Spectrum Computing

Life of Crime
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=15519

was produced using the Professional Adventure Writer (not the Quill as currently listed)

Daemon
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=10759

As the description says, Daemon is an early version of The Haunting *but* it was not produced with the Quill. It was produced with the Professional Adventure Writer.

A Beginners Guide to Adventures
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=2000049

was published in 1990 (not 1991)

The entry of Sorcery (Virgin Games) shows a strange (at least for me) loading screen:



Instead of the classic

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/pub/sin ... orcery.scr

The first one seems from a re-release or fan-made version.

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:24 am The first one seems from a re-release or fan-made version.

That one's from the "improved" Now Games compilation version.

The Lost Dragon
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6611

Under authors/contributors... the person "TAM" is credited...
http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.ph ... l_id=14209

TAM is actually Tom Frost, who is already credited as the author...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=14656

So the entry/reference for TAM needs to be removed and can be deleted from ZXDB.

[mention]richl[/mention] posted this in the 'Wanted:Inlays' thread...



According to the game entry, the authors were Brian Howarth and John Blacow but the inlay says Howarth and Mike Woodruff instead.

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Fri Jan 18, 2019 6:57 pm According to the game entry, the authors were Brian Howarth and John Blacow but the inlay says Howarth and Mike Woodruff instead.

The in-game credits, list the author as Brian Howarth with artwork by John Blacow, so the ZXDB entry is correct.

So just adding Mike Woodruff maybe?

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Fri Jan 18, 2019 7:04 pm So just adding Mike Woodruff maybe?

Perhaps, although in other games Mike (Michael) Woodroffe got a writing credit in the actual game, when he was involved... Perhaps they did the inlay first, before the game. I mean... they spelt his name wrong, for starters!

If a credit *is* felt appropriate, then the spelling needs to be corrected.
http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.ph ... el_id=9884

The Cholo PDF instructions are actually for the BBC Micro.

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

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Wed Jan 16, 2019 10:24 am The entry of Sorcery (Virgin Games) shows a strange (at least for me) loading screen:



Instead of the classic

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/pub/sin ... orcery.scr

The first one seems from a re-release or fan-made version.

Fixed. It will show the original loading screen first, after the next ZXDB update.

The game...

Loony Bin
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=16874

is not an "arcade adventure"...

it's a "text adventure" made with The Quill.

(Tim Gilberts has just discovered it in the "Gilsoft archive" )

(The adverts also refer to it being an adventure)

Also, from Tim Gilbert's collection...

The Semi-Detached at the End of the Street
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=15138

was initially published in 1984 by Simple Soft (UK, presumably)

on the B-Side of...

[New entry!] The Rubber Maze

Which was presumably also a text adventure written with the Quill.

See https://twitter.com/timbucus/status/1086737896982355968

Fairlight II seems to display the alternate loading screen instead of the retail one:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=1715

druellan wrote: ↑Sun Jan 20, 2019 3:13 pm Fairlight II seems to display the alternate loading screen instead of the retail one:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=1715

Done. It will be fixed in the next update.

Astro Blaster is listed twice on the database.
One is the official version: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=96&id=294
The other https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=4000116 is a pirated version from Argentina. This version is exactly the same as the Timex version (I want to discuss that later) but with the loading screen replaced.

Not sure if this is correct or not. Being a pirated version, is not a re-release, so not sure if worth adding the TZX to the official entry and delete the other one; but on the other hand, not sure if worth to have it listed on its own entry. What do you think?

Things that don't exist

Beach Volley (485) - reviewed and advertised but never released by Ocean (10508) (the files at WoS are a from a cracked Spanish version, and the box front shown is the same for all formats). Original publisher should be Erbe (4437).

Inspector Gadget (2489) - reviewed and advertised but never released by Melbourne House (9522) (the scrapping was reported here: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 63&page=20). Original publisher should be Erbe (4437).

Vampire's Empire (5540) - reviewed and advertised but never released by Gremlin (5561). Original publisher should be DroSoft (4025).

None of these titles had a Hit Squad (14438) re-release:
Firefly (1772)
Passing Shot (3629)
Legend of Kage (2848)
Superbowl (5058)

None of these titles had a Ricochet (12321) re-release:
Confuzion (1048)
The Covenant (1098)
Gobbleman (2074)
Helichopper (2280)
Throne of Fire (5243)

Maze Mania (3092) was not re-released on the Rack It (11956) label (the snapshot is of a Rack-It version, so it was presumably planned)

ACE (56) and ACE 2 (59) were not re-released individually by Encore, only as a compilation.

Whilst I agree about Beach Volley, Inspector Gadget etc I'd still stick with the original publisher as Ocean, Melbourne House etc as they would have licensed them to Erbe, even if they chose not to publish the games themselves in the UK. They were the ones who produced the games and originally advertised them etc.

