QS Defender was originally released by Quicksilva (note not Quicksilver as the publisher is named in the database - this also needs to be fixed) under that name. However, I understand that they were challenged by Williams, and had to change the name for subsequent releases to QS Defenda.
I happen to have the latter edition, which is not currently in the database.
Is it possible for me to use the app to add a different edition to the same game entry but with a different name? Or is reporting it here the only option?
Thank you for reporting.
I updated the developer name in CORE, added the “QS Defenda” edition to the game, and added the title as AKA.
I can’t give a game a double name, but you are free to change the name in your personal database.
Thanks, much appreciated. The QS Defenda re-release was in 1982, according to mobygames. I assume that the different editions can have different data (publisher, release date, etc.)?
On a related point, is it possible to submit a new edition (e.g. a budget re-release) from the app, or is it best to do so here?
Dates, Publisher and Developer are stored on Game level, so we can’t change them to the edition. In this case I created a new game for QS Defenda so the date is correct now.
If you have a barcode for these editions you can simply submit them to us via the app.
Ah that’s interesting, and a bit unfortunate that the data is structured in that way. Loads of games have been re-released on budget labels by different publishers over the years, and there are lots of collectors who try to collect all releases from a particular range. Trying to collect all the Hit Squad releases, for example is quite common, meaning that particularly rare Hit Squad budget re-releases can actually be a lot more valuable than the original release. For a collector app it is therefore essential that these can be differentiated correctly and searched for by the correct publisher.
Unfortunately, as huge numbers of games got budget re-releases, sometimes multiple times from different publishers, that means a lot of maintenence may be required to the Core database.
For example, on the ZX Spectrum I have both the original Activision release of Ghostbusters and the Ricochet re-release. At the moment these are both under the same Game heading in Core, meaning that they share the same date, publisher and developer details. From what you say above, in order to have the correct publisher for the two different editions, this needs to be split into two seperate Games. If so, there are probably hundreds of examples where this change needs to be made. And it’s not just budget releases. The same game may have been published by different companies in different territories. Ghostbusters was published by two other companies in Spain - one original release and one budget release. So by the logic above, there needs to be at least four seperate Game entries for this one title - which I think is getting unwieldy. I personally think therefore that the structure of the database is wrong and that publishers at the very least should be held at edition level (and possibly developers - a translation for example may add a different development house to an edition).
I can understand that the Date is held at Game level, but it should be made clear in the app that this is the original release date, not the release date of that particular edition. It would be ideal if an edition release date could also be held at edition level.
We have this data at game level to ensure that each individual barcode contains as much usable data as possible. Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to add that individually.
But luckily you are free to customize each game and edition to your liking.
