The more information that can be gathered about a dump the better. If you want to provide more details than the bare minimum found in the general dump info, then please take a look at the section below.

Reminder: Not all the information below is required, but if you can help fill gaps in the information submitted then it helps the preservation community as a whole.

Dumping tool and version: 
Dumper: 
Affiliation: 
Dump creation date: 
Dump release date: 
Link(s): 

Title: 
Region: 
Edition: 
Languages: 
Language Select: 
WikiData ID:

ROM Region:
ROM Revision:
ROM Serial:

Size: 
CRC32: 
MD5: 
SHA-1: 
SHA-256: 

Physical Media Serial 1: 
Physical Media Serial 2:
Physical Media Stamp: 
PCB Serial: 
ROM Chip Serial 1: 
ROM Chip Serial 2:
ROM Chip Serial 3:  
Box Serial 1: 
Box Serial 2: 
Box Serial 3: 
Box Barcode: 

Links to
Cart Images: 
PCB Images: 
Box Images: 

If you are submitting a dump to someone who's adding it to a database, you can skip the transcription of some items, but it can make the process smoother if you do the transcription yourself. Aside from the checkum, items derived from the ROM file itself can be skipped if your ROM matches an existing dump.

• Dump release date: For public releases of prototypes (etc)
• Link(s): If applicable, link to dump/release post/page.
• Languages/Language Select: Some games either show a language selection screen at startup or in the game options. Note that it is possible to submit a game without checking the languages, but this then needs to be stated in your submission.
  • Tip: Using an emulator like Desmume can speed up the language checking dramatically since you can switch the BIOS language in the emulator settings much faster than on a real hardware. You can hold down the tab key to speed up emulation.
• ROM Region: The region found in the ROM data. (Extractable with GameHeader)
• ROM Revision: The revision found in the ROM data. (Extractable with GameHeader)
• ROM Serial: The four-character serial found in the ROM data. (Extractable with GameHeader, if the header includes it)

• Physical Media Serial 2: Secondary serial. For most carts, this is an optional “REV X” or “REV-X” (where X is a letter) on the top-right of the back label. For DS/3DS/Switch, its a serial on the back of the cart.
• Physical media stamp: For most carts, this is two numbers imprinted on the top-left or top-right of the back label (front label for GB/GBC/GBA), possibly followed by an A or B. May need to view under a light source. Doesn't exist on DS/3DS/Switch.
• Box Barcode: Keep the spaces. It could be verified against the barcode itself by using barcode scanning software and using the check digit.
• Cart and PCB Images: Back and front.

• Size: The size of the ROM in bytes. You can view this in your file manager, or on GNU/Linux and macOS, in the terminal run

   wc -c ROMFILENAME

• CRC32: On GNU/Linux and macOS, in the terminal run

  crc32 ROMFILENAME

  On Windows, use OpenHashTab or HxD.

• MD5: On GNU/Linux, in the terminal run

  md5sum ROMFILENAME

  On macOS, in the terminal run

  md5 ROMFILENAME

  On Windows, in a PowerShell window run

  Get-FileHash ROMFILENAME -Algorithm MD5

• SHA-1: On GNU/Linux and macOS, in the terminal run

  shasum -a 1 ROMFILENAME

  On Windows, in a PowerShell window run

  Get-FileHash ROMFILENAME -Algorithm SHA1

• SHA-256: On GNU/Linux and macOS, in the terminal run

  shasum -a 256 ROMFILENAME

  On Windows, in a PowerShell window run

  Get-FileHash ROMFILENAME -Algorithm SHA256

Submitting info for NDS and 3DS games requires checksums for the encrypted and decrypted dump.

Encrypted ROM file info
Size: 
CRC32: 
MD5: 
SHA-1: 
SHA-256: 

Decrypted ROM file info
Size: 
CRC32: 
MD5: 
SHA-1: 
SHA-256: 

• Decrypted ROM file info: To encrypt a copy of the ROM to get the encrypted hashes, use NDecrypt, 3ds_encrypt_v4.py or GodMode9 itself (use “NCSD image options”>“Decrypt file” on the copy)
• ROM Serial: You can find this at 0x1150 in the ROM.
• ROM Revision: You can find this at 0x312 in the ROM.
• .txt file: Its a good idea to provide the .txt file produced by GodMode9 as it includes additional info: cart ID, save chip ID, dump date (if the 3DS internal clock is set correctly) and the GodMode9 version.
• PCB Serial: Use for ▼ for the triangle character, one space character ( ) for each empty “slot” and • for the small circle characters (which don't always appear).
• ROM Chip Serial: You may not want to open the cart, as its possible the plastic will break or that the cart won't be easy to put together again. However this hasn't been tested thoroughly. The ROM chip serial isn't so important for DS/3DS as the pertinent info is also written on the outside of the cart.