Identifying part numbers and barcodes Etc...

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I was looking through the online rarity guide trying to check out my PAL DreamCast collection for "Alternate packaging variations" and something caught my eye...

Each game has a part number. The number which appears on the spine of the game...


Can anyone elaborate on this a little? Ie, how does any old Joe interpret this information? How does one break the number down to identify a certain country release for example???



Also, upon checking my games, I decided to compare my French release of Tony Hawk II with the English one... I noticed the barcodes were different...

Is there any plans to possibly include barcode's in the rarity guide? This would make things a lot easier identifying what origin a certain game is which someone has just bought off eBay for example...



I decided it was time my spreadsheet got a little update, so I gathered all my Dreamy games and decided to include all this information into my spreadsheet I already have listing every single game I have and their condition and other assorted details...

[hydr0x]

rough list of the country codes ( the -XX ending of those codes)

SKU Language
3 Australia
5 UK
6 Spain
9 France
13 Italy
18 Germany
46 Portuguese
47 Dutch
50 1 Sku
51 French, German and Dutch
60 Spanish and Portuguese together
61 English Italian and Spanish
64 English, French and German
71 English and German
75 French Italian and Spanish
78 Nordic
79 French, Spanish, Italian, and Dutch
81 Spanish, Italian and Portuguese
82 German and Dutch
89 Scandinavia
91 English and Dutch
92 French Italian and Portuguese


if you LOOK at our db you'll see all "bar codes" are included...

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Upon closer inspection, I have also discovered another number which always seems to appear just below the barcode... This number often appears on the front cover of the game too...

They look similar to "820 - xxxx - xx"

Which is the number to actually go by? What function do all these numbers have?



What is "SKU"? (Excuse my ignorance)

Where can I get more information?

[anagrama]

On Sega games, the 820 - xxxx - xx (or 670-xxxx-xx on MD games) style numbers seem to be an individual part number - there's a different one on each of the the box, manual, disc & inlay.
To save pointlessly listing 4 or 5 numbers for each game, it's much more sensible to just go with the MK-xxxxx-xx or T-xxxxx-xx number.

Also, strictly speaking, I think the SKU number is the 'barcode' - the long number underneath the scannable bar-code.
For convenience, it's the Part Number on the spine of the box that we generally use, since this also identifies all regional variations, and is much less cumbersome than a long 15-digit number.

[hydr0x]

i don't know what SKU stands for but it's the name of the -XX end of the first codes you mentioned, and that table shows you which end stands for which release country/region (btw, this is an official sega table they did send me, more codes exist)

have you found the numbers in our database? they are in there, all of them



Where can I get more information?


HERE my friend, this is the ultimate place to ask such things, really, i don't want to sound cocky but there are most likely less than 10 gamers in the world who know as much or more about pal dreamcast releases as me, and one of them is Arcturius who's also a member of this board

[Gemini-Phoenix]

I have tried the Online Rarity Guide, but many games don't seem to want to appear for some reason - Perhaps they ain't in there being PAL games...


So how come they have a "T - xxxx" number and a "MK - xxxx" number? what's the difference between the "T" and "MK"?


I understand what you mean by going by the spine number though. It just makes sense!!!


Am I to assume that each regional variation would have a separate barcode on them then?



More importantly - How do I tell if the game I have is actually the official UK released version and not one which was designed for release in Australia or Spain or somewhere like that?

I know for definate a few of mine are genuine UK releases as they tend to have UK based contact addresses listed on the back of the case...

Others i'm not too sure on as they mostly seem to have that red French "Attention" warning as well as the German yellow diamond warning on the back...

[anagrama]

Generally, "UK versions" of DC games will have either -50 or -05 at the end of the part number: -50 games were distributed all over Europe, and -05 will usually be just in the UK.
Not all games have regional variations, and these are just -50.

Also, MK-xxxxx-xx games are published by Sega [1st Party games] while T-xxxxx-xx are 3rd Party games.

[anagrama]

Also, everything should be in the Online Guide - if you're searching individually by name, it may be that they are listed under a slightly different title - try seaching for "Dreamcast" + "Non-US releases" and it should display them all, although the Japanese games will also be shown.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Generally, "UK versions" of DC games will have either -50 or -05 at the end of the part number: -50 games were distributed all over Europe, and -05 will usually be just in the UK.
Not all games have regional variations, and these are just -50.

Also, MK-xxxxx-xx games are published by Sega [1st Party games] while T-xxxxx-xx are 3rd Party games.


Ah ha! That's the conclusion I arrived at! Just needed confirmation!

[hydr0x]

as anagrama already said, all european releases are in the db, if you don't find something, you are using the wrong name, try to reduce chances you are using the wrong name, example, if you want to search for "Project Justice 2: Rival Schools" and it wouldn't show up (it should though), just select "dreamcast" "non-us" and search for project, you should be fine then...