Spectrum Computing

I wonder if someone saw ESP Software and just thought ESP=Spain? It wouldn't be completely unusual for an English language adventure to be produced in Spain, but the odd mix of Pengo (UK) and Teef (Spain) is more unusual; I'm also thinking that the reason the game has a walkthrough published on Nov...

Tourist Trouble - https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/alt/10945/ZX-Spectrum/Tourist_Trouble A quilled adventure written by Teef & Pengo. I can't find more information about it, but there are a couple of odd things: - One of the authors is from UK (Pengo), but the other one (Teef) seems to be from Sp...

So, there's a Paxman/Geoff's pre-Prism square box release from 1985, a Prism/Paxman double jewel from 1987 which is on MobyGames, and there's also the single jewel budget release which was presumably released in 1990 as that's when it appears in the charts . Great! I can work with that, thanks Stoo...

Hi StooB , about this report: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/add/public/history_detail.php?fn=11363_change_sql.txt Comment: original title simply "Sports Pack" (see https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/185582725687 - original Paxman pre-Prism release, the "The" is added on later vers...

Is that a remote control for the TV? Did anyone actually have these for the Speccy? We had to tune it in with a dial. I remember visiting an aunt around that time, and she got a perhaps Hitachi TV with a remote and touch buttons. The remote was stored inside the TV, and can be extracted with a butt...

The only thing I can think of is I'd left Ocean by the time the games were released on the Hit Squad label. Maybe Paul took my name out to give more emphasis to him and, as I wasn't there any more, wouldn't be able to have a moan at him about it. He never put my name or Bill Harbison's in Dragonnin...

Hi, about the StooB reports for Batty. I want to leave a comment here, not because there is a problem, but I find the information interesting. So, based on the dates from the adverts, Batty was originally published on Your Sinclair Smash Tape #3, September 10th 1987; and later published by Hit-Pak o...

And some of the fixes on this release. Thanks everyone for all the reports. With this update I finished my sweep on the Little bugs in the database 4 thread, I usually do a second sweep, but let me know if I missed something. https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=82587#p82587 by Jua...

Looks nice!

I am not sure this is correct, though it perhaps depends on what you mean by "inlay": https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?p=111532#p111532 I was talking about the art on the Microprose release, since he is mentioned on the manual, but looking again, Haire was the lead art...

AcroJet - https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/69/ZX-Spectrum/Acro_Jet I think one of the authors is completely made-up :lol: WOS/ZXDB: F. William (UK) J.R. Denman (UK) Imre Kovats (Hungary) Laszlo Szenttornyai (Hungary) But based on the manual: DESIGN & PROGRAMMING: William F. Denman, Jr. with...

Project Stealth Fighter - https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=96&id=3900 Based on the credits inside the game: Jim Synoski - Code, Game Design Arnold Hendrick - Game Design Paul Hutchinson - Code Max Remington III - In-game Graphics ZXDB mentions Sid Meier, but I don't see him as part ...

Hi! Looking at this report by Frankie: -- #002569 by Frankie -- add small file changes for 'Supercode (CP Software)(1983)' [ID: 8806] UPDATE downloads SET comments='Supersoft Release (2nd Edition)' WHERE entry_id=8806 and file_link='/pub/sinclair/utils/s/Supercode.tap.zip'; I forgot to dig more into...

Should we merge both entries? We shouldn't have separate entries for tape, disk, and cartridge distributions of the same program. Unless this cartridge version is very much different from the tape... Could anyone please take a look? AFAIK they are pretty much identical, and Timex used to publish bo...

equinox wrote: ↑Sat Feb 11, 2023 11:22 am So do we get the INSPIRED? Thank you for your game playing.

Yeah! You convinced me is going to land on the next patch.

Hi StooB About this one: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/add/public/history_detail.php?fn=3567_change_sql.txt Comment: 128k only (see cassette image also uploaded) ZX-Spectrum 48K/128K -> Machine: ZX-Spectrum 128K I can play the game in 48k mode just fine, so, the 48k/128k figure is accurate. I...

Oh, I see your point about the year. I still think that perhaps is not close enough to add the "inspired by" tag, but yeah, even the name can be related to Bomb Jack. Ok, just noticed that there are also levels based on iconic places around the world, so, yeah, I see the inspiration thing...

Vector graphics games are no easier to guess the framerate of. You don't know when one frame ends and another starts. You might be able to use some heuristics to guess where the main loop was and check how frequently that was executed, but most likely you'd have to have the user identify the main l...

Well, it also came out in 1984, the same year as the Bomb Jack arcade game. (The official Speccy port didn't arrive until 1986.) I agree the gameplay is in some ways closer to Chuckie Egg, but you can be "inspired by" a game without copying all of its gameplay. Oh, I see your point about ...

Hi equinox I'm doing this fix from you: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/add/public/history_detail.php?fn=4478_change_sql.txt Bombscare [#ID: 4478] -> Relation #1: Type: Inspired by * Bomb Jack [#ID617] I'm not 100% sure about this. I can see the relation, specially about the active bombs you ca...

That'll be 50FPS in just about every game, even the really, really sluggish ones. Because they're drawing parts of the screen on every frame, even if they spend 20 frames drawing a single in game "frame" Oh, I disagree. There are a lot of interesting cases out there. Vector games are a go...

Oh, I agree, but there is no need for a super accurate tool, just measure how many times changes are being pushed to the screen is enough to have a general idea. If the game does some Cobra-trickery to improve the FPS perception, so be it (the frame trace tool showed above can help with that), but t...

Thanks for the color highlight on screen changes, love to see this working. To someone that is not deeply technical, visual aids like those are really welcome. I can see, for example, that Saboteur keeps refreshing the center of the screen for some reason? https://i.postimg.cc/Jz25Tyt8/spectrumanaly...

I read it somewhere, but I can't find now the source. About signatures, take a look here: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5708 Thanks, I was hoping to have some copyright message or magic hexa string to search for more games, but I have new messages on that thread to review a...

Hi @+3code quick question, about: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/zxdb/ad ... ge_sql.txt

Relation #1: Type: Authored with -> MCoder II

How do we know this tool is used. Is there a signature on the code we can search for?