Little bugs in the database 2

This is the place to request ZXDB corrections (add missing data or fix incorrect information)

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PeterJ
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by PeterJ »

Hi [mention]Alessandro[/mention]

The last update was mainly to add ZXSR and didn't include normal updates. We will get this files updated as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.
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StooB
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by StooB »

The Master

was published by Antartic, the only Spectrum release on Artic's budget label and the price should be £1.99, not £5.99
(sources: Crash review Sinclair User review Your Sinclair review)

Also, the score was missing from the YS review and shows up here as "Not Rated", but the index of every YS score from the final issue shows that it should have been 5.

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Metalbrain
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Metalbrain »

Not exactly a bug, but I've just realized 2 maps for Las Tres Luces de Glaurung are exactly the same, just one is bigger than the other:

check:
TresLucesDeGlaurungLas.jpg
TresLucesDeGlaurungLas_2.jpg

Maybe we can just remove the smaller one?

(The same happens in WoS)
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druellan
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by druellan »

In Football Manager 2: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=1827
The file named FootballManager2_2.tap.zip is NOT a Spanish version of Football Manager 2, but a Spanish, without copyright, version of Football Manager 1
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StooB
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by StooB »

World Cup Carnival

The unsourced comment on this game reads:
The explanation which U.S. Gold gave for the World Cup Carnival fiasco (re-releasing the ancient Artic game World Cup Football at twice the price for anybody who can't remember) was that they had commissioned a programmer to write an original game but the game was terrible and they did not have enough time to have a new game written before the World Cup. There must therefore be a completed unreleased version of WCC floating about somewhere.
This appears to be completely made-up - there's nothing to support this in any of the magazine references, and it's not even the excuse they gave to Crash at the time.


According to "The History of US Gold" by Chris Wilkins:
‘At the time Ocean knew something about football with Jon Ritman’s Matchday, so Woods and Ward said to Geoff, look, football games are really hard, let us do this. We’ll get a World Cup game for you, and we’ll use our Match Day code. Anyway, something happened there and theoretically Ocean were going to go away and develop the game. Three months before the World Cup we were so busy I hadn’t given it much thought. So I asked Geoff if he’d seen anything of the game from Ocean, and he said, no, I’ll call them up. He phoned to learn they’d done nothing on it. So we had this licence, we had the World Cup coming – and we said, sh*t we need a game.’
‘That’s when we went out to every single developer in the UK,’ Geoff takes up the tale. ‘Artic were the only one who came forward and said they could do it in time.’
So, the comment should either be removed, or updated. There really isn't an even worse version of World Cup Carnival out there somewhere.
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Frankie
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Frankie »

PeterJ wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 9:01 am
Frankie wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:54 am Name change :)

This one:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=14836

Needs to be changed from:

Skatteberegning

to:

Skatteberegning 1983
Does this mean the release year is wrong too? (Currently says 1984)
I would leave it at '84. Might have been released start 84. Can't remember how it was done back then, as I was to young to pay taxes :-) To clarify this we would need to see a picture of the tape label, as the inlay or the program itself doesn't say anything about it.
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moroz1999
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by moroz1999 »

Oneiroid (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=17226) is produced by Slip (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=13432). Triumph may be the publisher (of demo version?), I don't know for sure.
Slip is Sergey Slobodchikov, Russia, Khabarovsk. He was a member of Action (group, Russia, Khabarovsk): https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... bel_id=355
Action is called in Oneiroid as ActionStudio.

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moroz1999
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by moroz1999 »

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... bel_id=267 - AGSoftware is from Saint Petersburg according to Evacuator game.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Ralf »

AGSoftware is from Saint Petersburg according to Evacuator game.
And do we have in ZXDB information about the town of an author/group?

I know it's an important thing in Russian scene - these guys were from Moscow, these from Novosibirsk and so on...

But in case of Western commercial games in most cases we just wouldn't know...
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moroz1999
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by moroz1999 »

Ralf wrote: Sun Jun 09, 2019 12:34 pm
AGSoftware is from Saint Petersburg according to Evacuator game.
And do we have in ZXDB information about the town of an author/group?

I know it's an important thing in Russian scene - these guys were from Moscow, these from Novosibirsk and so on...

But in case of Western commercial games in most cases we just wouldn't know...
It would be nice idea to display all the authors and companies on a world map, using some maps engine like OpenLayers. This would make this city/town information really valuable.

One more correction:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=13280 - Silva Soft is a person, not company. He is from Golitsyno-2 (Krasnoznamensk), Russia, his name is Sergey Zapara.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by djnzx48 »

Chopper Duel has 'turn-based multiplayer' listed, when it's actually simultaneous.

