Little bugs in the database

[Fahnn]

Tim Gilberts, of Gilsoft, says he's sure it was the end of 1986. The release of GAC brought forward their plans a bit.

I realise that Tim should know best, but that timescale is puzzling to say the least. If it was released in 1986, why did none of the magazines give it a review for another (at least) four months? That's got to be an unusual state of affairs. I didn't get my copy until 17th June 1987 (found the receipt!) but I think - as a sensible boy - I waited until after my 'O' Levels to buy it. As I mentioned elsewhere, I apparently had the first PAWed game reviewed in CRASH (issue 44, out in August 1987) and I sent it off to them in late July. Surely if PAW had been available since 1986, there would have been plenty of PAW-authored games released prior to that? Especially as, If you'd used The Quill, PAW wasn't much of a stretch and it didn't take long to learn the new features.

[8BitAG]

I realise that Tim should know best, but that timescale is puzzling to say the least. If it was released in 1986, why did none of the magazines give it a review for another (at least) four months? That's got to be an unusual state of affairs. I didn't get my copy until 17th June 1987 (found the receipt!) but I think - as a sensible boy - I waited until after my 'O' Levels to buy it. As I mentioned elsewhere, I apparently had the first PAWed game reviewed in CRASH (issue 44, out in August 1987) and I sent it off to them in late July. Surely if PAW had been available since 1986, there would have been plenty of PAW-authored games released prior to that? Especially as, If you'd used The Quill, PAW wasn't much of a stretch and it didn't take long to learn the new features.

Like I said earlier, it may have been 1987... Tim just needs to check the details and see when the earliest copies were sold. But it's either the very end of 1986 or the very beginning of 1987 so there really isn't much in it. All the PAWs stuff is copyrighted 1986 so it was all produced in 1986. There were testing versions floating around then and some of the fanzines ran previews in the latter part of the year. As Tim has said, the aim was to publish at the end of 1986, to try and follow GAC's release as close as possible.

Why no reviews until a few months later? Well, all the magazines are written well in advance! The cover date often refers to the following month, and columns and specialist freelance reviews were often submitted a month or two earlier... reviewing a authoring tool isn't quite as quick as reviewing a game (if you do it properly).

[Edit: For example... in StooB's post above, he refers to Mike Gerrard writing in the "March 1987" issue of Your Sinclair about a delay to the PAWs release until January 1987. So Mike must've been writing that prior to January 1987... for the March 1987 issue... which was presumably published in February.. I'm guessing, from what Mike has said about lead-in dates in the past, that he was probably writing that in November 1986]

[Fahnn]

Like I said earlier, it may have been 1987... Tim just needs to check the details and see when the earliest copies were sold. But it's either the very end of 1986 or the very beginning of 1987 so there really isn't much in it. All the PAWs stuff is copyrighted 1986 so it was all produced in 1986. There were testing versions floating around then and some of the fanzines ran previews in the latter part of the year. As Tim has said, the aim was to publish at the end of 1986, to try and follow GAC's release as close as possible.

Why no reviews until a few months later? Well, all the magazines are written well in advance! The cover date often refers to the following month, and columns and specialist freelance reviews were often submitted a month or two earlier... reviewing a authoring tool isn't quite as quick as reviewing a game (if you do it properly).

Yes, that makes sense and I would certainly trust Tim's records over my faulty memory! It'll be interesting to hear what he concludes.

[8BitAG]

Yes, that makes sense and I would certainly trust Tim's records over my faulty memory! It'll be interesting to hear what he concludes.

The whole issue of publication dates is interesting, though, especially when you start using magazines and reviews as evidence... For example, these following titles are all currently listed as "1986" text adventures in the database... however Winter Wonderland & the Serf's Tale weren't reviewed in Your Sinclair until the April 1987 issue... and Kayleth wasn't reviewed until the May 1987 edition!

[StooB]

Last page of the PAW manual:

What should I do next?
HAVE FUN!
OK
Tim Gilberts – January 1987

Conclusive proof of a 1987 release?

✓ Reviewed

[Alessandro]

the liked site is no longer there: http://www.kov.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7586

It should be klov.com rather than kov. This affects every entry that has an arcade licence link, not just Dingo.

That, and "coin-up" should be corrected to "coin-op" as well.

