Who is the authority that releases the release ID numbers for NDS roms? Is there one big group that decides what the next game will be numbered, or is it just when they get dumped? Or does the big N have a cataloging system that is tapped into when dumping roms?
Nope, the release group etc don't number the dumped roms, that's just stupid Nintendo numbers the roms, as when they are released. Not when they are dumped as it can take days or weeks to have a game dump, and because it's illegal.
actually I think its the release groups that number them, as you can have several different dumps of the same game from different groups with non-sequential numbers.
Um no... We number them, and the other ROM sites number them, and the release lists number them. Nintendo has nothing to do with it and nor does the people who dump it.
Guess when I asked a question, I didn't expect to be called stupid :-[ I know Nintendo wouldn't number "roms", but they would number games to catalog them, right? So it happens alot that different roms get the same number sometimes? It seems wierd, though, that I've seen other sites (don't remember which ones) with the same rom numbers as here. They must be getting the roms from the same group? Or are they downloading roms from here and uploading them to their site?
They get them from various sources, from torrents, other romsites etc, even release groups who contact some romsites about their latest dumps.
whats the point of numbering ROMS anyways?? ??? We could probably get along just find by going by names...couldn't we?
Yeah numbering is pretty pointless, don't ask me why it's done, it just is. We do it because some people like it, we don't force it though, if you want you can sort by downloads, name, filesize etc. If there were no release id's we'd just sort by date added really, to make sure the newest was on top for google.
After downloading numbered games & unzipping them, I just reneme them & omit the numbers that way they're alphabetically aranged which is easier to browse through
i like the numbering system especially when you have 3 roms that say like pokemon (J), pokemon (U) and pokemon (E). id rather have the numbering system to distinguish them, and say oh FFIV (J) is 1835. ok some things like etrian odyssey have different filesizes. the US version is 16 MB while the EU version is 32 MB. plus you don't want all of the same pokemon (or whatever) to be in the same spot. Having pokemon US, IT, KS, JP, DE all in the same spot can get confusing. especially when downloading sometimes people won't look at the end and see that it is a different language. at least with numbers you will always get the correct one. i go onto romsite just to look up the index numbers because their search is pretty handy. like if i want to search the number for etrian odyssey, it pulls up both the US and EU versions and their numbers. (then i go on here to get them)
You could just use our search, it does exactly the same, except you can add it to your browser too. Anyway, the thing about release numbers is that they vary, just because one release list calls a game for 2312 doesn't mean every other release list or ROM site does, so if you refer to a game by it's release number you might end up with the wrong game. And I really don't agree that I'd rather want Pokemon games separated instead of all in one place, but I suppose that's personal preference.
I haven't really messed around with romulation yet. I refound this site (refound as in my account is a year old, but just logged in it recently, and accumulated a lot of points in the process) but at the time that I found this site, I had all of the roms I wanted. (9 GB) meaning that I've only gotten a few from here. I do think that other sites copy either from here or other sites that have the same releases. some sites don't have all of the roms currently up to date unlike this one. edit: I just found a good reason to keep them all numbered. I just recently started burning them to CDs/DVDs so it is best to keep them in order, instead of alphabetized because when you burn them in the numbered order, it is consistent and none of the earlier roms will be on one of the later burned CDs. keeping them alphabetized mixes up the roms so it is hard to find which rom is on what CD/what is already added to CDs and what isn't. of course sorting into folders by CD burned is a good way to make sure you don't burn the rom twice but still, if I want FFIV (JP), I can just look at my CDs, find 1835 is on CD #7 (I have the rom number range labeled, so [0001]-[0401] is on CD 1. the rom numbering system works like a library. Granted, I don't have EVERY rom from 1-400 on one CD, just the important ones. as far as adding old roms to new CDs, I would create a separate CD that has miscellaneous, old releases. Let's say i wanted to add rom [400, 680, 720, 1800] but I have already burned the [0001]-[0401] disc, I can make another CD, call it retro releases or something and list its rom # there.
JMR who runs http://sccheats.co.uk/ (the cheat site for the supercard) uses http://advanscene.com to number its roms and i found only about 10 roms that don't match that numbering system. it would be good if all the sites got together and numbered the same but it makes no difference really it only takes a few key presses to renumber a ROM to match the cheat files. I ask JMR this same question on the supercard forum and he was not very helpful only to say that he numbers by advanscene.com and that's it.
It's just not official, most romsites keep the numbers very similar though, ie some count bad dumps, demos and whatnot.
I actually find the numbering system VERY handy. I don't have my rom files directly named with the numbers once I have them though. But since I use Rominator to name/trim all my DS roms it easily finds the correct title, box art and can trim it properly. It also gives me the handy option of searching through the ROM release database so I can search for English ROMS, RPG, from the company Atlus. It brings up a list, gives the names and the number. With the name I could search that but if I do it by number I know where to exactly look if it is a recent one. I have only had it off on a number once so far for 120+ games. Also is handy so you can sort them by the release of the game partially. Granted there are many inconsistencies with this, it helps you know when a new ROM is released without just relying on when a certain website gets it. All forms of organization are useful though.
