DS Scene Established Scene Rules

It's really about time this got done, personally I'm a bit sad to see that some groups such as Xenophobia (XPA) and VENOM have not signed this and in fact created a seperate set of rules, which sucks.Personally I disagree with 1.4, though, making a clean dump "preferred" is vague and basically means there's no consequences for breaking that rule, the PC scene has managed with external intro files just fine and people who have an interest in such things can view it then.

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  /   __  )__\    \\    \\      \ /    _    /   /   _/____ NDS Scene Rules 2010
 /   /_      \     \     \       \\   -\____\---\___      \   [01 June 2010]
/      \      .     \     .       .   _/      .   :/       \ 
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 1.1)  Releases must be packed in RAR. SFV and NFO must be included.
 1.2)  Rars must be split to volumes of 5 MB (5,000,000 bytes)
 1.3)  Rars must be compressed with M1 (fastest) or better.
 1.4)  For the sake of better current and future flashcart compatibility and to 
       keep ROM data consistent, full untouched, unmodified, unaltered dumps 
       are prefered. However, if an altered/introed/cracked ROM is released on 
       the scene before an untouched ROM then it will be allowed. 
 1.5)  Cracks to make games work on specific hardware are allowed but should 
       only be released as a PATCH and should not include the original ROM 
       game data. Flashcarts used to test a crack or patch must be listed in 
       the NFO, this includes the name of the flashcart, firmware name and the
       firmware version number.
 1.6)  Any redump of the altered ROM should be tagged as CLEAN or REDUMP and 
       not as a PROPER nor should any crack be tagged as a PROPER of a valid 
       clean release.
 1.7)  The ROM image of the NDS game must be .nds
 1.8)  Directory names must include: Game name, region, system name, group name
 1.9)  If a game does not include the English language, this must be specified
       in the dir name unless the region tag implies that region's native 
       language is the only language in the game eg. game tagged JPN is Japanese 
       only, hence does not need to state the language.
 1.10) If a game is rereleased with additional foreign languages, the directory
       name can be tagged MULTI, however the NFO must specify which additional 
       languages are included.
 1.11) Acceptable characters for a dirname are:
       ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789.-_
 1.12) Recommended directory format:
       Game_Name_<REGION>_<MULTI#/PROPER/READNFO/REPACK/CRACK/etc.>_NDS-GRPNAME
       Game.Name.<REGION>.<MULTI#/PROPER/READNFO/REPACK/CRACK/etc.>.NDS-GRPNAME
 1.13) DSi and DSi related releases will be regarded as NDS releases and will
       adhere to this ruleset. DSi related releases must have the tag DSi 
       in the directory name. Recommended directory format is:
       Game_Name_<REGION>_<MULTI#/PROPER/READNFO/REPACK/CRACK/etc.>_DSi_NDS-GRPNAME
       Game.Name.<REGION>.<MULTI#/PROPER/READNFO/REPACK/CRACK/etc.>.DSi.NDS-GRPNAME
       Game_Name_<REGION>_<MULTI#/PROPER/READNFO/REPACK/CRACK/etc.>_DSiWARE_NDS-GRPNAME
       Game.Name.<REGION>.<MULTI#/PROPER/READNFO/REPACK/CRACK/etc.>.DSiWARE.NDS-GRPNAME

            The.Official.NintendoDS.Ruleset.2010.NDS-CONSOLE - v1.0 
       active as of Thursday 3 June 2010 00:00:00 GMT (1275523200 Unix time)
           Signed by the following groups on behalf of the NDS scene:

        . 2CH . 6rz . BAHAMUT . Caravan . DDumpers . DeNovo . EXiMiUS .

         . HR . Loli . MainichiHentaiShimbun . NRP . NukeThis . OneUp .

                    . RFTD .  SCZ . TRM . WetNWild . WRG .

I don't really see the point of 1.2, this creates a risk of parts getting lost. I personally prefer when it is all in one piece, regardless of total size. Almost every time I get an NDS file that is in part files, something is missing that doesn't allow me to extract properly.The rest of it, although some of it seems like it would be horribly tedious, looks like it should be fine. I can understand the dumpers feeling like they should have some say in how it is handled since they are core release groups and pretty much have complete control over a game being dumped on time. This would have gone over much better with the dumpers if DS Scene had actually taken the time to create a set of rules with them. I can understand wanting organization, but this almost goes over the top really.Rules are good, too many, or vague (1.4) rules are not. Really, there shouldn't be so many rules around an already illegal activity, but that's just my opinion.

Please note that this is Scene rules, not RomUlation rules. RomUlation will continue packing files in the current way.One reason for 1.2 is that should one part be transferred as corrupted then the .sfv file will tell and the offending parts can quickly be re-transferred. This doesn't make a whole lot of sense for a 20 MB DS game but if you have a 4.7 GB DVD for a game it makes a lot of sense to keep the files smaller. With this rule the overall set looks more like other Scene rules.

Replying to #3

I suppose this is why I like RomUlation so much. The rules are simple, only get violated by complete idiots and spammers, and since DS games are relatively small already, they just come in one file. I can understand it with your example. With GB's worth of info, it is much easier to just transfer it in parts rather then getting all 4.7 GB in a single part. It is far easier in files that large for something to become corrupt due to how much information there is.The only time I use DS Scene is when a patch comes out that is only available there at first. Most of the time though, I just find it dumped in a prepatched rom in an AP thread by the time I wake up the morning after the thread is made.If they've been having issues though, it is good that they do have a set of rules in place that match up with the rest of their site.

I was a little put off by a couple of the latest releases only have cracked/patched versions, I don't remember seeing a non-cracked version of the latest Club Penguin game...

Replying to #5

I don't remember if there was ever a pre-cracked version uploaded. Pretty much all of the comments for Club Penguin have people saying that they couldn't get past the Venom screen. I couldn't figure out why a clean rom wouldn't be uploaded to see if it actually worked on any carts before hand, or why it hadn't just been included as a patch vs a pre-patched rom.Clean roms should always be uploaded, regardless of if it doesn't work on any cart without the patch at the time of release. There is always a chance that a future firmware release will bypass the AP without a patch. I suppose that is why 1.4 is in place, though it shouldn't be "preferred" to have a clean rom, it should be mandatory.

These are rather interesting rules.It's a shame that VENOM and the rest didn't agree with them.
I can only assume that they won't count anymore as "scene releases"?

Replying to #7

Unless all groups can be in agreement about the rules, then the dumps probably won't be too frequent there anymore from the more popular groups (VENOM, Xenophobia, etc.).

Replying to #8

True.
I just hope that there will be agreement and not pissy-ass attitudes towards each other later on.
Sooner or later, there will be a change on one side.

Another note. The DS Scene I refer to is not the website DS Scene, they are completely unrelated.This is not likely to slow down the rate of releases, however, I don't see it increasing the rate either. Basically this changes nothing but how Scene releases are packed, so RomUlation users won't notice anything at all.

Replying to #10

Ok.I wasn't getting some of the garbage talk and such. :P