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Forums > CSDb Feedback > What's an import?
2021-10-13 10:57
TheRyk

Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 2241
What's an import?

As one of your favourite mods Count Zero keeps cracking his head about the CSDb crack sub category "Import", let's help him, so he finally can focus on more productive issues.

Here's some rotten forum freds frome around a decade ago on how it emerged:
- Adding the cracker group to import/trainer version (Rough raising the question how to distinguish group-b-introlinked cracks originally made by group-a from group-a's release)
- Suggestion: New release type "C64 Import" (bepp calling for a new release type)
- PAL to PAL imports (Didi's view, especially doubting Imports without Video Standard fixes make sense)

So do we need the "Import" flag at all?
Should we limit it to the days when BBSes and snailmail were the only way of getting cracks across borders and oceans?
Is a crack made in one Western German city intro-linked in another Western German city an import?
Do we need another category/flag ("Lame Intro Linked Version without any advantages over original crack") instead?
Do more categories/flags really make things clearer or rather create more confusion?

Now go, fight.
 
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2021-10-14 18:15
Krill

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2979
Quoting Groepaz
Doesnt make less sense than "fake demo" though (and why do we have "fake demo" but not "fake crack"?)
Ah yes, "fake demo". Should be removed and merged with demo. :)
2021-10-14 20:18
TheRyk

Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 2241
What Krill and Grumpaz say.
A demo is a demo.
2021-10-14 21:08
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11384
What is a "fake game" though? =D
2021-10-14 22:12
TheRyk

Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 2241
even got doubts about "fake groups" but let's stick to "Import" for the time being

-> BTT please
2021-10-14 22:37
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11384
ok, so before i go back to poopcorn mode, and since you seem to think there will actually come something useful out of this thread (good luck), here are my 5ct:

what defines an "import":
"import" generally means group A made a legit release which group B obtained by downloading or other means of swapping and then brought it to their country, city, district, whatever (that depends on where you come from and what era you refer too), and slapped an intro in front of it to express that fact. As a rule of thumb, if the group B intro does not state "imported by" then it is not an import.

what does not invalidate an "import":
- group B removed the intro of group A. this often happened because both intros didnt fit. however when group B intro does not state "imported by", its a recrack, not an import.

what does not define an "import":
- group B slapped an intro in front of groups A release, group A intro intact or not (there is more to it)
- group B made a trainer, or ntsc fix, or highscoresaver, or god knows what.

in all of these cases however, the release should be "released by" group B and not group A and B, because group A was not involved whatsoever. for the same reason any credits related to group A release should not be repeated in the group B release. Except for the rare cases when group A was actually in coop with group B - again this would usually be stated in the intro or related notes. If in doubt, this is not the case.
2021-10-14 22:50
Count Zero

Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 1932
Well spoken and generalized but

Quote:

what defines an "import":
"import" generally means group A made a legit release which group B obtained by downloading or other means of swapping and then brought it to their country, city, district, whatever (that depends on where you come from and what era you refer too), and slapped an intro in front of it to express that fact.


and

Quote:

what does not define an "import":
- group B slapped an intro in front of groups A release, group A intro intact or not (there is more to it)


sound the same to me? :)
2021-10-14 22:53
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11384
make it "or other means of swapping over a longer distance" then :)
2021-10-14 23:33
Count Zero

Registered: Jan 2003
Posts: 1932
So "Import" includes distance? Some minimum? And is the true origin important then as well?

We e.g. uploaded to the US-BBSes from Europe so things which got imported (aaaaand fixed) _in Canada_ got closer to the destined fixer/importer/downloader. Makes it importing from where? :)

Sooo much nitpicking, quality/exception/definition/understanding POVs - brave Ryk anyhow told me that he will come up with a handy definition when this discussion is over.
2021-10-15 00:05
TheRyk

Registered: Mar 2009
Posts: 2241
Not sure about groepaz' focus on geography, although we find cases in which villages B and C were hardly 50 miles away from each other.

Quote:

in all of these cases however, the release should be "released by" group B and not group A and B, because group A was not involved whatsoever. for the same reason any credits related to group A release should not be repeated in the group B release. Except for the rare cases when group A was actually in coop with group B - again this would usually be stated in the intro or related notes. If in doubt, this is not the case.

Interesting point, especially as we currently deal with these releases totally the other way round by mentioning all groups involved, though we do not repeat credits.

Let me strike once more, having read Black Beard's memories, this ain't about fame or lame or ethics. It's about functionality of database. What helps me browsing my "Search Results"? There might be users searching for exactly THAT release of Maniac Mansion with exactly THESE 3 intros. Not mentioning group A at all won't help - in contrast to the current modus operandi, i.e. naming all groups involved. The flag "IMPORT", however, shows clear enough imho, group A had nothing to do with the actual _release_ (besides their release being linked).
2021-10-15 10:33
F7sus4

Registered: Apr 2013
Posts: 117
Quoting Groepaz
the release should be "released by" group B and not group A and B, because group A was not involved whatsoever. for the same reason any credits related to group A release should not be repeated in the group B release.


Yet people whose SIDs were used in any random production/demo do get credit, because their work is present there, even though there were not involved. Which makes TheRyk's argument even more valid:

Quoting TheRyk
What helps me browsing my "Search Results"? There might be users searching for exactly THAT release of Maniac Mansion with exactly THESE 3 intros. Not mentioning group A at all won't help


It'd be best to either apply the same labeling standards to all productions or to none.
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