Search problem

[PeterJ]

If Manic Miner appears in a list of titles published by Grandslam - which we know is 100% incorrect - then that does seem "unreasonable" to me! What does it say about the credibility of the data if it can't get the details of one of the most famous games on the platform right?

I think maybe this needs clarification. Let us be clear that the search results and page detail does say Bug-Byte. The discussion here is about the search results being date sensitive and if to include titles where the company has subsequently been adsorbed at said date. If people want huge changes like this they need to step up and contribute.

[Rorthron]

Why is there "no choice but to make assumptions"?

Because we don't have the complete contractual history of every Spectrum game.

The database should stick to the actual facts and nothing else. If Manic Miner appears in a list of titles published by Grandslam - which we know is 100% incorrect - then that does seem "unreasonable" to me! What does it say about the credibility of the data if it can't get the details of one of the most famous games on the platform right?

Manic Miner is a great illustration of the problem. Not only is it one of the most famous Spectrum games, it is also one of the very few whose contractual arrangements have been openly discussed. Yet we actually know very little about its contractual arrangements. Who currently owns or has distribution rights to Manic Miner? I think Steve Wilcox will claim he does, but I doubt he could back it up. Even for the period where we do have information on Manic Miner, we have little more than the word of a young Matthew Smith, who seems not exactly to have been on top of these things.

In any case, this is one of the most clear-cut cases. What do we know about the contractual arrangements for Program Pack 4?

If you are able to establish all of this information reliably for every Spectrum title, then great, but it seems an impossible ask to me.

[PeterJ]

The advanced search section on the home page now includes an option to specify results strictness. The default behaviour is to include everything, but choose 'strict search' from the pull-down menu and that is what you should get:



I'm aware that the search area on desktop layout needs a bit of design work after adding this extra filter.

[Rorthron]

Seems to work nicely. Thanks!