Apologies for this if there’s an existing post but I could find a similar one when searching…
Hi,
I have several hundred games purchased from the Nintendo eShop. I just got started adding games yesterday and it looks like I have a long journey ahead of me to add an existing physical entry and then:
modify the format to “Nintendo eShop” as that’s what I see when I submit to core
update the release date to the date reported by the eShop
Add missing publisher or developer as frequently only one is entered
Add the US / ESRB release type if the existing one was PEGI or Asia, etc
Add the ESRB rating
Copy/Paste the description from the Nintendo eShop
Save the game image from the eShop and add that as a custom photo because of course the game image is not the same as the box art and isnt a case at all from the physical release so that we’re providing best accuracy when other folks go searching for the same
then finally complete the submit to core form
I hope this is the correct process but just in the first few games alone I’ve done that and I fear I’ll have to spend endless hours doing the same for the rest of the collection.
Is there any way that the CLZ team can import the eShop library metadata in some other more efficient way
I’ve used the CLZ Comics mobile and cloud app for years very happily and I’ve actually owned CLZ games for a long times, its just been empty until I could make time to work on it… and now, when I’m finally ready… well… you get the idea…
Our software is mainly for physical game releases, so downloads and Eshop releases can only be found if a physical release is available. You are of course free to add these releases to your personal database, but I’m afraid you would have to add most of them manually. Sorry about that.
Also, you can better skip submitting to Core because we do not adapt our formats to Nintendo eShop and we use the release date of the physical release in CORE.
Hi Martin,
Thanks for you reply. That is all very unfortunate but somewhat unusual when for years much of the game industry has massively distributed/published games digitally and many are even digital only! Consider that the Steam platform alone has been around since 2003 and digital games have only become more normalized and popular since then!
All that being said, if I purchase a subscription to the CLZ web app, is it possible to use some template / CSV file format to import a collection if I’m able to arrange it that way (and include all available fields in CLZ, except photo) ?
IDK if it will help…
I do own quite a lot of digital games too, on multiples platforms.
CLZ does have various ways to, manually catalog your digital games. You can inform the Purchased Store (PSN Store, Nintendo eShop etc), location (I use wich account that game is located in), Format (PSN Download, Steam Download etc)
I mentioned a few months ago that would be nice to also have a “User Defined Field” where we could put information that would suit our needs better. Hopefully, that’s in the works…
Thanks for your reply. I am familiar with all of the available fields to update manually but its quite a bit of work for so many games
However, I also have all of my digital games tracked by the Deku Deals website and I’ve found that I can export my collection from there to CSV, but I’ll need to at least temporarily subscribe to Game Connect in order to import that list to my database here. I’ll still have to fill in many of the custom fields but at least it will be less work and a bit easier updating that CSV in Excel or Google Sheets than the CLZ mobile app.
Let me know if you need any help importing your CSV.
Please know that the CSV import is freely available through https://cloud.collectorz.com where you can log in with your CLZ Account. There’s no need to temporarily subscribe to Connect for that.
OK so I imported 412 games from the CSV I got from Deku Deals, then I sync’d to the IOS App. However, when I selected all and then then selected “update from core” I got no updates. However, I also didn’t find any option to link them to the core first…
In CLZ Comics, I think we have a way to link comics to the core in certain scenarios if they aren’t linked. I’m certain that some number of the digital games I own do have physical versions as well which is something that could save me some time.
I guess what I need is an existing Nintendo eShop database, much like CLZ Core, which I can then use easily to build my own CSV file and then map that to the fields during import.
Unfortunately Deku Deals only exports Name, Added at, Status, Format, Price paid, Note, Rating
Edit: I found what I needed under the Import / Export menu which wasn’t where I was expecting to find it when I have the “select all” option as well. That allowed me to search for unlinked games.
That being said, many ended up as PC / Playstation / XBox but I guess I have less work than I started with , LOL.
I think the right approach now is to accept all of the link suggestions anyhow, and then go and fix the platform and format wherever appropriate as well as any other fields?
Do I need to unlink them as well? what’s the best way to proceed?
Hi AJ,
Some additional trial days may be helpful.
If you’re able to have a look at my collection, you’ll find that I did my best to link a majority of the physical games but then I also spent time going through a good number of them where possible, if data was missing:
Add genres
Add Developer and Publisher
Adding release date if I could find it specifically for the physical version
Add Description
in a few cases, I also started adding barcodes
And then I submitted all of those changes back to core for the team’s review.
For the physical games, should I just leave them linked?
For the digital games, Martin indicated that the core is, unfortunately, only currently used for physical games, so adding submissions for the Nintendo eShop is a waste of time (for now) . That’s interesting because you can see in the “submit to core” form , one of the formats listed is “Nintendo eShop” LOL.
However, yes, there are different publishers and release dates for the digital versions if a physical version exists as well, however all of the other data is the same!
I would implore the CLZ team to sincerely consider finding a way to adapt the core to allow digital games, even if you’ll only accept submissions for the thousands of games which exist as digital only (and across multiple digital platforms). There is so much lost by not having this
Looks and sounds like you’re doing alright indeed with the linking.
We indeed have that digital format in Core. But right now we are not accepting submissions for it, this might change in the future.
If you submit games: make sure to have them linked to the right game in Core (so if you have gotten a different platform, unlink, then re-link to the right one, then submit).
Currently Martin has a couple weeks off, and he will take care of your submissions, thank you!
I have added 2 weeks to your trial time for Game Connect! Let me know if you need anything else!
Hi @SchmittWylde , just curious , for Nintendo eShop games, obviously, I use that as the purchased store, but for format do you prefer to use “Digital” or “Nintendo eShop” as that happens to be a format listed in the CLZ submission form (even if they aren’t accepting it right now)
I want to take this opportunity to extend @Spidey request to the CLZ team, to consider digital only games to the main core.
Sure, CLZ games was and still is a software mainly to catalog physical collections. I believe that when this program was first available, it was very rare to find some digital only games.
But times has changed.
And me personally… I don’t view CLZ as a physical game catalog software anymore. To me, it’s a place to organize and keep track of ALL my video games. Physical AND digital.
Hi @CLZ_AJ ,
I notice that with the free CLZ Cloud , I have no ability to use the online (or offline) backup or otherwise export my collection from the web app or from the IOS app. I can print to PDF from the Cloud but that’s pretty much useless for backup purposes.
If I could export the collection from the mobile app to local storage or connected storage such as iCloud or GDrive, etc, which I both have on my iPhone, that would be ideal. I think its a reasonable feature to deliver for app only subscribers. It could have the same native CLZ and CSV backup/export options as CLZ cloud to make it easy for import / recovery for any reason.
If anyone even so much as accidentally hits the “Clear CLZ Cloud” button in the Sync screen of the app, despite that not actually clearing the local DB… it may still not have the intended results.
I feel like the “Clear CLZ Cloud” button should be moved to another location.
The “Clear CLZ Cloud” is there so it can be found, as people were missing it. It comes with a warning after you tap it, which you then also still have to confirm.
If you do accidentally click it, and you need us to restore a backup, just contact support and we can do that up to 1 week.
As for exporting, the free CLZ Cloud allows you to print to a PDF indeed, and more lower you can find to Export to TXT/CSV. Note that this is not a native format that you can “import back into the Cloud”.
The paid “Game Connect” system does also give you a “backup/restore” button on the web, where you can generate a ZIP file, that you can download to your computer and store wherever you like. That ZIP file holds the files that our Game Connect “understands” which you can restore if you like.
LOL.