Clones and parents, what's the difference?

[Gary_Oak]

From what I understand, the parent ROM is suppposed to represent the definitive version of a certain game, whereas the clones would be their alternatives.

While this isn't certainly the most reliable source for information, the MAME page on Wikipedia states that the parent ROM is "the most recent World version of the game". This does sound logical, as one would assume that the last time the game was released somewhere it would also be the most recent version of it.

Now, I don't know if the No-Intro team follows the same P/C standards as the MAME devs do, but if so, there are a couple of things that confuse me.

Let's take "Yoshi's Island DS" as an example. Since the game was last released on Europe, that version would be the parent, which is indeed the case and it makes sense. But for "Zorro - Quest for Justice" (Nintendo DS), which was last released on the USA, the parent is the european version instead. If this is because of the "most recent World version of the game", is Europe supposed to represent the "World" in someway?

Alien Crush for the TurboGrafx-16 was last released on the USA, but the japanese version (which came an year before) is the parent. Why?

This one here is rather subjective, but given on how USA games ran better than their european counterparts (at least when it comes down to home consoles), wouldn't it be preferable to make those the parents rather than the european versions (for some games) even if they represent the most recent version of a game?

That's pretty much all. Sorry if I sound like I'm bashing the team (certainly not ) or jumping into senseless conclusions, I would just like to understand how the whole P/C thing works, so any enlightenment would be appreciated.

[kazumi213]

No matter what you try, you'll have to apply an arbitrary rule at some point. This is my convention, and I apply it systematically (I can't agree with "the last time the game was released somewhere it would also be the most recent version of it" as an absolute truth)

0. Final/Complete > Proto/Beta/Demo

1. Games containing En language > Other languages

2. World > Continent/Multi Country > Country

(2b., for Nintendo, P serial > X > Y > Z > W, except when in conflict with 1.)

3. Old "main" console regions (EUR/USA/JPN) > Other countries (so i.e. Japan > Spain)

4. Country with earlier dump available (why not, experience shows that when this step is required, parent is literally that, clones being subsequent localizations of it)

5. Highest revision

To me It wouldn't make sense having a Rev 1 Germany release as parent with Rev 0 EUR Mx and USA clones. Neither Rev 1 Germany is more parent than Rev 0 France. It's just Germany required a revision, whatever the reason.

Rules 1-4 can be skipped to some extent by user when merging or using the 1G1R feature, by applying a region preference list in CMPro and RC.

[FST]

4. Country with earlier dump available (why not, experience shows that when this step is required, parent is literally that, clones being subsequent localizations of it)

That's a mostly neglected, but IMO a generally very important criterion.

For instance, I could never consider as valid to accept "Soldiers of Fortune (USA).sfc" as parent to "Chaos Engine, The (Europe).sfc". No matter how you look at it, "The Chaos Engine" is the real name of the game (originally developed for the Amiga by the UK-based Bitmap Brothers); if someone at NOA for whatever reason decided to change the name for an American release, it automatically classifies this version as a "clone".

Unfortunately, you cannot establish such P/C relationships in an automated manner, but need to keep record of them explicitly (which in turn requires reliable information on what is derived from what for all such cases).