MobyGames Database Hits 10,000 Entries

flipkin writes "MobyGames, an IMDb-inspired database of video games, has now surpassed the significant milestone of 10,000 game entries. The stated goal of the site has been to meticulously document and catalog every single game ever made, and while they still have a long way to go, 10k is an impressive start." Apart from this site and the excellent Gamefaqs, what other online game databases do you find handy?

Awww, dammit!

[Sunlighter]

They left out all those games I used to play on my TRS-80 Color Computer! Popcorn! Mega-bug! The Dallas Quest!

Huh?

[smoondog]

Why is there a category for 1900 [mobygames.com]?
Perhaps the 5 in that category should be taken off. 9,995?

(What is with all the 100 year old video game jokes?)

-Sean

over 25,000 games

[babyruth]

checkout www.gamers.com [gamers.com], which has the biggest games database in the world, at over 25000 games. It's also the site for EGM, CGW and other gaming mags.

Feh.

[gklinger]

MobyGames Quick Search

A search for 'paradroid' came up empty. Perhaps the game / company / person is not in our database, or perhaps there was a typo in the search. The quick search only searches on exact word matching and only searches game titles, company names and people names. Perhaps you should try different search terms, or use the more exhaustive site search page.

Clearly, there is still work to be done.

PS- If you've never heard of or played Paradroid [c64.com], do yourself a favour and click on t

Re:Feh.

[antdude]

Agreed. It didn't have Gemstone Warrior, Conan, etc. that I played a lot during Apple // days. :(

Re:Feh.

[Zapper]

Heh, Paradroid. Many hours used on that game.
And then I discovered Paradroid '90 (screenshots) [vgmuseum.com] for the Amiga and there went some more hours.
I still play this game (both versions).

Abandonware

[forged]

I find the Underdogs [the-underdogs.org] website to be a fine place to look for old computer games, a/k/a abandonware. As I am writing this they are listing 4439 games online. One of my all-time favorite must be Tera [av7.net] (1986), a relatively unknown and wildely unsuccessful RPG produced 17 years ago when PC's were original 8086's and had CGA monitors. I still play it occasionnally and even began a fansite [amarande.net] dedicated to this fine(?) piece of sofwtare.

To get back on-topic I also consult Megagames [megagames.com] regularly for all my patches needs and related add-on software.

Contribute

[AvantLegion]

MobyGames is an excellent site that needs more contributions from "old" gamers as well as new.

GameFAQs gets far more attention, and it's too bad (GameFAQs is great, but MobyGames provides different info and deserves equal attention).

My own contributions to MobyGames are far too few. I shall attempt to do better. :)

Don't want to rain on their parade,

[KieranElby]

but the World of Spectrum [worldofspectrum.org] has 10,677 titles just for one computer - the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

Homebrew Games...

[hackwrench]

Those mentioning games that Moby doesn't have can register [mobygames.com] and submit the game. From the looks of things though, it appears MobyGames isnt interested in Homebrew games.

Klov

[sconest]

The Killer List Of Videogame [klov.com] is a nice one for arcade games.

moddb

[Anonymous Coward]

MODdb [moddb.com] a site with all the mods for various games.

gamerankings

[subrama6]

although it's obviously trying to accomplish a different goal, i find gamerankings.com a great resource

Other gaming sites I have not yet seen mentioned

[veganjay]

Here are my most frequented gaming sites:

For game reviews, gamefaqs [gamefaqs.com]. The FAQs are great, but it is also a great place for reading user reviews. If I need more reviews, I head to Amazon.

For screenshots/video, I refer to the "biggies": gamespot [gamespot.com] and ign [ign.com].

For Game Boy Advance, I go to: gbacentral [gbacentral.net].

For Dance Dance Revolution: DDRFreak [ddrfreak.com]

However, my favorite site at the moment is for the ol' Atari 2600: Atari Age [atariage.com]

AtariAge is amazing: screenshots of almost every Atari 2600 game, very active forums, store that sells cartridges for new "homebrews", etc.

--
jason

purposes and efforts

[s3if3R]

THe existence of efforts like mobygames and IMDB never stop surprising me. Looking at the purpose of such efforts, one finds either

A) Marketing of new games, that reach an established gamer community thru linking the developers earlier efforts,

B) Archiving of an existing culture for posterity.

One can of course see A as a viable and possible truth, even though it doesn't seem to plausible without an accompaning conspiracy theory. B, though, isn't quite enough as an explanation for all the effort people put in collecting information on title, both for IMDB and mobygames, and others, of course.
The answer rather lies in

C) is the best game ever made, and everyone must know about it

And that's the interesting part. This part of us that cries out for the need of affirmation "There must be someone else who's seen " or just plain differentiation "Well HERE's a title NOONE's heard of - makes ME different".

So it's an interesting conflict of interests, trying to gather all information from all the sources of game information into one. For the people running those sources, it means cutting off their means of differentiality, becoming one of many others, rather than just one.

Why is IMDB so big? So widely-used? Because it's so damn good. Why is it so good? You tell me. In the meantime, I'm putting my hopes to mobygames.

Why is MobyGames better than the rest

[NetDanzr]

Some people already mentioned other sites with more games (and some with fewer), but with the exception of Word of Spectrum and Home of the Underdogs, those sites lack the best feature of MobyGames - the crosslinking capability. If you want to research a particular game, you not only get user reviews and screenshots, but also the trivia about the game, and most importantly, a direct link to everybody mentioned in the credits and the developer and producer page. Once there, you can alway dig deeper, seeing which games the particular person participated in, and how those games may have influenced the game you are researching. If there ever will be a computer gaming historian, MobyGames will be a better resource for him than sites that may offer twice the number of games, but little or nothing in addition to the game name.

That said, I have to admit that even MobyGames is far from perfect. All content is user-submitted, and there are numerous mistakes, especially when it comes to release dates and publishers.

No Apple ][

[BoomerSooner]

You've got to be kidding me. I guess this guy forgot the Ultima series was started on an Apple.

Re:No Apple ][

[Creepy]

That'd be handy... I can name a couple hundred off the top of my head...

Akalabeth (aka Ultima 0)
Airheart (ooh - double hi-res)
Apple Panic
Ali Baba
Archon (chess... sorta)
Aztec (aka Indiana Jones without the license)
Bard's Tale
Beer Run (...Olympus beer?)
Below the Root (loved the game... don't know why)
Captain Goodnight (a strangely familiar landscape)
Choplifter (video game based on it)
Crypt of Medea
Drol (nice graphics for Apple ][)
Eamon (text adventure maker)
Forbidden Castle
Gemstone Warrior ...
- several hou

What about the KLOV?

[ersgameboy]

Let's not forget about the Killer List Of Videogames. [klov.com] It's got a ton of info on arcade games, including lots of great case photos. Also try Digital Press. [digitpress.com] One of the best videogame collector's sites around, with a ton of system lists and a very active forum. Definitely worth checking out.

my site

[chill182]

My video game review site [bitsmack.com] has 7950 games. It's not really an informational site, just user reviews. However, MobyGames doesn't even have Atari 8-bit, Fairfield Channel F or Vectrex.

For a laugh...

[mcgroarty]

For a laugh, look up Nolan Bushnell [mobygames.com].

Methinks the database still needs more data. :-)

All Game Guide

[Phoenix Dreamscape]

Another good one is All Game Guide [allgame.com]. It mostly covers technical facts and history, but a good portion of their games are accompanied by reviews.

gamerankings

[bruceoberg]

another great compendium of game reviews is gamerankings.com [gamerankings.com]. website and magazine reviews for almost all modern games are included, with lotsa nice features for comparing titles, genres, etc.