Site Updates

Broken link? Feature request? Anything related to the Spectrum Computing website here.
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Rorthron
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Rorthron »

It would be nice if the search function could recognise wildcard symbols like ?*^$.
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PeterJ
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Re: Site Updates

Post by PeterJ »

Hi [mention]Rorthron[/mention], it may not be exactly what you want but if you type part of a title, author, or publisher into the main quick search box it will find all the titles with that phrase. For example Izzy finds Dizzy.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Einar Saukas »

Rorthron wrote: Mon May 07, 2018 8:38 pm It would be nice if the search function could recognise wildcard symbols like ?*^$.
Did you ever try searching for "b*kool"?
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Rorthron
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Rorthron »

Einar Saukas wrote: Mon May 07, 2018 9:03 pmDid you ever try searching for "b*kool"?
I tried all the others, but not *, as it wasn't relevant to my searches. I incorrectly assumed it was missing like the others. It would be nice if the search function could recognise wildcard symbols like ?^$.
Last edited by Rorthron on Mon May 07, 2018 10:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Rorthron
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Rorthron »

PeterJ wrote: Mon May 07, 2018 8:53 pm Hi @Rorthron, it may not be exactly what you want but if you type part of a title, author, or publisher into the main quick search box it will find all the titles with that phrase. For example Izzy finds Dizzy.
Thanks for trying to help, but I was trying to put together a crossword, so it was important able to search for specific character combinations.
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Kweepa
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Kweepa »

When I was putting together a crossword generator, Einar helpfully gave me a dump of all games in the database.
If he approves I can upload that somewhere for you.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Einar Saukas »

Kweepa wrote: Mon May 07, 2018 11:35 pm When I was putting together a crossword generator, Einar helpfully gave me a dump of all games in the database.
If he approves I can upload that somewhere for you.
Of course!
hikoki
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Re: Site Updates

Post by hikoki »

Would it be handy to have a field for programming languages and open source programs?
For example to search only amongst Sinclair Basic games.
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PeterJ
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Re: Site Updates

Post by PeterJ »

hikoki wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 8:40 am Would it be handy to have a field for programming languages and open source programs?
For example to search only amongst Sinclair Basic games.
Hi [mention]hikoki[/mention] it would be useful but would need someone to identify the programming language of all titles (rather like they used to show in the early editions of Crash).
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Re: Site Updates

Post by hikoki »

Hi Peter. Intesting.. I thought there would be a database somewhere, at least with a register of Basic games? I have this information for games after 2013 as well as which ones provide source code. I believe ZXDB contains this info.
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Ast A. Moore »

hikoki wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 8:40 am Would it be handy to have a field for programming languages and open source programs?
For example to search only amongst Sinclair Basic games.
Unfortunately, we can only distinguish between Sinclair BASIC and . . . not Sinclair BASIC, as there’s no easy way of knowing what was used to produce the machine code in any given program. It could be programming directly in assembly, or compiling from any number of higher-level programming languages. Even Sinclair BASIC programs often use portions of machine code in them.
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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PeterJ
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Re: Site Updates

Post by PeterJ »

[mention]hikoki[/mention], the ones which contain source code are flagged in ZXDB, and can be pulled out. The programming language as far as I know ( and, I'm very happy to be corrected on this), is not (apart from things like AGD). As [mention]Ast A. Moore[/mention] says, it is not easy to find out for some titles. If you like to make a start, I'm sure Einar would add a field in ZXDB.
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Kweepa
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Kweepa »

Rorthron wrote: Mon May 07, 2018 10:55 pm Thanks for trying to help, but I was trying to put together a crossword, so it was important able to search for specific character combinations.
PM sent.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Einar Saukas »

hikoki wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 11:02 amI thought there would be a database somewhere, at least with a register of Basic games?
There's this page specifically about Boriel ZX BASIC, that I started myself years ago:

http://www.boriel.com/wiki/en/index.php ... d_Programs

If you find out anything else, please let me know.

hikoki wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 11:02 amI have this information for games after 2013
Awesome! Can you please send me this information?

hikoki wrote: Tue May 08, 2018 11:02 amas well as which ones provide source code. I believe ZXDB contains this info.
Information about source code is already available in ZXDB.

There's no organized information about programming languages yet, but I agree it's a good idea to index this information. Thanks for the suggestion!

Next ZXDB update will contain whatever information I can obtain myself. Afterwards we can discuss how others could contribute to expand this information...
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druellan
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Re: Site Updates

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hikoki
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Re: Site Updates

Post by hikoki »

Hi Einar
There you have a few lists. You can get more from by playing with dropdowns "Main Programming Language" and "Tags" (tags starting by Src to get the opensourced ones). To get prefiltered URLs for every view, click on the white semicircle in the top right.