✓ Reviewed

[mzx]

This may not be the right topic...
Bobsleigh's real machine type: 48K/128K (after loading the game asks, what should the sound be like? 48K or 128K?)
And a different kind of error: there is an error in the Byte Back TZX: the pause is short (1002ms) before the last block, so the last block does not start loading. By increasing the pause value (~2000ms), the game loads properly.

✓ Reviewed

[8BitAG]

Last page of the PAW manual:

What should I do next?
HAVE FUN!
OK
Tim Gilberts – January 1987

Conclusive proof of a 1987 release?

Yep... I'll give you that. lol. And I have that manual sitting open here on my desk too.

[R-Tape]

Fellas, once we've finished discussing the issues regarding bugs already mentioned in this thread, can I lock it and all new small bugs go in little bugs 2?

It'll help us keep on top of things.

Apologies—I'm/we're struggling to get around to doing these fixes, but someone else will be helping with them soon

[druellan]

I was checking this one:
viewtopic.php?p=19838#p19838

About the game Imperator:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=2455

And looking for the author, seems that there is an almost identical game, filled as "Emperor"
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12874
It even says "Also know as: Imperator"

One entry has a TAP file, and the other a TRD. Both seems to lack some information provided by the OP. [mention]R-Tape[/mention] can you look into it? Seems that we can merge the two into one entry and fill in the missing information.

✓ Reviewed

[Ralf]

One entry has a TAP file, and the other a TRD. Both seems to lack some information provided by the OP. @R-Tape can you look into it? Seems that we can merge the two into one entry and fill in the missing information.

I agree, it's the same game.

[druellan]

This may not be the right topic...

It is!

And a different kind of error: there is an error in the Byte Back TZX: the pause is short (1002ms) before the last block, so the last block does not start loading. By increasing the pause value (~2000ms), the game loads properly.

Confirmed using FUSE all fastloading options disabled. I wonder if the original has that problem too.
[mention]R-Tape[/mention] [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] what do you think? Worth fixing the file or just ad a note?

[R-Tape]

[mention]Ralf[/mention] [mention]druellan[/mention]

Hope this doesn't confuse anyone, but I've moved your posts from bugs#2 to bugs#1, as it's referring to a bug in this thread.

Can we keep this thread for discussing the bugs already reported in it (then perhaps I can lock it in a few days), and little bugs 2 for new bug reports.

[Ralf]

[mention]R-Tape[/mention] Sure.

Do anything that helps you to oraganise the subject better.

[Einar Saukas]

This may not be the right topic...

It is!

And a different kind of error: there is an error in the Byte Back TZX: the pause is short (1002ms) before the last block, so the last block does not start loading. By increasing the pause value (~2000ms), the game loads properly.

Confirmed using FUSE all fastloading options disabled. I wonder if the original has that problem too.
@R-Tape @Einar Saukas what do you think? Worth fixing the file or just ad a note?

If the TZX is authentic (i.e a faithful reproduction of the real tape including duration of pauses between blocks, not faked from converting a TAP for instance), then it doesn't make sense to replace it with a non-authentic version.

In this case, it makes more sense to keep the original, but also add a second version properly marked as "(BUGFIX)".

[druellan]

Loony Bin
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=16874
(Tim Gilberts has just discovered it in the "Gilsoft archive" )

I'm roaming old entries
Has anyone recovered this? I can see Tim has a copy in his bag of wonders: https://twitter.com/timbucus/status/1086686871621697536

[8BitAG]

Has anyone recovered this? I can see Tim has a copy in his bag of wonders: https://twitter.com/timbucus/status/1086686871621697536

Tim has a load of MIA and unarchived stuff. But he's also really busy!

[druellan]

The programming credits for Gyron (the "compilstion") are missing. They should be:
Ricardo Pinto, Dominic Prior, Philip Machan, Mark Whigton (all Torus)
https://archive.org/stream/sinclair-use ... 7/mode/1up

That article is quite interesting, I think that can be added to the RIcardo Pinto and Dominic Prior's ZXDB profile as an interview.
[mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] [mention]R-Tape[/mention] what do you think?

[druellan]

Has anyone recovered this? I can see Tim has a copy in his bag of wonders: https://twitter.com/timbucus/status/1086686871621697536

Tim has a load of MIA and unarchived stuff. But he's also really busy!

