Redump Forum

Hi guys,

Half a decade ago (!) there were rumblings that Redump might support p/clone DATs. The post I found is here:
/viewtopic.php?t=8664 … tionships/

I am wondering - is this something the community is interested in, and if so, what have the obstacles been in making these DATs a reality?

I ask because I have been working on a tool that helps automatically group games into their parent / clone relationships. If the sheer manual labour involved has been an obstacle in the past, my tools will surely help.

Appreciate your thoughts on this. Cheers.

It's still on the TODO list - /viewtopic.php?t=5239 … o-shedule/
iR0b0t is the only site coder, so no idea if or when this will be implemented.

Thanks Jackal. It's a shame to see p/clone far down the list of priorities, but the higher priority items are justified (sub-channel data, clrmame support, etc).

There is no priority on that list, the comment on priority is only valid for the first list "working on, priority order desc",which is empty just yet.

Right now i am working things down which i think are the fastest to be done with. But i can change it on request.

The p/clone dats is a difficult topic, before i can do anything on it i need to have a good plan on how to realize it. The discussion on that topic link was not resulting in a final plan.

Hi iR0bot. Thanks for dropping in, and thank you for all the great work you've done for Redump

I think it may worth exploring 'why' parent / clone DATs are desirable. Personally, I like the notion of 'game families'. I like the separation of 'unique' software for a platform - it makes exploring software libraries more manageable. I frequently ask myself the question: 'How many unique titles were released for system X'?. Grouping a game's parts (discs, for example) is one element of that, as is the higher-level 'Family' encapsulation.

I would love to know what others think of this. Why do they want p/clone DATs? Do they share my mindset that this kind of grouping is a good tool for helping with in the study of games?