Talk:List of arcade games

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[edit] Pinball too?

Does this article apply only to video games, or could it also include things like pinball?

The intention was for this to be just about video games, and I've edited the entry to say that now. I wouldn't object to mentioning pinball, though, perhaps as a see also. But the idea was for the main list to be of video games. Silverfish 19:30, 12 Feb 2004 (UTC)

given that, I'm moving the article to "list of video arcade games" -- Akb4 17:24, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Whither compact TOC?

Why has the compact table of contents stopped working? It shows the compact TOC, but also the regular TOC which is inappropriate for this list. — Frecklefoot | Talk 15:39, Jul 19, 2004 (UTC)

Fixed, apparently you need the {{compactTOC}} along with __NOTOC__ to get the compact TOC, but not the regular one... Strange. If you say you want the compact TOC, why give the regular one too? — Frecklefoot | Talk 14:34, Jul 29, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] New Arcade Games project!

A new WikiProject for arcade games has been started. If you want to help with the WikiProject Arcade Games, head on over and add yourself to the participants! :-) — Frecklefoot | Talk 16:56, Aug 11, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Multiple Names

A suggestion:

Some arcade games were released under different names, depending on whether it was the US, Japanese, or World version. To minimize confusion, I suggest a guideline for this page where, if we know of more than one name for a game, we include the second next to it, delineated with some kind of separator. Ninja Gaiden, for instance, was released as "Ninja Gaiden" in the US, "Ninja Ryukenden" in Japan, and "Shadow Warriors" everywhere else. So instead of having separate links to both "Shadow Warriors" AND "Ninja Gaiden" on the list, like we do right now (one of them being a redirect), we could have one line that goes something like:

Shadow Warriors (World) / Ninja Gaiden (US) / Ninja Ryukenden (Japan)

or

Shadow Warriors (World), AKA Ninja Gaiden (US) and Ninja Ryukenden (Japan)

Thoughts anyone? The only potential problem that I can see would be how we decide which title gets first billing... --Zequist 21:40, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

That's the real problem, isn't it? We could list both in the list, in their own entries, but then list the alternate names as well. Like this:
Ninja Ryukenden (Japan) / Shadow Warriors (World) / Ninja Gaiden (US)
Shadow Warriors (World) / Ninja Gaiden (US) / Ninja Ryukenden (Japan)
In terms of naming the article, I think the US version name should be used since this is the English Wikipedia. The other names would redirect to the same article, of course. You might be interested in the Arcade games WikiProject. — Frecklefoot | Talk 14:01, August 19, 2005 (UTC)
I like that layout. I'm not sure about listing games in more than one spot, because that's what I was kind of hoping to get away from, but if it'll keep the "hair-trigger editors" (as I call them) - people who don't bother reading the whole page before making changes - from adding games we've already listed, I suppose it might be worth the extra work.--Zequist 00:07, 20 August 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Format

A huge list like this isn't easy to read. What do you guys think about formatting it like has been done at List of SNES games? Most of the release dates and a good portion of the publisher informaton can be retrieved using MAME. I'm willing to do this myself, but I want to know what people think first. MrLeo 17:45, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Personally, I like it the way it is. What's so hard to read about it? Two points about changing it to the table like the List of SNES games:
  1. It would make it much harder to make additions to the list. Instead of * [[The Coolest Arcade Game]], the user would have to stumble through the table markup and try to add a game without screwing everything else up. Newbies especially, but seasoned Wikipedians as well, would feel less inclined to add to the list, given the more complex markup.
  2. All the information in the table you cite is available in the articles themselves. I don't see how adding it to the list would make it anymore useful, unless one were looking for games by a particular developer or from a certain year. How often is that done?
Lastly, the publisher information and time of release is easier to retreive from the KLOV. MAME is fine too, but the KLOV has a more extensive database. Just MHO, wait and see what others say. — Frecklefoot | Talk 18:14, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

Your point about it being difficult for people to add entries is taken. One thing I did not take into account is that, unlike the list of SNES games, which is static as it's unlikely new games will be added, I'm sure there are still a fair amount of games to add here. About KLOV's database; KLOV is like Wikipedia in that users can add information, but unlike Wikipedia, incorrect entries are not often removed. In looking through it before, I've noticed some very incorrect data there. I personally would always use MAME first. The format doesn't have to be the one used on the SNES page; I just used that as an example really. My main point here is the large amount of white space, since basically it's the name of the game, aligned on the left-hand screen. Adding the basic information of release date and publisher might help. Thanks for your input. MrLeo 18:31, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] This page is a MESS

It should be changed to a category, or atleast better organized somehow. --Skylap

Considering how many times this is addressed, it's amazing how often it keeps cropping up. AAMOF, there is an Arcade games category. But there are several reasons to have a list also. For example, the only games that show up in the category are ones that have articles written about them. A list also includes games that don't have articles yet, a great springboard for bored editors.
There have been suggestions to organize the games by year or manufacturer instead, but none have prevailed. An alphabetical listing is the easiest to traverse and add to. I don't think anyone would oppose adding the year and/or developer after the game title, however. New lists organized differently could be created and linked to from this article.
If you're interested in improving the articles on arcade games, you may want to visit and/or join the project.
Please sign your posts. I added your signature above, but you can do it with either 3 or 4 tildes (~~~ or ~~~~). The latter is preferred as it also adds a timestamp. — Frecklefoot | Talk 18:32, 7 August 2006 (UTC)