Release date logo..?

[Myrkul]

I always wondered on the old releases what is the meaning of that "R" in the release date...
If that's the release date!?



If that's the release date, can we say 100% it's the date we should use for the database?
I have seen the date correspond most of the time, but not at 100%.
(ex: Original Sound of Cyber Tank (Arcade Version) that is "R.12.16 ?)

[Dag]

I don't know about this case but it's always possible the date was printed in the album but released later.
Also, do we need date silliness like this?

[seanne]

I don't know what that letter means, but it should be the correct release date. The Cyber Tank CD entry might just have been based on incorrect info, since the scans were added quite a lot later. Or based on the assumption that the tape and CD releases were released on the same day, as was common at that time.

[Myrkul]

Originally Posted by seanne

Or based on the assumption that the tape and CD releases were released on the same day, as was common at that time.

Yeah but that's why i was curious about the release date..
Like i said, Cyber Tank CD is "R.12.16"
While Cyber Tank Tape is "R.3.30"

If that's the release date, none of these entries are correct actually.

[Gigablah]

This might shed some light on the alphabet/year mapping:

http://shiningbrightly.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2009-12-01

1984 = N
1985 = I
1986 = H
1987 = O
1988 = R
1989 = E
1990 = C
1991 = D

Supposedly it follows the order of the unique characters in "NIHON RECORD", switching to regular numbers after 1991.

[Secret Squirrel]

This is pretty cool. I had wondered what these codes meant. The connection of the Cyber Tank albums will probably have to be reversed now that we know that real dates.

[seanne]

Could this be added to the tool-tip for the release date boxes on the 'add album' page? It's super helpful when adding those old releases.

[Nisto]

Originally Posted by seanne

Could this be added to the tool-tip for the release date boxes on the 'add album' page? It's super helpful when adding those old releases.

Yes. Please, do that!

[Secret Squirrel]

I've added the release-year codes to the tooltip.

[Phonograph]

Originally Posted by Gigablah

...

1984 = N
1985 = I
1986 = H
1987 = O
1988 = R
1989 = E
1990 = C
1991 = D

Supposedly it follows the order of the unique characters in "NIHON RECORD", switching to regular numbers after 1991.

actually it goes till 1992 = K
for NIHOn RECorD Kyoukai (日本レコード協会)

[Secret Squirrel]

I added that to the tooltips.

[Phonograph]

but it still has "Between 1985 and 1991, Japanese albums used the following date codes:" (1984~1992)