Spectrum Computing

An italian MIA now preserved on Planeta Sinclair...



https://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/20 ... l-mia.html

I had a look.

Some advice:
- to download it click "aqui"
- then load it in emulator by LOAD "" CODE

As for the game itself, it's quite competent Manic Miner/Jest Set Willy clone written in machine code with proffesional inlay, pixel movement, ingame music and all the stuff that was considered cool in 1983. Unfortunately it's rather unplayable due to "impossible" difficulty level. It took me about 20 attempts just to walk out of first screen.

It's an interesting find anyway. Check it, nad maybe unlikeme, you'll enjoy the gameplay

I might just really suck at this game but maaaan it is unforgiving! Even just getting the game to start by pressing Enter seems to involve some special skill! Parsifal seems to be extremely allergic to acorns and water so I dunno why he thinks he's likely to survive alive skulls, snakes, wizards, skeletons etc, let along the sadly famous breath of the dragon. I'd not bother looking for the graal (or grail?) if I were him. He's just not cut out for this sort of thing.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up on this André

Ralf wrote: ↑Sun Dec 02, 2018 2:03 pm I had a look.

Some advice:
- to download it click "aqui"
- then load it in emulator by LOAD "" CODE

As for the game itself, it's quite competent Manic Miner/Jest Set Willy clone written in machine code with proffesional inlay, pixel movement, ingame music and all the stuff that was considered cool in 1983. Unfortunately it's rather unplayable due to "impossible" difficulty level. It took me about 20 attempts just to walk out of first screen.

It's an interesting find anyway. Check it, nad maybe unlikeme, you'll enjoy the gameplay

Unplayable is the right word

By the way, don't you think this Parsifal look quite girly on the inlay ?

Interesting find* (and yes bloody hard - that first jump is the worst. It's not quite Andrew Broad levels of difficulty, but not far off).

I assume we don't know the release year? There are no signs on the inlay, game or code as far as I can see.

And what about this hidden code on the opening screen? It looks a bit like a string, but is not (unless it's coded), nor is it graphics. Maybe something to do with the weird custom loader? Any ideas anyone?

And also, what can infer from the hidden "JCE" on this screen? The publisher is stated as Hardtek, but is there a link to Edizioni JCE? ([mention]wallyweek[/mention] )


*and thanks for the reminder to add it Andre.

Ah hang on. I'm an idiot. The code is truncated by the PREMI IL TASTO ENTER message. But I still can't make out what the rest is. Graphics?

The logo is that of JCE, i.e. Jacopo Castelfranchi Editore. They published both books and software, the majority being Italian translations, but also original products. Some ads can be found here. This game was completely unknown to me.

"Premi il tasto ENTER" means "Press the ENTER key".

Alessandro wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 7:46 pm The logo is that of JCE, i.e. Jacopo Castelfranchi Editore.

Ah thanks. Already linked in the archive to Edizioni JCE.

"Premi il tasto ENTER" means "Press the ENTER key".

I know. I mean the bytes of code hidden under the black attributes (which this message then overwrites). It's probably just graphics. I just wondered why they might be there.

"Hardtek Soft" is probably the alias of the author, Franco Fabbri. The lines are probably just artifacts, or maybe remnants of a code used before game start. An analysis of the loading routine could provide more insight into this.

I noticed that the JCE logo has been hidden in that screen. Maybe the author had the intention of publishing it with them, then something went awry, and he published it on his own. There is nothing in the inlay card text linking the game to JCE. In this case, the game should be filed under Hardtek Soft instead of JCE. I did not find any mention of the game in any JCE software catalog/ad I ever saw in fact.

On a side note, a game named "Super EG" in the ads page on Stefano's website is stated to be "an entirely Italian adventure", though this is entirely wrong since it is an Italian translation of Tuneles Marcianos. Years ago I mentioned the thing to Martijn Van Der Heide, which is why the Edizioni JCE alias is present in the database. It is not the only program stated to be "100% Italian" on the website that is not Italian at all, anyway; I also mentioned this fact in the last chapter of the Spectrumpedia.

Alessandro wrote: ↑Tue Aug 04, 2020 8:11 pm "Hardtek Soft" is probably the alias of the author, Franco Fabbri.

I've found that:
https://www.kijiji.it/annunci/altro-tem ... /121478059

Perhaps "Hardtek" was an italian hardware builder?

Hmm... yes, there were a number of Italian manufacturers/sellers of Spectrum hardware back in the day, the most important being Sandy, Tenkolek, Cabel and Videobit (see the Spectrumpedia at pages 623-632). Now that Hardtek name rings a bell in my memory...

Yesterday Quattro Bit posted an interview of the author on his blog.

https://quattrobit.substack.com/p/conqu ... nco-fabbri