Status Field

The status field serves a dual purpose. It tells something about the status of a variant, and is also used to order the variants for a game (higher number is better).

Suggested statuses (all number ranges are inclusive):

  • 20 to 29 – recommended variants (not used yet)
  • 10 to 19 – manually specified status to force variants to the top of the variant list.
  • -9 to 9 – reserved for implicit status (should not be manually specified).
  • -10 to -19 – manually specified status to force variants to the bottom of the variant list. This range will likely not see much use..
  • -20 to -29 – these variants are hidden from the user by default.
  • -30 to -39 – these variants are verified to be bad, and are hidden from the user by default
  • -40 to -49 – these variants should not have been in the database to begin with (demos for example). This is basically a “deleted-range” of statuses, but the entries are kept in the database to prevent them from popping up again (by being re-imported).
  • -50 or less – in the future this will mark the variant for permanent deletion. This should not be used, currently.

Some specific statuses:

  • -18 – Variant is missing features of the game (for example the title screen or the intro). Most likely a cracked version that removed parts of the game to make room for the cracktro on the disk.
  • -19 – obsolete WHDLoad variant. (hide if newer WHDLoad is available)
  • -20 – hidden variant, unspecified reason.
  • -21 – this is an alternative [a] version in TOSEC, included in the database for some reason. It will be hidden by default. Note: only applies to [a] versions which are “redundant”. For example, GameBase variants should not be given -20 even if they are [a] in TOSEC.
  • -22 – this is an ADF variant that is marked as only working after a hard drive installation [HD] in TOSEC. It will be hidden by default.
  • -23 – beta or pre-release version which we want to hide by default.
  • -30 – this variant is bad – unspecified reason.
  • -31 – this variant is bad – marked as [b] in TOSEC.
  • -39 – this variant is bad – known to not be completable.
  • -40 – make the variant “invisible” – unspecified reason.
  • -41 – this is a demo (playable demo, rolling demo, or similar).
  • -42 – Beta, prototype, sample version or similar.
  • -47 – WHDLoad variant which is “left” after cleanup.
  • -48 – variant is missing one or more disks (importer malfunction).
  • -49 – variant imported by mistake, belongs to a game not currently in the database (and there are no current plans to import that game). This can happen if a PD game has the same name as a commercial game.

 

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