Every list on the platform wikis now has its own page

A lot of what makes the platform wikis useful has been hidden in plain sight.

Every wiki page links through to lists like all cancelled titles, platform exclusives, games that need a particular add-on or everything in an official series. Under the hood though, those were all the same games table with a filter applied. If you clicked through, you got the list. If you were a search engine, you got nothing, because a filter isn't a page and a dropdown isn't a link.

This week I've changed that.

Lists are now pages

When you open a list from a platform wiki, it now behaves like a page in its own right:

• Its own heading. "Cancelled Neo Geo MVS Games" rather than a generic "Title Entries" page with a yellow filter tag.
• A short summary at the top. How many entries are in the list, how many unique games, the years they span, the most frequent publishers and how they split across regions. Distribution methods and official series also show their description from the database.
• Its own address. You can bookmark a list or share it, and it stays the same.
• Real links on every title. Clicking a row still opens the game in a new tab, but the title itself is now a normal link as well.

Lists with very few entries, and any combination of filters you build yourself, still work exactly as before. They just aren't treated as pages that need to be found in search.

The wikis link to everything properly

On the wiki side (NES is a good one to look at), a few sections were only drawn in the browser, so the links in them didn't really exist until you clicked something:

• Developer, Publisher and Franchise directories. The A–Z buttons work the same, but every entry is now part of the page. Developer and publisher names go to their company page, and the game count goes to that company's games on the platform.
• Browse by genre. New grid under the Genre Breakdown chart. Each genre links to its list, and the count matches what you'll find when you get there.
• Regional Analysis. Region names in the stats table are now links.
• Quick Links. The library dropdown is now a set of plain buttons: all games, base library, and each add-on.

A few bugs fixed along the way

• The Promotional button on every wiki pointed at a misspelt production state, so it always opened an empty list.
• Pre-production had the same problem with a different spelling.
• Production-state sections with nothing in them (no cancelled games, no promotional releases) are now hidden instead of showing a 0 and an empty button.

Why bother?

Because the data was already there and nobody could find it. Platform exclusives, cancelled games, everything that needed a 64DD or a Mega-CD: that's the kind of thing people actually search for, and Omni Games had the answers sitting behind a filter.

Search engines will take their time picking the new pages up, so don't expect miracles overnight. But for anyone using the site, the lists are easier to read, link and share right now.

As always, if you spot a list that looks wrong, or a section that should link somewhere and doesn't, let me know on r/OmniGamesInfo.