Spectrum Computing

Yes, as Mark said, it happens everywhere, even this thread :) https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=37&p=580#p580 for reference. @HexTank, @1024MAK, are you seeing the same issue on this page: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=4 -- the Contact page? Also, w...

HexTank wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2017 12:17 pm In firefix there's a warning about connection not being secure, "Parts of this page are not secure (such as images)"

Can you paste in the URL of the page you are seeing this warning on?
It's typically because one or more of the images, or embeds on the page isn't an https reference.

So, your Joffa Smiths, Kevin Toms, Jon Ritmans... what did those guys earn annually/per project in their heydays? I guess it's safe to assume that today's big-name code-meisters earn considerably more? At least this year both Mark R Jones (Ocean; Wizball, Gryzor) and Martin Wheeler (Virgin; Dan Dar...

All the information on WoS that I have referred to is already available on WoS or it's forums. Or was in the now discontinued Wikipedia page on WoS. Or is available on other public sites (like the internet archive). Lee has already said that he helped Einar with the WoS data. So Einar did start ZXD...

Ahh, so there is the problem. You say that your "expertise is in architecting and building web sites and web applications". But that is something that I cannot judge you on. I just have your word. Google is your friend. LinkedIn is also your friend. At the moment, there are plenty of word...

@Mike Davies - If you are so confident, write a Spectrum game for me in three days that is a proper playable game. Should be simple for you. The Spectrum is a simple computer simple compared to a modern server running a full featured web site. This is bizarre, what's that supposed to prove? My expe...

The original WoS site appears to have been build using a number of off-the-shelf software packages that were then glued together with custom code. That sounds like it was a right pain to maintain. Can you blame anyone for trying to avoid such a system? Both Fogarty and Einar started from the same p...

It took Einar a month to convert Martjin's "custom format" to a relational database import. And it took a few weeks for Spectrum Computing to emerge from that. A year after Einar started, and ZXDB is being actively updated, new features and content being brought it. It's ticking along quit...

I was hooked listening to the entire Simon Butler segment, that was a bit raw even three decades later. Read the RetroGamer piece on the development of Platoon around the same time, Simon being the lead designer on that. That's one of the things I like about the current retro-gaming scene, the emerg...

The Valley - one of the early RPGs. Started life as a 12-page article in Computing Today for the Commodore Pet, it was ported to the ZX Spectrum, with one piece of machine code to scroll the start page off the screen. The rest is pure BASIC. The game received that much attention, that Argus Press, t...

Deathwish 3 did have a game somewhere in there. Tracking down and knocking off the leaders of the riots in each area, but there's a whack-a-mole element in that if you took too long to take out everyone, new riot leaders would appear. (Your screenshot shows one of the gang-leaders sitting behind the...

I'm still hoping someone will take up the challenge of a decent Donkey Kong conversion. I remember someone (redballoon?) made some superb mock-ups a short while back. I'd love to see them made into a game. Is there something wrong with the Ocean's 1986 attempt? http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/pub/si...

We can at least learn from the mistakes WoS have made, and figure out how to nurture a thriving and active community. Martjin did some things very very right to get WoS the prominence it received. My personal opinion is such a project isn't a one-man operation, and needs a team. And that team needs ...

That indeed is a nice logo!

I agree with Hikaru, rather than create lots of (potentially/initially barren) groups up-front, create a new sub-group when the discussion traffic warrants it (e.g. active discussions). That's assuming PHPBB makes it easy enough to move threads to a new group. Let the groups, and the community, grow...

I liked the various columns about how titles were made, from Background Noise through to Code Blueprint, my favourite being the one on Bobby Bearing. Hewson's Helpline/How The Hell sometimes had a great article on how to produce a certain type of game or effect, e.g. the fixed 3D "isometric&quo...

Only Sinclair User made it to the shores of South Africa, except later on the odd issue of Crash would appear. Never saw Your Sinclair on the shelves at all. So I grew up with Sinclair User. Issue 48, with Movie on the cover. That opened my eyes to a scene I didn't know existed. The format of the ma...

I didn't back it, primarily because of change in lifestyle, but also burned by the Vega+. I instead bought a Just Speccy + SLAM earlier this year. Since I can fit that into a Spectrum+ case, that feels a better solution for my gaming needs. I still need to cut the Spectrum+ case I have. One day...

I wonder how Outrun would have fared if they could have used the Chase HQ engine.
But, we know how Chase HQ turned out when it used the OutRun engine (Chase HQ 2).

http://stonechatproductions.co.uk/zxgames/gameimages/SCperm.gif Here we go. Microsoft Edge. Is Microsoft Edge hiding the full domain name per-chance? (Maybe the domain in the URL bar is actually "www.spectrumcomputing.co.uk"). I noticed a few redirects earlier ending up on www. (After cli...

From memory, the releases table there isn't an id field (except entry_id as a foreign key). It has a release_seq, which I think is a sequence, that's only an arbitrary sort order column. From the docs I've seen the only safe assumption to make about this *_seq fields is that 0 is the primary release...

I think it was Saboteur, I can recall the loading screen, but it crashed while loading. It turned out there was a fault on my 48k Spectrum, so it was only happy with 16k games. I returned it to the shop and got Estimator Racer. Yeah I know, shoot me now.

There are a couple of people who seem to know what's no longer on the MIA list, but not tangled in the other site nonsense. They pop up from time to time on FB groups like Sinclair for Sale. Last person I can recall is Guy Bearman. Also might be worth posting in the Sinclair Preservation group on FB...

Another side-effect of the forum being accessed by http is that login quietly fails. In Vivaldi 1.12.955.48 at least. Just ran into that problem myself now. So switch to https if login looks like it's not working.

I love Green Beret on the ZX Spectrum as a stand-alone game. I have a Wagon-wheels syndrome about Green Beret. I'm convinced I saw it in the Sun City arcade machine alley back in the late eighties, and the main character sprite was huge... like Dark Sceptre huge. But looking at the MAME version, the...