Sinclair Basic games: https://awesome-table.com/-KTJLy2xX7_E1 ... d%20BASIC)

Sinclair Basic games with additional docs (diagrams,explanations..) : https://awesome-table.com/-KTJLy2xX7_E1 ... d%20BASIC)

ZX Basic Boriel games : https://awesome-table.com/-KTJLy2xX7_E1 ... ZX%20BASIC

ZX Basic Boriel games with source code : https://awesome-table.com/-KTJLy2xX7_E1 ... ZX%20BASIC
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PeterJ
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Re: Site Updates

Post by PeterJ »

Thank you [mention]hikoki[/mention]. Can you remind me how far your site goes back?
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Re: Site Updates

Post by hikoki »

PeterJ wrote: Wed May 09, 2018 2:51 pm Thank you @hikoki. Can you remind me how far your site goes back?
mid-2013 with some mods from earlier

By the way, Einar, you may have overlooked some ZX-81 games by Dancresp which are nicely documented on this sub-forum : http://www.retrowiki.es/viewforum.php?f=83
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PeterJ
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Re: Site Updates

Post by PeterJ »

I'm really pleased to announce more improvements to the advanced search:

Image

The additional features are as follows:
  • Mod - You can choose if you want to include them or not in your search. Default is 'Yes'
  • Crappiness - Do you want to include titles from the annual Crap Games competitions? Default is 'No'
  • Source Code - One for the budding developers out there. Choose if you only want titles which include source code
  • Results Layout - You can now choose one of four styles of output:
Full - This is the same as normal with both loading screen and in-game screen
Compact - Shows a nice compact one line per title list.
Run Screens - Just shows the game detail and the in-game screen
Load Screens - Just shows the game detail and the loading screen

Thanks to our developers for their work on this, and to Ricardo for working his CSS design magic on the layout!
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Re: Site Updates

Post by hikoki »

Thanks! though there seem to be quite a few titles with source code NOT listed by ZXDB, at least from 2013 onwards : https://awesome-table.com/-KTJLy2xX7_E1 ... ilterO=src
apart from Sinclair Basic titles
Last edited by hikoki on Wed May 09, 2018 10:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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PeterJ
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Re: Site Updates

Post by PeterJ »

[mention]hikoki[/mention]
If you can provide a spreadsheet for Einar with the ZXDB ID it will be easier for him to import into ZXDB.

I assume these are titles where ZXDB does not have the source code listed, so I'm sure you can provide Einar with information and files you think are missing which would be most useful and help all users of ZXDB as we can only query what it contains.
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R-Tape
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Re: Site Updates

Post by R-Tape »

The additions to the main search are great (crappiness , chortle!). Great work guys.

A couple of thoughts:

Is enhanced date searching an option here (eg between 1993 - 2008, or >2000) or is that better kept for the "more advanced search"?

Would an ultra compact layout be an option too far? I'd quite like to be able to see loads of titles on one page with very little formatting and a small font. Ugly but useful.

Re the source code (ta hikoki), does this have to be checked/collated manually? If yes I could make a start next week.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Einar Saukas »

R-Tape wrote: Wed May 09, 2018 11:24 pmRe the source code (ta hikoki), does this have to be checked/collated manually? If yes I could make a start next week.
If a certain title appears in hikoki's list but not SC, it means there's a source code file somewhere that needs to be added to ZXDB.
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Re: Site Updates

Post by hikoki »

Let me know if you want me to discuss anything.
For example, Solitario-1K, this game was originally published for ZX81 here
https://web.archive.org/web/20150317003 ... =15&t=5434
I think the author's documentation would deserve to be preserved (I should have taken a screenshot and include it on the download link). Later on, on the same thread, Mcleod/ideafix changed the zx81 code and documented his own mod (the type-in image has been lost but I know where else it is), later on the same thread Avillena shortened the zx81 code and also converted it to the Spectrum as well as publishing a zxmakebas which works both for zx81 and spectrum.
So this title has a forum history regarding source code: the source code is not on the archive because his authors published it on the very same forum thread, the game is on the archive as Spectrum game but not as ZX81, there are different versions which I don't recall if I put them all on the download zip..
Likewise, other sources by Dancresp are only on the forums where he released his games.
Some other authors provide pdf guides (Douglas Bagnall), Basin files (Arda), diagrams, etc
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Einar Saukas
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Re: Site Updates

Post by Einar Saukas »

R-Tape wrote: Wed May 09, 2018 11:24 pmIs enhanced date searching an option here (eg between 1993 - 2008, or >2000) or is that better kept for the "more advanced search"?
It should be trivial to have min_year and max_year, instead of a single year field. To search between 1993-2008, set both fields. To search >2000, set first field and leave the other blank. To search only 1989, set both fields to the same value.

The only drawback is, if most users run searches for a single year, it can be annoying to set this value twice, in both fields.

What do people think?
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