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unexpectedpanda / retool

Retool: a better filter tool for Redump and No-Intro DAT files.
BSD 3-Clause "New" or "Revised" License
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TurboGrafx-16 / CD Incorrect Language Filter #275

Closed pascalfco closed 1 year ago

pascalfco commented 1 year ago

Describe the bug

To reproduce

Expected behavior

Operating system

Retool edition

Retool version

Are you using custom global or system filters? If so, list them below

Global excludes:

unexpectedpanda commented 1 year ago

When I download NEC - PC Engine - TurboGrafx-16 (20230718-134255).dat from Dat-O-Matic and filter by Japan and English only, I get three titles in the downloaded DAT:

When I run the full DAT through Retool with your settings, I get two titles in the downloaded DAT (because one is removed as a duplicate):

The titles still remain if I add more languages after English. Digging into the metadata and ignoring the (En) tag in the filename, it looks like these are the only titles marked as supporting English in the No-Intro database.

I get a similar experience with Non-Redump - NEC - PC Engine CD + TurboGrafx CD (20230628-083646).dat. Filtering by Japan and English only on Dat-O-Matic gets me three titles:

With your settings, Retool removes the two protos to get:

One thing I got caught by on Dat-O-Matic: you need to click the Custom radio button when selecting regions and languages, or the filter doesn't apply:

nec-turbografx-16

Let me know if I've misunderstood, or if you're still seeing something different from me.

pascalfco commented 1 year ago

You are completely right, I got caught as well by the Custom radio buttons not being selected properly.

After some additional digging, I was able to generate separate TurboGrafx-16 DAT files with English, Japanese and nolang filters. I was hoping nolang might be it, but alas it did not solve the issue.

The main problem seems to be coming from the fact that neither No-Intro nor Redump treat and name Japanese English titles properly.

Take AfterBurner II (Japan) for example, this title is clearly in English but it has been catogerized as being in Japanese by No-Intro.

My main objective when creating 1G1R sets would be to keep all of the English titles from Japan especially when these were exclusive titles.

Let me know if an idea comes to mind. Would there be a way to counter-validate title languages from a different source instead ?

Worst comes to worst I could always reach out to both release groups to try and have the DATs corrected.

unexpectedpanda commented 1 year ago

I think the unfortunate answer is it needs to be fixed at the source.

A heads up if you do file tickets at No-Intro: some system maintainers can be strict about only marking something as an English title if it's 100% in English. It depends who you hit. AFAIK there isn't an "English friendly" attribute.

Some people have asked for Retool to essentially keep its own language database to overcome this, but it's not feasible to maintain as just me. In terms of automating the task, there are quite a few game databases around -- but none that I'm aware of that can be relied upon as a secondary source for language-per-system release details.

In the interim I think the best bet for reaching your goal is a web search. There are a few lists on the internet for "English friendly" TurboGrafx-16 games that could be cross-referenced with an exclusive games list. Sadly this means much slower manual curation.

I'll close this up now as it's not something Retool can address -- but I definitely hope it gets fixed at the source one day.