GameID Confirmation Guide

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Revision as of 14:35, 3 December 2017 by Xerxes (talk | contribs) (Good sources)
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How are IDs formatted?


Virtual Console Publisher IDs
System Code
Commodore 64 GX
Neo Geo, MSX J8
Sega Master System, Sega Genesis 8P
NES, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64 01
TurboGrafx-16, TurboGrafx-16 CD 18

How does the wiki handle IDs?




Good sources


A personal dump

Since the wiki's IDs are used for functionality in Dolphin, the database here has to align to what Dolphin gives for different games (given that the dump is valid). Therefore, the perfect source of IDs for the wiki is by obtaining them through Dolphin itself. However, this requires owning a copy of the game and being capable of dumping it and viewing its properties within Dolphin.

Nintendo's Update Server



The major problem with this method is that it can only be used for ID confirmation and not addition, since the prefix must be known ahead of time. There's been efforts to scrape the entire update server for all TMDs and therefore never run into this problem, but the work is still pending. (incomplete ID) is a trustworthy site dedicated to disc preservation across many different game consoles; its archives can be considered close to the game's cover in validity. When there's no good cover scans available for a title, this is the next most verifiable source for IDs available. The site itself also includes some helpful formatting, such as showing region flags next to the IDs in the database and listing game languages to pinpoint where European IDs had their release. Redump's main flaws are: a) it uses the same four character prefixes that game covers do, and b) it only includes GameCube games, no Wii data is available. On top of having only the four character prefixes, Redump doesn't document any publisher data like the cover does, so piecing together the last two characters is even more challenging. In conclusion, Redump is a great place to check outlier GameCube IDs, but it doesn't quite have enough information on its own overall to be a good main source.

The game's cover/disc (incomplete ID)

On the back of all GameCube and Wii games (besides Asian releases where it's on the front), near the barcode, the Game's ID will actually be printed out. This makes searching for a scan of the game's cover a viable means of confirming IDs. The ID is also printed directly on the disc as well, in the little subscript text along the edge. This can be considered a perfectly reliable source, however the ID on the cover uses a different format from those used in Dolphin; namely, the four character product code is used, which leaves out the publisher code. The publisher code can be pieced together using the publisher information on the cover, separate sources like GameTDB, and the GameIDs page if need be, however complete reliance on these sources is not recommended.

While this may theoretically be a good source of IDs, in many cases certain games just might not have high quality cover scans publicly available. If a cover scan for a game cannot be acquired using normal sources (GameFAQs, GameTDB, MobyGames, etc.), eBay is another possible option. A lot of listings use high resolutions pictures of both sides of the game's box or the disc, from which the ID prefix can be obtained. By knowing the regions of a game's release, region-specific eBays can be used to further narrow the search; for example, there's an Australian eBay, a British eBay, a German eBay, and a Swedish eBay called Tradera, among others. Since these aren't databases, keep in mind listings will come and go and results may vary, so results may be hit or miss. Note also that for the best results it's more effective to use the title of the game in the language of the region, which can be obtained from GameTDB or Redump. Below is a chart listing online auction sites in various countries for convenience.

List of online auction sites by region
Region Site
Australia eBay
France eBay
Germany eBay
Ireland eBay
Italy eBay
Japan Yahoo!
Netherlands eBay
North America eBay
Spain eBay
Sweden Tradera
Taiwan Yahoo!
United Kingdom eBay

Source with caution






ID abnormalities


Miscellaneous tips




This gives an output of:

GEMJ28, GBMJ28, GUSJ28, GP9J28
