Found some old original tapes

[akeley]

Yes. The overall quality of the .txt instructions in the archive is poor from a preservation perspective. They often have very little to do with the original instructions. Rather than transcriptions, they are frequently complete rewrites omitting information the author wasn't interested in and adding new material like POKEs and personal opinions on the game. So it would be great if we could have full inlay scans in the archive.

This is something which has always puzzled me. I love the original inlay insides and so many are missing...

[druellan]

Yes. The overall quality of the .txt instructions in the archive is poor from a preservation perspective.

We also discovered typos that ended up on the database. To have the source is invaluable IMO.

[Mort]

I agree, I have scanned all the reverse sides , extras, receipts , maps ,and even the front if its got a price sticker etc to get a full flavour of the original

All 4500 games I have scanned are done in this way , got to get them all

[Alessandro]

Yes. The overall quality of the .txt instructions in the archive is poor from a preservation perspective. They often have very little to do with the original instructions. Rather than transcriptions, they are frequently complete rewrites omitting information the author wasn't interested in and adding new material like POKEs and personal opinions on the game. So it would be great if we could have full inlay scans in the archive.

That might have been true 20 years ago when all we had were the info files from the Spectrum Game Database, but since then there has been an enormous effort from the community to provide faithful transcriptions of inlay cards and instructions in plain text format. I have been picking them for my personal archive for years, and even contributed in writing several myself - leaving even the spelling or printing errors untouched (!).

There is only a handful of TXT info files left over from that era in the archive now.

[Rorthron]

Yes. The overall quality of the .txt instructions in the archive is poor from a preservation perspective. They often have very little to do with the original instructions. Rather than transcriptions, they are frequently complete rewrites omitting information the author wasn't interested in and adding new material like POKEs and personal opinions on the game. So it would be great if we could have full inlay scans in the archive.

That might have been true 20 years ago when all we had were the info files from the Spectrum Game Database, but since then there has been an enormous effort from the community to provide faithful transcriptions of inlay cards and instructions in plain text format. I have been picking them for my personal archive for years, and even contributed in writing several myself - leaving even the spelling or printing errors untouched (!).

There is only a handful of TXT info files left over from that era in the archive now.

I don't have any quantitative evidence, but anecdotally I come across them quite often, so they may not be quite as rare as you suggest.

[Rorthron]

For example, I was just looking at titles by Gargoyle Games. It looked at only two titles before I found an example of the sort of thing I meant: Tir na Nog contains commentary and cheats.

[cmal]

I agree, I have scanned all the reverse sides , extras, receipts , maps ,and even the front if its got a price sticker etc to get a full flavour of the original

All 4500 games I have scanned are done in this way , got to get them all

Hi Mort

How about I make a list of my originals and mark the ones that have inside text. I don't have too many, but I'll publish the list and you let me know which ones you don't have or need better scans of.

Thanks

[pavero]

About the reverse sides ...

It was a compromise due to size of these files, free space on hosting server isn't unlimited. So the same logic was used as on old WoS.

But I have sorted all scans of reverse sides for all publishers which I have processed up to this day. So it will be possible to add them very easilly in the future.

[pavero]

I agree, I have scanned all the reverse sides , extras, receipts , maps ,and even the front if its got a price sticker etc to get a full flavour of the original

All 4500 games I have scanned are done in this way , got to get them all

Hi Mort

How about I make a list of my originals and mark the ones that have inside text. I don't have too many, but I'll publish the list and you let me know which ones you don't have or need better scans of.

Thanks

Here is the list of Mort's inlays.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mort_inlays.txt

[Mort]

Cmal,

Drop us a line on what you have as there might differences etc.

All the best

Stephen

[cmal]

Thanks for the list [mention]pavero[/mention] . I will look through it.
[mention]Mort[/mention] - I'll compile a list and publish it.

[cmal]

Hi [mention]Mort[/mention]

Here's my list in CSV format. I cross-referenced it with your list and marked the last column if it's not on your list.

Let me know what you need from my list. I'm in the process of scanning the Supercode manual. I still need to get my flatbed scanner to work but once that's up I can scan cassette tape images.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/kxqcmag2pruhs ... l.csv?dl=0

Thanks

[cmal]

Today I got around to complete the scanning of the Supercode manual. Here it is:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/61eraa65tqz6i ... e.pdf?dl=0

[mention]R-Tape[/mention] or [mention]PeterJ[/mention] : Please add this to the Supercode page for preservation:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/8 ... /Supercode


Here's a picture of the back of the box if it's needed. Sorry - my flatbed scanner does not work so I took a photo. When I get a new scanner I'll scan the box again.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k6qwfg9xqlm48 ... k.JPG?dl=0

[pavero]

Today I got around to complete the scanning of the Supercode manual. Here it is:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/61eraa65tqz6i ... e.pdf?dl=0

@R-Tape or @PeterJ : Please add this to the Supercode page for preservation:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/8 ... /Supercode


Here's a picture of the back of the box if it's needed. Sorry - my flatbed scanner does not work so I took a photo. When I get a new scanner I'll scan the box again.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/k6qwfg9xqlm48 ... k.JPG?dl=0

And what about the front of the box?

https://ia600604.us.archive.org/view_ar ... ercode.jpg

[cmal]

And what about the front of the box?

https://ia600604.us.archive.org/view_ar ... ercode.jpg

I didn't take a picture of the front because it's already on the SC site. But let me know if you need me to and I'll send it.

[pavero]

And what about the front of the box?

https://ia600604.us.archive.org/view_ar ... ercode.jpg

I didn't take a picture of the front because it's already on the SC site. But let me know if you need me to and I'll send it.

Yes it would be fine, in hi-res resolution (600 dpi). But maybe you need to wait for a new scanner firstly.

[pavero]

Nosy
https://maps.speccy.cz/map.php?id=Nosy

Tut-Tut
https://maps.speccy.cz/map.php?id=Tut-Tut

[cmal]

Hi Cmal,
Thanks for doing the scans, 600dpi is a great resolution and is overkill but should be good for any later reworking.

I have scanned the inside of Bear Bovver,Terra Cresta, Invincible Island and Universal Hero (not added as yet to the site)

Thanks for the other version of Road Toad , I have only got the DkTronics version scanned
I have scanned a tatty version of Young Learners so a better version is great
I have also a Scan of Maths test by MacMacSoftware 6-13 year olds (not yet added)

Great work , would you be also able to scan the cassettes themselves as I can see emulators having a virtual tape and tape player with the scans being used as the tape stickers

Hi [mention]Mort[/mention]

I eventually got around to completing the cassette scans and trimming the edges. I've included all the ones you requested plus some others in case they are different to your versions.
These are iphone photos of the cassettes because they came out much better than scanning them.

In the meantime I'm working through your cassette scans in the archive and uploading them to SC. I need to get back to that and finish all the "C" cassettes. Thanks again for all those scans!

Here's the link to the file (30.3 MB, 20 files)
Cassette Scans

Let me know if I missed any.

Thanks

[Mort]

Cheers Cmal, downloaded them today , they look great and will upload them to this months update.

Al the best

Stephen