[Feature idea/request] Sports games filtering (latest year only)

[BobbyBoyGaming]

So there are a lot of games like say, "FIFA" series which will have games from 1998 all the way to 2015. And this is not an issue with version control, however to some people it may be easier/convenient/practical to just say "I only want the last known year iteration released"

So then this filter will just yield a 1G1R list with for example (just assume these are all the latest iterations for a given platform) FIFA 2015 NBA 2011 NHL Hitz 2005

Instead of something like this: FIFA 1998, FIFA 1999, [fill in everything in between], FIFA 2014, FIFA 2015 NBA 1998, NBA 1999, [everything in between], NBA 2010, NBA 2011 NHL Hitz 2002, NHL Hitz 2003, NHL Hitz 2004, NHL Hitz 2005

[unexpectedpanda]

It's doable with research. There's a lot of sports games, and they can change their name or versioning system within the lifespan of the system they're written for.

First priority is to get the kinks out of the v2 beta. After that's done, I'll consider it.

[unexpectedpanda]

Dropping an update on this as I've been tinkering a little. It's significantly more complex than ranking by year. While it's tempting to think that this can be done programmatically, it looks like the only sensible way forward is manual work in clone lists. Even then, coding the behavior is quite the effort.

Here's the Madden series in chronological order:

Madden NFL 24
Madden NFL 23
Madden NFL 22
Madden NFL 21
Madden NFL 20
Madden NFL 19
Madden NFL 18
Madden NFL 17
Madden NFL 16
Madden NFL 15
Madden NFL 25
Madden NFL 13
Madden NFL 12
Madden NFL Football
Madden NFL 11
Madden NFL 10
Madden NFL 09
Madden NFL 08
Madden NFL 07
Madden NFL 06
Madden NFL 2005
Madden NFL 2004
Madden NFL 2003
Madden NFL 2002
Madden NFL 2001
Madden NFL 2000
Madden NFL 99
Madden Football 64
Madden NFL 98
Madden NFL 97
Madden NFL '96
Madden NFL '95
Madden NFL '94, NFL Pro Football '94
John Madden Football '93 (EA Sports) | John Madden Football '93 (EASN)
John Madden Football '92 | John Madden Football - Pro Football
John Madden Football | EA Sports Double Header [Compilation]

Things to consider:

• Madden 25 is older than Madden 15 (it was a 25th anniversary edition). Given a new Madden 25 is likely for the year 2025, this likely means things have to be manually handled at the system level in clone lists, instead of programmatic detection. This is a pain for future proofing and minimizing manual work as DAT files get updated with new sports games.
• The odd insertions of Madden NFL Football and Madden Football 64.
• The times when the series didn't have the NFL license, affecting the naming.
• The renames for different regions earlier on in the series, meaning Retool has to compensate for regional choices.
• The compilation, meaning Retool has to compensate for compilation choices.