Spectrum Computing

Quickly checking, it doesn't look like there's any difference between this one and the 48K version on the initial Visual Dimension release; which had 48K on one side and the expanded 128K version on the other.

I guess it'd depend on the amount and nature of the text? Ideally you could feed your finished text through something that'd identify the best tokens to use for saving memory? (I'm sure things like this exist). Yes, you can. PAW had fixed tokens but in DAAD (as +3code pointed out) you can actually ...

Tokenizing common words & letter pairing is certainly a fairly simple method of compression that has the advantage of being fairly quick to decompress. It's used in some text adventure systems, such as the PAW & DAAD. You can use tokens based on the best fit to the individual text or use one...

Anyone still baffled by Krakit may be interested in Jason Dyer's All the Adventures blog posts about the game, where him & his readers attempt to solve the puzzles...
https://bluerenga.blog/tag/krakit/?order=ASC

Yeah, this one isn't any different, but it is nice to have the inlay etc archived. See the Squirrel's Nuts thread for comments about various archived versions... https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=107518#p107518 (I have the feeling the original Guild release would've been 1992 ra...

Yes, Simon produced this game for the Amstrad CPC originally before it was ported over the Spectrum where it was initially published by The Guild. Damian Steele did a sequel, with Simon's permission iirc, but that only came out for the C64. It's not the only Red Dwarf parody text adventure for the Z...

I guess this could either be a compilation by The Guild or by The Adventure Workshop, as both games were released by those companies? So it might be useful for those updating ZXDB if the information was known. Along those lines... The current date for The Talisman of Lost Souls in the ZXDB is incorr...

In my experience, I met many convoluted (to say the least) puzzles. This was one of the worst: https://www.spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=66848#p66848 Not as obscure in the UK, though. Carrots improving eyesight (even though that isn't true) is an obvious connection; a result of a W...

Hank Scorpio wrote: ↑Wed Apr 26, 2023 6:13 pm The Hulk, right at the start you have to "BITE LIP" to escape the chair.

That's not quite as obscure as some people make out, because the more obvious ROCK CHAIR is also an option.

(Later uses of BITE LIP do occur in the game)

They're very much linked but at least the initial project ended up with units in the hands of backers; even if it did leave others not receiving promised payments. Sadly, the Spectrum scene has never really recovered fully from the Vega+ part of the saga, but that pales into comparison with the pers...

Yes... and as I said, as confirmed by Pablo to me in his tweet, they're not the same person.

I imagine that El Cementerio is by Depresiv, rather than the 1980s/1990s Pablo Martinez, but one of the Spanish guys will confirm that, I'm sure, such as @rockersuke or @Kozelek himself.

Lol, that's from my Twitter account. So basically the same information that I just gave.

There are at least a couple of different Spectrum-related people called Pablo Martinez, I think. :) The second surname of Spanish authors can sometimes help differentiate between them! You've asked me about... Pablo Martínez Merino aka Depresiv http://solutionarchive.com/list/author%2C4368/ of The H...

Jbizzel wrote: ↑Fri Apr 21, 2023 6:37 pm What's that gak one where you basically start as an embryo inside an unhatched egg, and you have to hatch somehow to start the game?

Book of the Dead. (BREAK EGG)

You guys just need to "git gud".

The current page on this one is lacking a bit of detail. https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6685/ZX-Spectrum/The_Million_Dollar_Great_Jewel_Heist The original release (presumably by The Guild, given the current reference... I need to check back in the adverts) was a straight conversion of the C64...

Stephen Blower used to do the FDD vinyls; as advertised on the Sinclair for Sale Facebook group. No idea if he still does them but he should be contactable on FB. There was only a limited number available at the time, iirc.

Graham has written about The Forest and his wider work on his website too...
https://www.grelf.net/omaps/index.html

The follow-up, The Explorer was so interesting... it just probably needed a few more game elements in there.

Banda was a particular brand, but like "Hoover", that's how we referred to all the machines in our school anyway. (in the US they tend to be "Ditto" machines for a similar reason)

For those that aren't quite as old as the rest of us... https://www.1900s.org.uk/banda.htm

Ah, I much preferred the spirit duplicators... Oh, the smell of fresh Banda fluid...

Yeah, aside from some tweaks in the loading (with the fancy The Guild loader dropped), the actual game database is identical.

Another Spectrum port from an earlier Simon Avery Amstrad CPC game (here writing under one if his pseudonyms). As with several of Simon's games, I don't think the CPC original is actually archived. Will have a nose at this variant, once a working link goes up. ;) The existing Merlin page is a bit of...

Very cool. I've passed on the images to Mark.

Like the Squirrels Nuts version, this one is functionally identical to the one already archived. But, as usual, it's nice to have this version of the Adventure Workshop release's inlay preserved. https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=107528 As an aside, the date for the Spectrum ver...

Only the slight difference in the loading screens, I think.

I have one or two similar things (unfortunately not with me). The one that jumps out was Diablo! by Mark Cantrell. Not an inlay, per se, but a full instruction manual and (paper) folder of character dossiers. All photocopied, but with felt-tip colouring. I'd definitely be interested in seeing some ...