Japan PSX list

[Dimitri]

--edit: I've started work, link to progress is down a bit--

Is anybody working on an English-language games list for the Japanese Playstation? I've never seen such a list myself (only Japanese-language lists), and I've been building up a collection of cover scans for these games (I'm at about 3500 now...) so I got to thinking that with a resource like this at hand I could probably turn it into a complete release list with a few months of on-and-off effort.

I wouldn't want to duplicate such an effort if someone else is already working on it...and perhaps we could collaborate or something.

Would anyone even want such a list? There's a lot of variations and releases missing from the DP online guide, but I'm not sure how many people out there collect these, so this is also an interest check.

Please respond if you know or are interested.

[AtariBuff]

i think the whole PlayStation 1 community is interested in such a list - so you have my voice of approval

[Aussie2B]

I'm definitely interested. I have more imports for PlayStation than for any other console.

If wonder how hard it would be to come up with rarity numbers and values for all the Japanese games. O_o And then it would be twice the work if you had to come up with separate numbers for both Japanese and Asian versions...

[kevincure]

Here's some resources that might be useful (esp. if you speak Japanese): Sony's JP website has cover images for tons of games (maybe all games? Sony's US website is filled with inaccuracies so who knows, but it's possible). Here's an example; http://www.playstation.jp/products/a...sips60006b.jpg (MK3). You can just go to playstation.jp/products and search if you know the Japanese (or often the English works fine). Another dude (not sure who it is) also has a list up at
http://illusionoflife.com/Sony_Index/PS1/Jap_name.htm . Not sure who he is, but his US list is accurate barring a few unreleased titles and variants which he mistakenly included, so it's definitely a good starting point.

[Aussie2B]

What's helpful is that if you look up a PlayStation game on GameFAQs and go to the Game Info page, you can click on the "Game Information (JP)" link to go straight to the page on Sony's site with information about the game and the scans of the cover and back (assuming that the game was released in Japan, of course). Takes care of a lot of the work of manually looking for a particular title yourself on Sony's Japanese site. I use those links all the time.

[PapaStu]

Please respond if you know or are interested.

If it means anything to you, youve got MY blessing. I've got a little info in the US PS list, but if you've got half the cover scans your talking about, I highly doubt that anything I've got will matter game wise to you.

You've got my help if you need it (and the covers of the 6 Japanese PS games i've got).

[Dimitri]

Cool -- once I finish getting the scans (prolly a couple weeks or so) I'll start turning them into a list. Glad to hear there'd be a demand for it. I guess I'll post periodic updates here or something...

I've been getting most of the scans from the two Japanese Playstation websites (Sony's online store has some covers that aren't in the main site). If anyone's interested, I can also put up an archive of the scans when that part's done (it's already over 300MB, though, so maybe not). They're sorted by part number, no game titles on them as of yet...

As for rarity, I don't even want to think about that. Especially considering most asian versions can't be differentiated from Japan versions...I've got an asian Puzz Loop but it's just the Japan version with a sticker on the wrapping (which is long gone...).

[Aussie2B]

It's pretty easy to tell Asian and Japanese versions apart if you know what to look for (like "For Japan Only" or "For Home Use Only"), but trying to come up with rarity and price differences would be a real pain in the ass. o_O There definitely is a significant difference in value (especially when new), but since most sellers of older imports often don't even point out if they're Asian or Japanese, people end up paying the same regardless of which version they're getting.

[kevincure]

If you had somewhere to store the data (maybe Joe would help - I think he mentioned he had a lot of extra bandwidth), I would definitely download a comp of the screen covers with a list!

[Dimitri]

It's pretty easy to tell Asian and Japanese versions apart if you know what to look for (like "For Japan Only" or "For Home Use Only")

My asian Puzz Loop says "For Japan Only". The sticker that was on the wrapping said, basically, "This is an Asian version game. Ignore the thing on the back that says 'For Japan Only.'"

I'm closing in on finishing up the scans (few hundred left as far as I know, mostly reprints so it's not terribly interesting stuff in comparison...the archive will probably be close to 400MB upon completion), so I'm trying to decide what should actually go into the list. Of course, part numbers and romanizations of titles will be there, but what else would people want? Release dates? Publishers? Original Japanese names (Unicode rocks!)?

...thoughts?

[mb7241]

I *definitely* would be interested in a good rarity list and price guide, as I have only about 11 or 12 Japanese import PS1 games and am looking for about 50 more... I also would be interested in cover (box, where applicable) scans, too. Hm...if I only knew how much filesize (or how many pictures) I could upload to photobucket ...

Original Japanese names would be a big help to those of us who can't exactly read Japanese, come across some random import, and want to know what the heck it is (I'm in this boat with regards to several Super Famicom titles I have). Release dates would be somewhat helpful, too.

[kevincure]

I'd say Japanese Name, Romanized Name, Developer (though this is often tough to tease out), Publisher, SLPM/SLCS/SCPS number (makes crosschecking easier), cover image filename (if it's in the database, it's much easier to work with).

