory system uses several abbreviations mostly made of 3 capital letters. For example, "PRO" = "prototype"; "CTL" = "control(ler/s)", etc. There are many more such abbreviations not seen here, which I use in the filenames. Names in [brackets] are folders which contain one or more sub-folders. Names without brackets are folders which contain only program binaries. Folders which contain sub-folders do not also contain "loose" binaries; any given Harmony menu screen will be filled with either sub-folders or binaries, never both. The "All Games Main Version" folder (probably equivalent to your "A to Z" folder) will contain only games, and only the best available NTSC version of each. Duplicates of these exact same files will also be found in the "By Brand", "By Number of Players", "By Controller Type", "By Genre", "Homebrews" and "Playable PROs & WIPs" folders where appropriate. The "Less-Complete PROs" folder (in the "Alternates" folder) will contain earlier versions of prototypes found in the "Playable PROs & WIPs" folder. The remaining folders should be self-explanatory.

[All Games Main Version]

[By Brand]
  20th Century Fox
  Activision
  Apollo
  Atari
  Bit Corporation
  CBS Electronics
  CCE
  Coleco
  CommaVid
  Data Age
  Ebivision
  HES
  Home Vision
  Imagic
  Junkosoft
  Mattel
  Mystique-PlayAround
  Parker Brothers
  Quelle
  Sega
  Self-Published
  Spectravideo
  Starpath
  Suntek
  Telegames
  Telesys
  Tigervision
  U.S. Games
  Xonox
  Xype
  Zellers
  Zimag-Emag-Vidco

[By Number of Players]
  0
  1
  2 Only, Simultaneous
  2 or more Alternating
  2 or more Simultaneous
  3 or more Simultaneous

[By Controller Type]
  Joystick
  Paddle
  Driving
  Keyboard-VTP-Kids'
  Multi
  Litegun-Mindlink-Other

[By Genre]
  Adult
  Adventure
  Arcade
  Board + Card
  Children's+Educational
  Horror
  Martial Arts
  Maze
  Media Tie-in
  Puzzle
  Racing-Chase-Motrsport
  Shoot 'Em Up
  Simulation
  Sports

[Homebrews]

[Playable PROs & WIPs]

[Modern Hacks]
  [By Hacked Game]
	 (Folder per Original Game Name)
  Accurized Ports
  PAL to NTSC Conversion
  CTL Type or Port
  Graphics + Play
  Play Only
  Graphics Only
  Palette Select
  Bankswitch Conversion  (Including Supercharger)
  NTSC to PAL Conversion

[Non-Games]

[Demos, Bad PROs & WIPs]
  Demoscene
  Images
  Music & Audio
  Kernel & GFX Demos
  Unplayable PROs & WIPs

[PAL Only]

[Alternates]
  [Vintage Pirate Hacks]
	 [By Hacked Game]
		(Folder per Original Game Name)
	 PAL to NTSC Conversion
	 CTL Type or Port
	 Graphics + Play
	 Play Only
	 Graphics Only
	 Logo Chnge-Remove Only
	 NTSC to PAL Conversion
  Alternate ROM Versions
  Less-Complete PROs
  Multicarts
  PAL & SECAM Versions
  [Harmony Incompatible]
	  Over 32 KB
	  Other

Edited by A.J. Franzman, Sun May 15, 2011 10:44 PM.

#3 Omegamatrix OFFLINE

Quadrunner

5,205 posts

Location:Canada

Posted Mon May 16, 2011 1:40 PM

You guys would be disappointed in me. I file all my games under "F" for fun.

#4 Dr Manhattan OFFLINE

Moonsweeper

277 posts

Posted Wed May 18, 2011 6:17 AM

A.J. your system is brilliant. I'm definitely going to follow your example. You have great knowledge of the 2600 catalog.

Speaking of which, is there no place to get a list of 2600 games sorted by genre, catagory, etc?

#5 dwane413 OFFLINE

Chopper Commander

233 posts

Location:Oklahoma

Posted Wed May 18, 2011 8:09 AM

Dr Manhattan, on Wed May 18, 2011 6:17 AM, said:

This may not be what you're wanting, but you can search by genre at Atarimania. Click on Games then Advanced Search. On the Advanced Search page, you might want to check the box that says "Original version (in white)" so you don't get as many results.

#6 keilbaca OFFLINE

Fight like a robot!

7,336 posts

Berzerk (Atari 2600) champ
Location:Wyano, PA

Posted Wed May 18, 2011 10:13 AM

AJ that is a brilliant idea. I love it, I just wish I had the time to do all that...

#7 Pioneer4x4 OFFLINE

River Patroller

2,014 posts

Atari + R.O.B. = Completed
Location:PA

Posted Fri Jul 22, 2011 6:29 PM

Dr Manhattan, on Sun May 15, 2011 4:30 PM, said:

I like that idea except that I have 2 suggestions.
1 - If you will be using it near any people that will be shocked/offended/embarrases/think less of you... rename or bury the xxx folder, I would suggest under something that no one will look in like "Educational" ;-)

2 - On mine, I have 2 master folders "Owned" and "Wishlist", and both have the same subfolders. I like going into the Owned folder and being able to select only the carts I actually have. And when I get a new cart that I haven't had before, it is nice to be able to move it from the Wishlist to the Owned folder.