How the weekly DAT updates work

Every week, Omni Games imports the latest DATs from the preservation groups it tracks. Until now, a summary of each run was posted on r/OmniGamesInfo. From this week, the updates are published here on the blog instead.

This post explains what those updates contain and how to read them.

Two posts a week

The imports run on two days, and each day handles a different set of DATs:

Each run gets its own post, so it's always clear which DATs a change came from. The two posts for the same week link to each other.

What each post contains

Notes. A short write-up of anything worth knowing about that run: a large batch for one system, a removal worth explaining, or something still pending.

Processed preservation groups. How many DATs were updated from each group. Each group name links to omnidat.php, filtered to that group and date, so you can see exactly which DATs changed.

Locked DATs. A locked dat is exclusive to NoIntro and means that the current dat showing an updated version cannot be downloaded.Each entry shows the DAT's version, which is its release date and time, as shown in the Version column on omnidat.php.

Removed dumps. Dumps removed from the database in that run. When there are any, the count links to the Removed Files browser for that date.

Finding the updates

All DAT update posts carry the dat-update tag. To see every one in date order, use the dat-update tag page, or click the tag on any update post. The blog's archive and calendar in the sidebar also work if you're looking for a particular week.

The updates are tagged rather than given their own category. The blog's categories (Code, Content and Spotlight) describe the kind of post, and the DAT updates are regular content posts that happen to share a topic. Each post also carries tags for the groups it covers, such as no-intro, redump or no-intro-private, and for any platforms with locked DATs. That way you can follow a single group or system across weeks.

On Reddit

Each new update is shared on r/OmniGamesInfo as a link to the blog post. The full details live here on the site. The Reddit thread is the place for questions and discussion, and it's linked from the bottom of each post.