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StooB
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by StooB »

moroz1999 wrote: Wed Jun 12, 2019 8:50 pm It would be nice idea to display all the authors and companies on a world map, using some maps engine like OpenLayers. This would make this city/town information really valuable.
The data currently in ZXDB is too imprecise for that.

For example, ZXDB doesn't distinguish between
- Imagine Software of Liverpool and Imagine Software as part of Ocean in Manchester
- Quicksilva (Southampton) and Bug Byte (Liverpool) and their later incarnations as labels of Argus Press in London
- Firebird as part of BT in London and when it was sold to Microprose in Tetbury

Electronic Arts and Microprose software is shown as "USA" even though it was released in the UK by their UK divisions.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by druellan »

8BitAG wrote: Mon May 06, 2019 1:21 pm These St. Bride's game re-releases should be 1991 for GI Games, and 1992 for Zenobi for tape and 1993 for +D disk.
Hi 8BitAG! Just finishing doing this series of changes, but I'm curious about the source of this information, since the labels usually don't have a date. Is there a reference online, or is this something John Wilson commented? Thanks!
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by 8BitAG »

druellan wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2019 10:48 am
8BitAG wrote: Mon May 06, 2019 1:21 pm These St. Bride's game re-releases should be 1991 for GI Games, and 1992 for Zenobi for tape and 1993 for +D disk.
Hi 8BitAG! Just finishing doing this series of changes, but I'm curious about the source of this information, since the labels usually don't have a date. Is there a reference online, or is this something John Wilson commented? Thanks!
I was around on the scene at the time so I remember the dates... However, verification is from Red Herring/Adventure Probe fanzine news pieces, advertisements by GI Games in said magazines, Zenobi Software's monthly newsletters and discussions with John Wilson himself.
8-bit Text Adventure Gamer - games - research.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by druellan »

8BitAG wrote: Sun Jun 16, 2019 12:17 pm I was around on the scene at the time so I remember the dates... However, verification is from Red Herring/Adventure Probe fanzine news pieces, advertisements by GI Games in said magazines, Zenobi Software's monthly newsletters and discussions with John Wilson himself.
Excellent. Oh, and a small clarification, on this one:
Silverwolf
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6974
* Zenobi date already correct
I can see that the +D disk is dated 1995, I assume that the correct year is 1993 as the others, right?
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8BitAG
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by 8BitAG »

druellan wrote: Mon Jun 17, 2019 1:35 am I can see that the +D disk is dated 1995, I assume that the correct year is 1993 as the others, right?
Yes, John got his +D in 1993 so that's when that format was made available by Zenobi across the board.
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druellan
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by druellan »

8BitAG wrote: Mon May 06, 2019 1:22 pm Microfair Madness
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6682
was re-released by Zenobi in 1993
Note: only the 128K version was re-released. Not the separate and distinct 48K version.
Hi, sorry for going back into this, I don't want to make mistakes. Based on the files listed on the downloads sections, are this changes correct?

MicrofairMadness(ZenobiSoftware).mgt.zip -- 1995 -> 1993, based on the previous report
MicrofairMadness(ZenobiSoftware).tzx.zip -- 1991 -> 1993, 128k version
MicrofairMadness(different)(ZenobiSoftware).tzx.zip -- bogus image
MicrofairMadnessPart1(ZenobiSoftware).z80.zip -- 1991 -> 1993, snap of the 128k version
MicrofairMadnessPart2(ZenobiSoftware).z80.zip -- 1991 -> 1993, snap of the 128k version

Thanks!
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by 8BitAG »

druellan wrote: Mon Jun 17, 2019 4:49 pm Hi, sorry for going back into this, I don't want to make mistakes. Based on the files listed on the downloads sections, are this changes correct?
MicrofairMadness(ZenobiSoftware).mgt.zip -- 1995 -> 1993, based on the previous report
MicrofairMadness(ZenobiSoftware).tzx.zip -- 1991 -> 1993, 128k version
MicrofairMadness(different)(ZenobiSoftware).tzx.zip -- bogus image
MicrofairMadnessPart1(ZenobiSoftware).z80.zip -- 1991 -> 1993, snap of the 128k version
MicrofairMadnessPart2(ZenobiSoftware).z80.zip -- 1991 -> 1993, snap of the 128k version
Only to happy to clarify anything. :)
MicrofairMadness(ZenobiSoftware).mgt.zip -- 1995 -> 1993, based on the previous report
Yes.
MicrofairMadness(ZenobiSoftware).tzx.zip -- 1991 -> 1993, 128k version
Yes.
MicrofairMadness(different)(ZenobiSoftware).tzx.zip -- bogus image
Yes. I'm still not sure what this is or where it came from!
MicrofairMadnessPart1(ZenobiSoftware).z80.zip -- 1991 -> 1993, snap of the 128k version
MicrofairMadnessPart2(ZenobiSoftware).z80.zip -- 1991 -> 1993, snap of the 128k version
Yes, I presume they are snapshots from the Zenobi edition... there's no way of actually telling.