If possible, I'd say note if other editions (PSone Books, Playstation Best, special editions, etc.) exist next to the main title. Even if you split each one up (by part number), that's the easiest way.

If you get this done, btw, you are the man. With AtariBuff and crew doing the Euro list, we've almost got a full PS list! There are no Asia exclusives, right?

[PapaStu]

I'd say Japanese Name, Romanized Name, Developer (though this is often tough to tease out), Publisher, SLPM/SLCS/SCPS number (makes crosschecking easier), cover image filename (if it's in the database, it's much easier to work with).

If possible, I'd say note if other editions (PSone Books, Playstation Best, special editions, etc.) exist next to the main title. Even if you split each one up (by part number), that's the easiest way.

If you get this done, btw, you are the man. With AtariBuff and crew doing the Euro list, we've almost got a full PS list! There are no Asia exclusives, right?

I'm sure there could be. But is there any real way to tell? I mean so much of that market is off kilter that it would seem hard to tell. Look at the Euro market with stuff being so regional I think that same problem would easily happen with the PlayStation stuff over there.

For the DP guide theres a shitton of anal specific details we CAN track (not every game, or everything happens, at least for the time being). I'd be most concerned with(as would most anyone else hoping for such a list) Japanese name, Roman Name, Publisher, Developer (to a lesser degree), SLPM/SLCS/SCPS and to what degree its been given the reprint treatment (PSBook ect ect). In other words exactly what Kevin said.

[slapdash]

I'd say Japanese Name, Romanized Name, [...]

I'd also add literal (word-for-word/phrase-for-phrase) translation, accurate translation (possibly with notes, like "Motoki refers to a general in the Heiyan period" etc) and "AKA" ("sometimes referred to as..."). Not ALL of these would get filled in, of course, and in fact most would probably be left blank most of the time, but it would be nicer to have the capability to have this info than not.

[Dimitri]

SLPM/SLCS/SCPS and to what degree its been given the reprint treatment (PSBook ect ect).

I've got things like Playstation the Best, PSone Books, etc... (many larger publishers also have their own budget labels...) all with seperate covers, as these reprints have different part numbers (as opposed to US releases where GH versions and other reprints will always have the same number).

cover image filename (if it's in the database, it's much easier to work with)

Filenames of the images are just the part number without the hyphen (that's how they are on Sony's site so no renaming was necessary). There's nearly 4000 images in the set, and it's over 350MB, so disributing it would be a bit of a pain, I imagine. Some good news, I've got the image collection essentially complete apart from some releases that don't have covers on Sony's site and rarely turn up places like Yahoo...unless, of course, I happen upon a chunk of releases that I missed somehow. Almost thought that happened last night, actually, but it was an error on Sony's site.

I'd also add literal (word-for-word/phrase-for-phrase) translation, accurate translation (possibly with notes, like "Motoki refers to a general in the Heiyan period" etc) and "AKA" ("sometimes referred to as..."). Not ALL of these would get filled in, of course, and in fact most would probably be left blank most of the time, but it would be nicer to have the capability to have this info than not.

This would add considerable bulk if they were added as seperate fields. They could just as easily be added to the notes where necessary, which is where things like "this is a limited-edition box set that includes a teacup" or "this game was only released in the Major Wave series" or "this game was released in the US as 'Felony 11-79'" go.

Oh yes, one last question...any recommendations for actually holding all the information? For my personal "want" list I just use a text file tabbed to line up, but that most definitely would not work for a publically distributed list (font, spacing differences, etc...). Whatever I use would need to be Unicode-compliant. Excel? MS Works Spreadsheet? Gigantor HTML table? Soon as I get this decided I'll get started on the list itself.

[kevincure]

As long as its importable to Access/Excel, it's fine I think. This means everything from delimited (comma or tab) text file up to Access DB. I think Access is the easiest to work with (easy sorting and all that) so I'd recommend an .mdb. Look forward to seeing the work!

[Dimitri]

Well, I've started building it in Excel...here's a preview of what it's going to look like:
http://home.comcast.net/~jdr99/psxlist_preview.htm

(In case you're wondering, the prefix and number are seperate fields to make sorting easier.)

Obviously, there's not much there yet. It's more work than I expected it to be (especially translating some of those big long kanjiful game titles) but I plan to keep plugging away at it for a few hours here and there when I can. Hopefully someone can help crosscheck the romanizations, though...

On a side note, going through thousands of Japanese game covers leaves you with a lot of good avatar choices.

[digitalpress]

You're off to a good start!

I hope you'll share this with us when you're finished.

join... ussss....

[AtariBuff]

grrrrrreat Dimitri.
If the "DP PlayStation 1 PAL guys from Europe" can be of assistance give me, Tinsair or davidleeroth a holler. There surely will some nice release cross-references come to light.

[kevincure]

Yeah man, that's looking great!