During Steam's 2025 Winter Sale, I purchased the Jurassic Park Classic Collection because, despite not having finished Jurassic Park on the SNES after probably dozens of attempts, I still have fond memories of that game. I then realized that this was another collection of games, bundled into a retrospective collection, and that I would need to update The Ultimate Spreadsheet to help keep track of which games in the collection I had beaten. But then, I realized I hadn't done the same thing for most of the other collections I've bought over the years. I listed all of the Final Fantasy games from the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster and BioShock: The Collection titles, mainly because those collections had individual games with their own individual icons as part of the bundle/game card, but the games in the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection have remained under a singular title on the spreadsheet because their title selection is within the game itself.
Herein lies a twofold problem, with only half of it solved.
I've already mentioned that there are a lot of games that I have across various platforms and clients, like the aforementioned SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, but also collections like the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, Arcade Classics Anniversary Collection (from Konami), and NAMCO Museum, all of which have multiple titles that have gone unlisted beyond their collection title. So listing Jurassic Park Collection: Jurassic Park NES, or Castlevania Anniversary Collection: Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, while exceedingly wordy, is an easy way to categorize all of the games in each collection. It's also the best way to keep track of which games I've beaten.
And therein lies the second and more difficult problem. Games like Pac-Man, SkyKid, or Dig Dug are more about achieving a high score than actually reaching the end. Sure, games like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, and Dig Dug are infamous for their end-of-game kill screens. I personally don't have the time or the patience to spend hours/days/months getting good enough at Donkey Kong to get to the kill screen. So do I include them on The Ultimate Spreadsheet? Or do I aim to get a specific high score and count it as beaten? Maybe getting the high score in any given game? But then, with several collections of games now having online connectivity and online leaderboards in place of a standard High Score screen. And there is zero chance in Hell that I'm getting more than 2,519,300 points in Pac-Man or 995,377,527,480 points on the Centigrade 37 Gottlieb table in The Pinball Arcade.
What I think it will boil down to for games like Galaga, Donkey Kong, and tables in The Pinball Arcade, I will need to select an arbitrary high score or end goal and consider the game "beaten" once that point is reached. And all of this to say that I'm going to need some time to update The Ultimate Spreadsheet now that I've come to these semi-conclusions.
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