However... the one labelled part two is actually a snapshot of part three of the game.

It's been an ongoing saga to get the second part of the game correctly referenced in the database... I gave up trying to do so on WOS!

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by druellan »

Frankie wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 8:54 am https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=14836

Needs to be changed from: Skatteberegning
to: Skatteberegning 1983
I can see that the release date is also 1983, based on the inlay:
Image
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by druellan »

StooB wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 3:49 pm It's very clear on the UK adverts for Game Over 2 and Navy Moves that Electronic Arts are the distributor, not the publisher. Electronic Arts were the distributors for several publishers, most notoriously CRL, and EA don't get a publisher credit on those titles.
Hi! We are discussing what to do about this one. We don't want to remove EA, even as distributor we believe they are part of the game history and worth preserving. The problem here is that the information is not accurate or displayed on a improper way: visually looks like EA is a co-publisher, not the distributor. But until we fix that, I think it is better to keep EA on the entry.

So, since you mentioned CRL and other labels also distributed by EA, I was wondering if worth the task to add EA also on those. Perhaps we can find a compromise. I'm going to open another thread to discuss this more in deep.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Einar Saukas »

druellan wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 6:49 pm
StooB wrote: Sun Jun 02, 2019 3:49 pm It's very clear on the UK adverts for Game Over 2 and Navy Moves that Electronic Arts are the distributor, not the publisher. Electronic Arts were the distributors for several publishers, most notoriously CRL, and EA don't get a publisher credit on those titles.
Hi! We are discussing what to do about this one. We don't want to remove EA, even as distributor we believe they are part of the game history and worth preserving. The problem here is that the information is not accurate or displayed on a improper way: visually looks like EA is a co-publisher, not the distributor. But until we fix that, I think it is better to keep EA on the entry.

So, since you mentioned CRL and other labels also distributed by EA, I was wondering if worth the task to add EA also on those. Perhaps we can find a compromise. I'm going to open another thread to discuss this more in deep.
The reasoning for Navy Moves is that, in this particular case, it seems EA was not just a retailer/reseller for this game. The fact that EA name was included in adverts and/or inlays suggests that EA was more directly involved in the actual release of the game.

For the record, when you see 2 (or more) company names listed as publisher for the same release, it means the game was "co-published" together by them. Perhaps both companies shared all publishing responsabilities. Or perhaps they divided responsabilities, with one company more involved in production and another in distribution for instance.

IMHO it would be weird for us to omit the name of a company that was credited in the original game material. Perhaps we should draw the line as follows: if the original release considered worthwhile to credit the distributor together in the publishing credits, then we should also list it as co-publisher.

Now regarding Game Over 2, I think we should apply the same logic, updating re-release #1 to indicate this specific release was co-published by both Dinamic and EA together (instead of just EA).

Makes sense?
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by StooB »

Einar Saukas wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 7:52 pm Perhaps we should draw the line as follows: if the original release considered worthwhile to credit the distributor together in the publishing credits, then we should also list it as co-publisher.
Actually, the only place Electronic Arts are credited is on the advert - there is no mention of them on the box, in the instruction manual or on the tapes themselves. Even the barcode is Dinamic's 413460 (which is the same on Dinamic titles that are not EA distributed), rather than Electronic Arts (015839).

The instructions are in French, Italian, German and English so I think that the same product was sold in all four countries with EA just being the UK distributor. Here's a French advert showing Ubisoft as distributor:

http://www.atarimania.com/pubs/hi_res/a ... over-2.jpg

The CRL titles distributed by EA only seem to be identifiable by a "Distributed by Electronic Arts" sticker on the inlay. They aren't mentioned on the adverts at all.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Einar Saukas »

OK, I'm convinced! Now I think it makes more sense to only credit Dinamic for this re-release.

[mention]druellan[/mention] What do you think?
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by druellan »

Einar Saukas wrote: Wed Jun 19, 2019 10:26 pm @druellan What do you think?
I'm not keen of removing information, but perhaps we can remove EA from the publisher list, and add a note like "Electronic Arts was advertised as distributor for Dinamic's UK release.".
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by druellan »

Oh, Mummy: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3494
The Sinclair research re-release is part of a compilation for the Spectrum +2, so the re-release year should be 1986. Also the two Sinclair downloads are from that compilation (again, 1986).
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