Help With ROM Naming

[ROMTaker]

New member here, still trying to get my bearings. Was trying to make sense of the TOSEC naming convections, as I've not had as much experience with them as GoodSet or No-Intro. Have read the docs on it, but still am confused about a few things. For example:

Here are two ROM folders I have from a TOSEC set (for the same game on Atari Jaguar):

{TOSEC} Breakout 2000 (1996)(Telegames)[J9093E]
{TOSEC} Breakout 2000 (1996)(Telegames)[xx0327]

First, I'm going for a US-only retail set. Since it doesn't have the (US) tag, should I assume it could be from another region? Second, what does the [J9093E] and [xx0327] signify? It should also be noted this ROM doesn't exist in any other GoodSets or No-Intro anywhere.

[Maddog]

When naming, apart from TNC rules we also try to include other information that describes the rom at hand. Sometimes this can be cryptic to someone less familiar with a system. You have a good and valid question there. Here goes:

These two ROMs aren't actually that hard to find, they also exist in the MAME software list.
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/hash/jaguar.xml

J9093E is the actual retail release by Telegames. This number is the game serial, see it on scan here. In most cases where we have to use [more info] tags with weird numbers like these, the contained info is a serial (or ringcode when viewing CDs in TOSEC ISO). This is used when more than one version of the game in question is known.

Not much is known about the xx0327. It appears to be a prototype. Quite obviously this didn't have a proper serial number, however, many prototypes have a handwritten or printed date on their label. In this case, it seems that this build was made on 27 March, year not mentioned. Hence xx0327.
Software list entry has this to say about it:

<!-- The following are roms that have been leaked onto the internet, but don't seem to be proper dumps of cartridges.
These have been converted to j64 format with the universal header -->

<software name="breakoutp" cloneof="breakout" supported="no">
      <description>Breakout 2000 (Prototype, xx0327)</description>
      <year>1996</year>
      <publisher>Telegames</publisher>
      <part name="cart" interface="jaguar_cart">
         <dataarea name="rom" size="2097152">
            <rom name="breakout2000 (prototype) 3-27.j64" size="2097152" crc="20dbff9f" sha1="c8f29d04dacce1a83a1c93ab351737795d0f55db" offset="000000" status="baddump" />
         </dataarea>
      </part>
   </software>

Therefore, if you are only looking for retail set, the one you need is J9093E. I am not very familiar with Jaguar, but AFAIK there are no regions in its' carts.
In addition, I feel that creator of the dat should have included the information that the xx0327 is a prototype, as this possibility exists in TNC and would have allowed immediate recognition of this fact. I will amend for the next TOSEC release, so it will be clearer in the future.

[ROMTaker]

Thanks Maddog! Very helpful! I'm sure I'll have more questions in the future, but now I know just the gent to turn to 

[ROMTaker]

UPDATE:

After I played around with some emulation of the Jaguar on my end, another naming question popped up that I was hoping you could answer. I'm using Virtual Jaguar, and frankly the emulation of Breakout 2000 is pretty bad. It's jerky and there is a lot of blinking of textures in and out. Not sure if this is the emulator or what. But this got me thinking.

Even if I can assume a ROM like this is probably already a US region and the numerical code indicates its the retail copy, what info can I ascertain about the quality of the ROM itself? No-Intro goes without saying, as they already take the best dumped version. GoodSets will mark them with a code stating how good or bad they are. This TOSEC file doesn't have any info, so how will I know what quality ROM I have?

[Maddog]

Roms with known problems are listed in TOSEC with the Dump Info Flags.
So, if you see [b ] it's bad, [h] is hack, [m] is unintentional modification, [o ] is overdump etc.
Read the Dump Info Flags segment of TNC if you need more info.
If no such flags appear, it means that to the dat maker's knowledge the rom is OK.
Actually our approach and Good Sets approach on this matter are very similar.

Jaguar emulation is very poor at the moment, so many of the games don't work properly or even at all.