Spectrum Computing

Luckily there are still plenty of us still around but I don't think I was ever much of a Sam programmer. The FB group isn't a bad place to ask Sam programming questions and Sam has it's own World of... site as well as stalwarts like Colin flying the flag over at samcoupe.com.

PeterJ wrote: ↑Mon Jun 12, 2023 8:49 am The majority of machines are listed manufacturer then model. The Amiga is the odd one out.

You could argue it should be the Acorn BBC Micro.

Perhaps just crappy personalised YouTube search algorithm trying to be too clever. I don't get them when I type those searches in, but at least it's closer...

I was just flicking through an old Molimerx catalogue and came across one of the first mentions of the original TRS-80 version...

Level 9 adverts started featuring Spectrum as a format towards the end of Summer 1982; such as in 80-Bus News July-October 1982 and Your Computer, September 1982. Artic adverts didn't feature Spectrum until the end of the year. Abersoft's version of Adventure was advertised for the Spectrum at least...

HEXdidnt wrote: ↑Mon May 29, 2023 5:08 pm Hopefully not as long as that now

Indeed... hopefully less of a gap between 26 and 27 than there was between 25 and 26... which I think was something like five years.

I think, as recent as a month ago, that Adrian was saying the full version will be on the coverdisk of the next Sam Revival magazine; as a timed six-month exclusive. Sam Revival is published very infrequently. So I would imagine the next issue may be at least six months away, anyway. So you're poten...

Doing a bit of research for CASA, I noticed that the ZXDB entries for this game are incomplete. The English ZX81 port of Paul Allen Panks' Dunric's 8K Adventure is currently listed... https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/35697/ZX81/Dunrics_Adventure * Paul Allen Panks needs crediting as an author o...

It wasn't an active call for removal... but just a comment to explore the scope. Very Big Cave does include a big chunk of Colossal Cave in order to parody it, but does also go off in all sorts of other directions too. Are Einar's games specifically cut down ports of Colossal Cave? The reason that I...

It's hard with text adventures, as I guess technically you could end up looking at a large number of games that were directly heavily inspired by specific puzzles and mechanics in Colossal Cave; so your original list, which are more clearly attempts to port the original game, is the way to go. Very ...

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...