Template talk:Bob

Categorization/Feature Icons (or: Maybe next we can shove the whole article into this template)

Random idea: The Cutting Room Floor's Bob has flags for icons that describe what the game has hidden. Maybe we can do something similar, but for games with certain features; for example, an icon for Master System games with FM support, an icon for Mega Drive games with Mega Modem support, an icon for Dreamcast games with SegaNet support? These icons can also trigger category additions (Master System Games with FM Sound, Meganet Games?) - Andlabs 23:41, 22 January 2011 (CST)

I support this, provided there's some nicer icons than on tCRF and things are a bit neater. Would be nice to have some master lists of these things too -Black Squirrel 08:53, 24 January 2011 (CST)

Hm, I don't really know about icon selection, but here's what I was thinking of as far as text-based icons though:

TEXT   DESCRIPTION
MARK III/MASTER SYSTEM:
3D     3D Glasses
FM     YM2413
MC     Card media (MyCard)
N2     Game has compatibility issues/does not work with Master System 2s (Ys) and Mega Drives (one of the card ones; I forget the name) [I do believe there are some games that don't work on original Master Systems; I have to check this]
MEGA DRIVE:
6      6-Button Controller
MM     Mega Modem (assuming Sega Meganet doesn't exist, which I'm trying to debunk now)
SM     Sega Meganet (assuming it does)
MA     Mega Anser
ST     Sega Tap
4W     EA 4-Way Play (incompatible protocols)
SM     Sega Menacer
KJ     Konami Justifier (incompatible protocols)
GT     Game Toshokan
SC     Sega Channel
MEGA CD:
BK     Backup RAM cart required/reccommended
SATURN:
MT     Multitap support
NL     Sega NetLink
BC     Backup cartridge support
FD     Floppy disk drive support
DREAMCAST:
SN     SegaNet support
VM     Plays with VMU
VG     Has games for downloading to a VMU

What do you think? On an unrelated note, what about a game's VMU/post-DC save file/iOS icons (I was thinking of doing this last one with ChuChu Rocket! and Columns Deluxe)? - Andlabs 01:53, 18 March 2011 (CDT)

Icons will make things less clear, not more, because people won't know what they mean. I would like to include icons from iOS and Windows games though. - Hivebrain 07:43, 18 March 2011 (CDT)

I don't know. Icons CAN be clear at times. - Scarred Sun 19:04, 15 December 2011 (CST)

n/a

Bob

I think icons can work, but I'm not sure if they'd fit well in the bob template. I also think you'd be better off making vector versions.

this sort of thing does look as if it would be useful for something... I just don't know what -Black Squirrel 08:04, 16 December 2011 (CST)

Better or worse?

n/a

Bob

n/a

Bob

-Black Squirrel 08:13, 2 May 2011 (CDT)

It looks fine... Maybe the original developer/platform could be put on its own line? Eh.

On the subject, I think we should add support for switching between screenshots for different regions... The code is already in the LevelBobs on Sonic Retro for the Sonic 3D levels. - Andlabs 12:51, 8 May 2011 (CDT)

Two things

a) should this template include product codes? i.e. the T-xxx and the GS-xxx stuff - it seems odd not to inlcude these bits of information on the game's page when we're happy to do it with the lists.

would be even better if we could have the list pages read from bob templates, similar to how Sonic Retro does categories.

b) the current order is -publisher -developer -system

should it not be -system -publisher -developer

because in some cases we're stating who was responsible for Mega Drive ports before we've said the game was released on the Mega Drive. Just a thought. -Black Squirrel 14:01, 17 September 2011 (CDT)

I've been thinking about a)too, but I'm not sure... I guess we could try to find a way to get the Bob template to grab the catalogue numbers, though IDK how that would work with Sonic Retro... I'm no MediaWiki expert so I'm not sure which extensions, if any, would help. How is Sonic Retro doing it?

For b) I'm not sure what would be the most practical ordering (though I personally like it how it is now, a different order might have some advantages or something IDK how to say this :/ ) - Andlabs 23:58, 17 September 2011 (CDT)

Collating product codes automatically won't work for multiplatform games. I do agree they should be added to the bob though. - Hivebrain 21:43, 19 September 2011 (CDT)

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Can someone explain to me how automated genre insertion is going to work? I don't quite understand and I can already see a problem when it comes to multiplatform games - Andlabs 13:04, 7 May 2012 (CDT)

Multiple genre games can be dealt with by adding a second genre category manually. Multiplatform games with different genres I hadn't thought of. I suppose the only way to do it would be by suppressing the autogenre thing with a flag and adding both categories manually. - Hivebrain 14:18, 7 May 2012 (CDT)

I've made it so if the genre starts with a "?", then genre categories won't be added automatically. I would've preferred something invisible but couldn't get it to work. - Hivebrain 14:37, 7 May 2012 (CDT)

I'd still like to know how the genre thing works. Is it something to do with the Template:Releases? I added a hook in genre2num so I can find out exactly which are the trouble spots and deal with them - Andlabs 15:12, 7 May 2012 (CDT)

1. genre2num (in template:bob) converts the genre to a variable (integer) by reading the first few characters. This allows it to pass the genre to other templates. The problem with this is that it only reads the first genre listed and only if the string begins with the genre.
2. num2genre (in template:releases) converts the variable back to a string, which is inserted into the name of a category by template:releases. - Hivebrain 15:29, 7 May 2012 (CDT)