Probably what you're looking for
[a]Alternate (alternate version of the game, usually trying a different output method)[p]Pirate[b]Bad Dump (crappy port / buggy)[f]Fixed (fixed the rom port from a previously-bad version)[T-]Old translation[T+]Newer translation[t]Trainer port (A trainer is special code which executes before the game is begun. It allows you to access cheats from a menu)[h]Hack (Don't bother unless you're looking for weird stuff)(-)Unknown Year[o]Overdump[J]Japanese translation(M#)Multilanguage (# of Languages)(U)or(E)or(UE)or(U)(E)English translation[!]Verified Good Dump (this is usually the version you want)(###)Checksum
(1)Japan & Korea(4)USA & Brazil - NTSC(A)Australia(J)Japan(B)Brazil(K)Korea(C)China(NL)Netherlands(E)Europe(PD)Public Domain(F)France(S)Spain(F)World (Genesis)(FC)French Canadian(SW)Sweden(FN)Finland(U)USA(G)Germany(UK)England(GR)Greece(Unk)Unknown Country(HK)Hong Kong(I)Italy(H)Holland(Unl)Unlicensed
[C]Color (for Game Boy Color)[S]Super (for Super Game Boy)[BF]Bung Fix (Bung released a programmable cartridge compatable with the GameBoy which could hold any data you wished to play. However, many games do not function on Bung v1.0 carts and have to be "fixed"). Alsobunglolol
(BS)BS ROMs (These Japanese ROMs were distributed through a satellite system in Japan known as the Broadcast Satellaview. They were transmitted along with a TV show which was connected to the game in some way. These games were only playable during the show, and thus stop after an hour, and many were timed so that only certain time periods were playable)(ST)Sufami Turbo (The Sufami Turbo device allowed two GameBoy sized carts to be plugged into the SNES. Certain carts combined into new games much like the Sonic & Knuckles lock-on technology by Sega)(NP)Nintendo Power (Nintendo Power has been known to release games only available to its subscribers. Most of these ROMs are Japanese, as this practice occured mainly in Japan)
(1)Japan (Carts with this code will run on both Japanese and Korean machine)(4)USA (While this code is technically the same as a (U) code, it is a newer header format and represents that the cart will run on USA and Brazil NTSC machines)(5)NTSC Only(8)PAL Only[ (B)Brazil ] (This country code indicates that it’s intended for Brazil audiences)[ [c]Checksum ] (This code represents a cart with known faulty checksum routines)[ [x]Bad Checksum][ [R-]Countries ]
[PC10]Playchoice 10 version[VS]Vs Version
(This list was compiled from friends, game tests, and this site: https://64bitorless.wordpress.com/rom-suffix-explanations)
Trying to understand the [a] alternative ones. I am eliminating all of a Apple II set but one. So like the one rom per game. I see some where the same file is listed multiple times with like [a] or [a1], [a2], [a3], etc. How do I determine which version I should keep? Like is the parent one with no [a... the best or the one with the highest [a# value?