Oh, ok, we'll keep an eye to see if he manages to recover something, in the meantime we can drool over that photo

[8BitAG]

Oh, ok, we'll keep an eye to see if he manages to recover something, in the meantime we can drool over that photo

As you've spotted on Twitter, judging by your recent like, there is also the uMIA game 'The Rubber Maze' in that collection (which has the already archived 'The Semi-Detached at the End of the Street' on the B-Side https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=15138

[druellan]

Oh, ok, we'll keep an eye to see if he manages to recover something, in the meantime we can drool over that photo

As you've spotted on Twitter, judging by your recent like, there is also the uMIA game 'The Rubber Maze' in that collection (which has the already archived 'The Semi-Detached at the End of the Street' on the B-Side https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=15138

Yes! Confirmed and just finished adding everything to the database. The only odd thing I've found is a company named "Simplesoft" (no spaces) from the Netherlands and owned by Bert Vierstra (https://zxinfo.dk/search/bert%20vierstra?listtype=grid), but I don't think is the same company.

✓ Reviewed

[druellan]

The Cholo PDF instructions are actually for the BBC Micro.

Confirmed!
[mention]R-Tape[/mention] Seems that cholo.pdf and cholo_Instructions.pdf are the same document, and you can read "Cholo for the BBC Micro" and the BBC Micro loading instructions at the beginning.

The instructions on Cholo.zip are multisystem for "BBC B, Commodore 64/128, Spectrum 48/128 and Amstrad CPC".
THe keyboard on Cholo_KeyGuide.txt is titled "Spectrum Cholo Key Guide", so, it is the correct one.

So, we can pretty much remove the BBC instructions at this point, but perhaps we can retitle one of them (and remove the copy) to make clear the system?

[Juan F. Ramirez]

The Cholo PDF instructions are actually for the BBC Micro.

Confirmed!
@R-Tape Seems that cholo.pdf and cholo_Instructions.pdf are the same document, and you can read "Cholo for the BBC Micro" and the BBC Micro loading instructions at the beginning.

The instructions on Cholo.zip are multisystem for "BBC B, Commodore 64/128, Spectrum 48/128 and Amstrad CPC".
THe keyboard on Cholo_KeyGuide.txt is titled "Spectrum Cholo Key Guide", so, it is the correct one.

So, we can pretty much remove the BBC instructions at this point, but perhaps we can retitle one of them (and remove the copy) to make clear the system?

In @mort 's archive.org site there's the complete scanned instructions for the spectrum plus the novella, key guide and even a map.

[druellan]

In @mort 's archive.org site there's the complete scanned instructions for the spectrum plus the novella, key guide and even a map.

Yeah, I was taking a look at Archive.org. It is the same information we already have, but in a better format, including covers. Since the manual is multisystem, we can pretty much link this one, even when it is tagged as Commodore 64: https://archive.org/details/c64man_cholo

[druellan]

I've just been looking at Microsphere's games and David Reidy is only credited on the Skool games, Contact Sam Cruise and a book, but didn't he program all their stuff, Wheelie and Skyranger and so on? Actually none of the other releases have author credits as far as I can see (unless I'm doing it wrong).

I was investigating this a bit. The information out there is pretty confusing.

The website Spong (https://spong.com/people/8727/David-S-Reidy) states:

David S Reidy's first video game work that SPOnG is aware of is the 1983 title, "Wheelie" (Spectrum 48K) as Lead Artist.

Full credits on that site:

Lead Programmer: David S Reidy
Lead Artist: David S Reidy
Packaging/Manual Design: Keith Warrington

I don't think this is a reliable source of information, but Reidy as the main artist makes sense, since Keith Warrington was not involved in graphics until Skool Daze.

I also found an Hungarian magazine: http://sinclair.hu/kiadvany_download.ph ... Zci2U9NpZm
The translation reads: "David Reidy says, "Wheelie broke very slowly, but we sold it for more than 12 months, which is remarkable." The games were still made in the simple roles already outlined, and the graphics of Wheelie were entirely David's work, but he was waving an ambitious plan that he could no longer have as a sow graphic. Well, I had a really knowledgeable man who could have had a choice, like Keith, who had been working for them for a long time."

That seems to be part of the Sinclair User #36 article: https://archive.org/details/sinclair-user-magazine-036 , but I can't find that part!

PD: don't let me start about the Computer History page (http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/3791/Wheelie/) that has an "E J Estcourt" as the author, which sounds very similar to "M J Estcourt", author of Deathchase and Full Throttle.

✓ Reviewed