As you could probably guess from a recent post, I’ve become particular about my gaming collection. I’ve got all sorts of games for just about every system, and I am trying to get it as organized as possible. One thing I’ve become really interested in was finding some nice inventory management type software for games collections. I knew a ton of them existed for movie collections, but I wasn’t quite sure if there was one out there for video games collections. Turns out there is, and it’s a great piece of software. Collectorz.com offers a whole line of collection management programs for managing your Books, Movies, Music, Games, and Comic collections. All of them offer the same set of features, but tweaked for different things. This review is primarily about the Game Collector (heretofor GC) program, but I also purchased the Movie Collector software, which is just as great.

Game Collector Basics
First of all GC has all the basics down, you can enter games into your personal database automatically by searching by a scanned barcode or the title of the game. It actually gets data from its own database, and other retail databases like Amazon. It gets each title’s picture and all sorts of data like summaries, release dates, ratings, genre, developer, publisher, platform, and more. Once a game is in your collection, GC can track loads of additional information like when and where you bought it, if you have completed it, and any additional notes you might have. One thing that I was especially impressed by, was GC’s extendibility. For example, each game has a field which tracks what other associated objects you have for the game like its case and manual. You just check which ones you have. But, as with all lists on GC, you can add to it. This was very useful for entering in all my Neo Geo MVS cartridges that have varying degrees of extras like mini-marquees, art sets, and dip settings.

Your GC database isn’t just for games you own either. Each game has a field specifying whether a game is in your collection, wanted, or even for sale. This was useful for entering in those few NES and SNES games I am still hunting for. Once I get them, I can just change the status of that game over to “In Collection”.

Another interesting thing GC can do is to print reports and show statistics about your game collection. The reports tool is pretty standard, you can print out lists of your games, sorted however you want, with whatever fields you want. You can also view statistics of your games, like how many games you have by platform, series, or media type. I like extraneous info like that. For instance, did you know the game series that I own the most games of is from Final Fantasy (13)?

Pro vs. Standard?
There are two versions of GC available from Collectorz.com. The Standard version will run you $24.95, and the Pro version will run you $39.95. Basically, everything I mentioned above you will find in both versions. But the Pro version has a little more to offer. With Pro, you can export your collection’s data into raw Text, HTML, XML, or even into iPod’s notes format. With iPod notes you can look through what games you own before making a purchase, so you aren’t stuck with a duplicate. I know this won’t happen on expensive games you play a lot, but when you are looking through stacks of classic games at the Goodwill, it becomes easy to forget what NES games you really have. Also, with Pro you can manage loaning items in your collection. Remember that friend in college that borrowed a game or movie of yours, and you never got it back? Pro will let you keep track of who is borrowing what.

Conclusion
Game Collector does everything I want for game collection management and more. It’s fast, reliable, and hasn’t failed me once. The only reason I wouldn’t recommend it, is if you don’t care about managing your collection by software. I know most people aren’t as OCD when it comes to collecting things as me, so it may not be for you. But if you want your collection managed, I really couldn’t find any other piece of software that comes close to GC’s features. Also, Collectorz.com has bundle deals, so you can buy multiple collection management programs at the same time and save some money. If you aren’t ready to buy it, they also offer a free trial version.

P.S. Barcode Scanning
If you have a large collection of movies, music, or games that you want to enter into a collection, you should find yourself a nice barcode scanner. They can get kind of expensive on eBay, but there is one kind out there that will almost always be cheap: the CueCat. Originally the CueCat was supposed to be some new marketing tool where people would scan barcodes in magazines and it would take them to a website. The idea flopped, leaving thousands of proprietary USB barcode scanners. Basically, with a little modification, one can “declaw” a CueCat. In other words, you can remove the encryption of scanned data. I found a CueCat that had already been modified on eBay for around $10. What’s great about GC, is that it even supports non-modified CueCats too. Basically, the decryption of the data is handled by the software. Either way, you are set, but if you ever want to use the CueCat for something else, I’d recommend either getting a modified one, or doing it your self. Check out the Wikipedia page for more.

Ever have that one game that you bought preplayed from Blockbuster and it didn’t have a case? Ever wish there was a better way to display all your classic cartridge games on a shelf? Well, if you suffer from video game OCD like me, you will love what the folks at The Cover Project are doing. Basically, it all started when someone realized that those nice plastic DS game cases can also store GBA games, and you could buy them direct from Nintendo for cheap. So the GBA Cover Project was born. Dozens of people feverishly contributed and as far as I know, they are pretty dang close to having 100% of the GBA boxes formatted so you can just print them out and stick them into a DS case. Now you can store and display your game collection in the same sized case as a DS game.

Apparently, this was only the beginning. Once someone with the organizational itch gets a taste of how pristine they can make their collection, they just can’t get enough. Because of another cheap (but only in bulk) universal media case, one can now store all their SNES, N64, and Genesis games in the same case. With a little modification (read: Dremeling) one can even make these cases store NES cartridges. Now the same folks from the GBA Cover Project, have just dropped the GBA, and go by the name The Cover Project. Its ultimate goal is to eventually provide covers for every game ever. For NES, SNES, N64, and Genesis games, the covers will be formatted to fit the aforementioned Universal Media Cases. For more modern DVD games, The Cover Project also wants to house image files for DVD case inserts. Apparently, work on N64 covers is nearing completion, and some of the folks have begun serious work on SNES covers. Keep up the good work, TCP.