Catalog your video game collection

If you have asked for a Discogs for videogames, this is an attempt at one. The video games catalog is built around the physical thing in the box: a specific release, for a specific platform, in a specific region — and then the copies of it you own, with how complete they are.

It is the newest catalog here and the smallest. The model is finished and the entries are not, so what you add now is the catalog.

Why the release, not the game

Ketsui on PlayStation 2 is not one object. The Japanese release, a limited edition with a soundtrack disc, and a later budget reissue are three things, and a collector means one of them. Region locking alone can make two discs that look identical behave differently in your machine.

So the catalog separates them:

• A game is the title — one entry for Ketsui, whatever it was released on.
• A release is the boxed object: this platform, this region, this publisher, this barcode, this cover variant. It is what you own and what you buy.
• Hardware is the machines and their variants — consoles, revisions, regional models, arcade cabinets.

Your copies sit under a release, so two copies of the same game on two platforms are what they actually are: two different releases.

Completeness, not just condition

Game collectors sort by completeness before grade, so a copy here records both:

• Sealed, Complete in box, Game and box, or Loose
• Condition from Mint down to Poor
• A record for each copy you own, where you keep it, and what you paid — the last two private to you

"Complete in box, very good" is a sentence a game collector can price. "I have Ketsui" is not.

What to add first

Start with the shelf you know best, and add the release you actually hold rather than the first entry that matches the title. If the release you own is not in the catalog yet, add it — the combo form creates the game and the release together in one step and links them.

Hardware is worth the same attention, and almost nobody catalogs it properly: console revisions, regional models and the differences between them are exactly the kind of detail that gets lost.

Where it is going

This catalog exists because people asked for it in the forum, where the retro side of it was the strongest argument: the collectors who care most about regional variants and packaging are the least well served anywhere else. The field model follows from that, and the discussion about what else it needs is open.

If you came from one of the -ogs sites that are no longer online, the same revival covers books, movies, gigposters, gear and comics.