MobyGames

MobyGames is a website devoted to cataloging video and computer games, both past and present. The site contains an extensive database of video game information. The website's goal is defined as the following by the website's FAQ: "To meticulously catalog all relevant information about electronic games (computer, console, and arcade) on a game-by-game basis, and then offer up that information through flexible queries and "data mining". In layman's terms, it's a huge game database." At the time of this writing (May 2005), that catalog includes more than 50 separate gaming platforms (consoles, computers and handheld devices) and more than 20,000 unique games.

MobyGames is built on a "quality over quantity" for framework, and the given reason for many games being absent from the website is that no users have contributed valid and suitable information for them yet.

Overview

MobyGame's database is completely relational, meaning that information can be searched for in a variety of ways. The database contains information on video and computer games, video game developers and publishers and categorizes them by year, manufacturer and platform. Many, but not yet all games released for the Amiga, Atari ST, Apple II, Commodore 64, the PC (both Windows and DOS) and all consoles such as the PlayStation and Xbox have entries.

The Moby software also develops lists of related games. For example, all the games in the Ultima series are included in a group list. Also, all versions of a particular game released for different platforms also get grouped into a special list. Games are separated by their gameplay and similiarity to one another. So that even though two games may share the same name or license, they only comprise the same game sheet if the gameplay represented is the same (or almost the same). Therefore a game such as Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell, released for 3D-capable platforms (Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, Windows) will be separated from Splinter Cell as it appears on the Game Boy Advance or N-Gage.

Content to MobyGames is added on a voluntary basis. The ideas are similar to a wiki, though not identical. Anonymous contributions are not allowed, each item is tracked to a user account for auditing purposes. Furthermore, all information submitted to MobyGames is individually verified by users with Approver access before it goes into the database. User accounts are free and require only a valid email address.

MobyGames also maintains a comprehensive list of developers, such as programmers, game designers and artists. This list is garnered from the credit information for games in their database. Some developer "rap sheets" (as MobyGames call them) have biographical information. This is not entirely dissimilar from how IMDB tracks credits for various movie actors and crew.

Almost all information on a game is included in MobyGames. Each entry can include a summary, credits, release information, cover art scans, screenshots, reviews (unlimited), technical specifications for the game, trivia, tips & tricks (cheats), advertising blurbs the game may have used, and links for buying or trading the game. MobyGames does not have any downloadable games, demos or patches, feeling those roles are better left up to the developers. They also do not carry game news as there are many other web sites devoted to that task.

One of Mobygames' signature features is that it allows it's users to rate their favorite games. The top rated games are then featured in a series of lists sorted by genre, system, year, etc. There is also a list for The 25 Greatest Games of All Time.

History

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999 by Jim Leonard, Brian Hirt and David Berk (joined after project started, but still credited as being a founder), three friends since high school. Leonard had the idea of sharing information about electronic games with a larger audience. Out of that desire came MobyGames.

MobyGames began with just entries for DOS and Windows games, since those were the only systems the founders were familiar with. On its second birthday, MobyGames started supporting other platforms, such as the PlayStation, the Apple II and even Linux and the ancient Vectrex. Currently, only a few systems are not (yet) supported by MobyGames, among them Apple Macintosh and the Atari 8-bit family. According to David Berk, new platforms are added once there is enough information researched to design the necessary framework for them in the database, as well as people willing to be approvers for the new platform.

See also: Killer List of Videogames

External links

• The MobyGames website (http://www.mobygames.com)
• The MobyGames FAQ (http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq)
• Oldskool.org (http://www.oldskool.org/), Jim Leonard's website "dedicated to old PC gaming-related nostalgia and resources."