I guess it's kind of confusing having entries in the database that refer to the Erbe versions as "re-releases" as they're not really but I don't know if there's a better way round it? Could you add some note to the effect that they were advertised for UK sale but then only released in Spain via a third party?

richl wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 8:46 pm Whilst I agree about Beach Volley, Inspector Gadget etc I'd still stick with the original publisher as Ocean, Melbourne House etc as they would have licensed them to Erbe, even if they chose not to publish the games themselves in the UK. They were the ones who produced the games and originally advertised them etc.

"Original publisher" is a quite ambiguous term when we also have "original price" and "original publication" which do refer to the first published version, although I'm not sure there's any better way to word it.

richl wrote: ↑Tue Jan 22, 2019 8:46 pm I guess it's kind of confusing having entries in the database that refer to the Erbe versions as "re-releases" as they're not really but I don't know if there's a better way round it?

Yes, I don't see why entries should be called "Re-release #1", "Re-release #2" etc in the releases table. Just flagging the "Original Release" seems sufficient to me.

Updated, now that releases can be marked as "Never Released"

Things that don't exist

Beach Volley (485) - reviewed and advertised but never released by Ocean (10508) (the files at WoS are a from a cracked Spanish version, and the box front shown is the same for all formats).

• The Erbe (4437) release should be the "Original Release", the Ocean release should be marked "Never Released".

Inspector Gadget (2489) - reviewed and advertised but never released by Melbourne House (9522) (the scrapping was reported here: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 63&page=20).

• The Erbe (4437) release should be the "Original Release", the Melbourne House release should be marked "Never Released".

Vampire's Empire (5540) - reviewed and advertised but never released by Gremlin (5561).

• The DroSoft (4025) release should be marked "Original Release", the Gremlin release should be marked "Never Released".

None of these titles had a Hit Squad (14438) re-release:
Firefly (1772)
Passing Shot (3629)
Legend of Kage (2848)
Superbowl (5058)

• All these releases should be removed

None of these titles had a Ricochet (12321) re-release:
Confuzion (1048)
The Covenant (1098)
Gobbleman (2074)
Helichopper (2280)
Throne of Fire (5243)

• All these releases should be removed

Maze Mania (3092) was not re-released on the Rack It (11956) label (the snapshot is of a Rack-It version, so it was presumably planned)

• The Rack-It release should be marked "Never Released".

ACE (56) and ACE 2 (59) were not re-released individually by Encore, only as a compilation.

• These two releases should be removed.

StooB wrote: ↑Sat Dec 08, 2018 1:44 pm Superman - The Game (5069)

- original publisher is Telecomsoft (14343), not Firebird (4722) according to the original inlay (not available here, but uploaded by zzapmort to archive.org: https://archive.org/download/spectrumin ... nlay01.jpg)

Update on this one:

"Original Publisher" should be Beyond (1662), who published the C64 version.

Releases:

• the release by Beyond should be marked as "Never Released"
• the "Original Release" is from Telecomsoft (14343) in 1986 (see: http://birdsanctuary.co.uk/history-beyo ... -Ownership)
• the Prism Leisure (11640) release is correct (same inlay, but with a Prism logo over the Telecomsoft logo, they also used unsold Telecomsoft cassettes)
• the Zafi Chip (15645) release is correct
• the Zafiro Software Division (15646) release should be removed as Zafiro are the owners of Zafi Chip - there's no evidence they produced a Zafiro specific version

Dates for Players Premier (11553) releases:

5458 Turbo Cup Challenge (1990 - from cassette label)
11670 Super Ski Challenge (1990 - from cassette label)

Players (11554) releases:

1600 Eliminator (1990 - from inlay)
4022 Ranarama (1990 - from inlay)
1775 Firelord (1990 - from inlay)
2341 Hollywood Poker (1988 - from inlay)
2523 Eagles Nest (1988 - from inlay)
2933 Los Angeles Police Department (1991 - from inlay, nb: this for the 2nd Players release, not LA Drugs Bust)
2957 Macadam Bumper (1990 - from inlay)
3898 Prohibition (1990 - from inlay)
2458 Impossaball (must be 1990 - as it is "Collectors Edition 2" inbetween Elimator #1 and Ranarama #3)

Also:

2256 Hawk Storm is Players not Players Premier.

Mastertronic Plus (9372) releases:

Barry McGuigan World Championship Boxing (426)
Fighting Warrior (1757)
Enterprise (1636)

were all released in 1989 according to their inlays.

and

Manic Miner (3012) - Mastertronic Added Dimension (9370) release is from 1989 (from inlay)