Spectrum Computing

8BitAG wrote: ↑Mon Nov 12, 2018 6:49 pm (Also note that the original publisher of the Spectrum version of Castle Warlock was The Guild)

What exactly do you mean?

The archive currently says this game was published as standalone by Adventure Probe Software, and inside compilations by The Guild. Is this correct?

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Fri Feb 01, 2019 12:12 am

8BitAG wrote: ↑Mon Nov 12, 2018 6:49 pm (Also note that the original publisher of the Spectrum version of Castle Warlock was The Guild)

What exactly do you mean?

The archive currently says this game was published as standalone by Adventure Probe Software, and inside compilations by The Guild. Is this correct?

I believe that the "headline" publisher in the archive should reflect the initial publisher? Certainly not the one who published the game two or three years after... that's why I would say The Guild was the initial publisher.

The Guild published Castle Warlock way before Adventure Probe Software... Adventure Probe only took on Ken's titles after the Guild closed shop in the autumn of 1993. The fact that Castle Warlock may have only appeared on compilations is irrelevant in terms of The Guild being the initial publisher imo.

That makes the date for the Adventure Probe release incorrect, by the way. Adventure Probe Software didn't publish before 1992 and (as mentioned above) they didn't take on the Ken Bond games, from the defunct The Guild, until 1993.

The Guild is an interesting company in terms of preservation and compilations, by the way, because they did "pick and mix" compilations where you could choose which four titles titles went on your tape, from a selection of thirty odd games... meaning that there could be many combinations and permutations of compilation releases out there.

Following on from the above post... there are a few gaps in my Adventure Probe (fanzine) collection at key points which is stopping me tying up a few loose ends with regards to the Ken Bond text adventures.

For example, The Base...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5991
is listed as being published by The Guild in 1988.

The Guild did not exist prior to 1991 so this date, in terms of the Guild publication is wrong.

The 1988 date seems likely to refer to the Amstrad version of the game, which was published by Recreation Re-creation Software and, before that by Ken Bond himself. I think, Tony Collins of the Guild and Philip Reynolds (of The Adventure Workshop, initially doing the ports for Tony's The Guild) converted a lot of Ken's games over from the Amstrad to the Spectrum... these conversions were all produced from 1991 onwards. (I would presume that the "Ant" on the loading screen is probably Tony.)

In relation to the above, Philip M. Reynolds needs adding as the programmer to the games...
The Test https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=10938
The Base https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5991
The Spiro Legacy https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=10233

Philip's exisiting profile is at http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.ph ... l_id=11462

This game seems to be missing from the database...

Rupert the Bear and Jack Frost (2011)
by Richard Gray
writing as RG Paddler

Text Adventure
Produced using the PAW [info taken from the game itself]

Unofficial license - Rupert the Bear

Richard's website no longer seems to be online, but you can read his bio on an archived page here...
https://web.archive.org/web/20100507123 ... on.com:80/

The Rupert the Bear page doesn't seem to be archived but the file can be downloaded from the TZX Vault...
http://www.tzxvault.org/Spectrum/TZX/Ru ... kFrost.zip

{Richard is on Facebook it seems at https://www.facebook.com/rgpaddler and on YouTube]

In the [MOD] Haunted house game, there are some wrong magazine references.

The two Microhobby references refer to the Activision Ghostbusters game.

In the first, it tells about a bank account (clearly the Activision game, not this) and in the second it talks about 'the Activision game'. This is because the Haunted House game was published in Microhobby Cassette under the name 'Cazafantasmas' ('Ghostbusters', hence the confusion).

More info in this post.

Challenge of the Gobots by Reaktor.

Both in the loading screen and the inlay we can read who are the authors:



Whereas in the game entry, the authors are Tony cooper and Ben Daglish. It doesn't match.

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:37 am Challenge of the Gobots by Reaktor.

Both in the loading screen and the inlay we can read who are the authors:



Whereas in the game entry, the authors are Tony cooper and Ben Daglish. It doesn't match.

Actually "A. Cooper" obviously means Anthony Cooper (thus "Tony Cooper"), so this name is correct.

"Ben Daglish" composed the game music according to several sources.

The database was just missing the designer names. I'm adding them now.

Thanks!

BTW in case anyone wonders the reason I'm fixing problems posted here (and other threads) randomly, without following any specific order...

The reason is, my current priority is to test and improve ZX-Ed. Therefore I'm trying to work first on issues as diverse as possible, to exercise all the functionality provided by ZX-Ed.

Making ZX-Ed more productive will allow others (mostly R-Tape?) to fix the remaining issues quickly, without depending on me to do it.

In the meantime, please keep posting everybody! Your help is very much appreciated!

A curious question this time: Mad Nurse by Firebird.



According to the game entry (and the loading screen you can see here) the author is Peter Cough.

But [mention]Mort[/mention] scanned the corresponding inlay, whose back side:

https://archive.org/download/spectrumin ... nlay02.jpg

It says:

MAD NURSE
(c) 1986 SIMON PICK
Conversion by SOFTWARE CREATIONS

Maybe S. Pick made the original game for, say, C64 or Amstrad, and P. Cough is the author of the Spectrum version?

Or is there something wrong?

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: ↑Thu Feb 21, 2019 8:10 am
Maybe S. Pick made the original game for, say, C64 or Amstrad, and P. Cough is the author of the Spectrum version?

Or is there something wrong?

Concept and C64 version by Simon Pick according to his interview here:
https://www.lemon64.com/?mainurl=https% ... n_pick.php

Spectrum conversion by Peter Gough according to his interview here:
http://zxspectrumgames.blogspot.com/200 ... rview.html

Ah, thanks for the info, so everything is ok.

There's also a scrolly message at the start of the game that mentions the authors of the C64 and Spectrum versions. "Hello and welcome to Mad Nurse by Firebird Software. Produced by Software Creations and coded by Peter Gough from the Commodore original by Simon Pick. Guide Mad Nurse around the wards and rescue the accident prone babies."

Unrelated, but at around address 45200 there's some uncompiled source code still left in the game. I reformatted it to make it easier to read.

Spoiler

Code: Select all

        inc ix
        inc ix
        ex af,af'
        dec a
        jr nz,gar       ; overwritten with something.

        ld c,a          ; matches up with $B053.
        ld ix,table
        add ix,bc
        ld hl,arear
        ld a,16
labour  ex af,af'
        ld a,28
        add (ix+0)
        ld e,a
        ld d,(ix+1)
        ldi
        ldi
        inc ix
        inc ix
        ex af,af'
        dec a
        jr nz,labour

        ret

carot   xor a
        ld (splatt),a

kilmer  ld a,(kild)
        dec a
        ld (kild),a
        and a
        ret nz

        ld a,1
        ld (fyrod),a
        ret

DECBAB  ld a,(babz)
        and a
        ret z

        dec a
        ld (babz),a

TODLER  ld hl,5080h+9-34
        ld (snooke),hl
        ld a,(babz)
        ld l,a
        ld h,0
        jp PRNFG

BOGAS   ld a,(gasl)
        and a
        ret z

        ld (repati),a
        ld b,a
sleepy  push bc
        ld de,10
        call adscor
        ld a,(repati)
        dec a
        ld (repati),a
        ld hl,50c6h-2
        ld (snooke),hl
        ld l,a
        ld h,0
        call prnfg
        ld b,50
        call rumor
        ld b,5
gavay   call pause
        djnz gavay

        pop bc
        djnz sleepy

        ret

arear   ds 32

copyar  ds 32

repati

For some reason the game "Salen Tan Ricos" has two entries on the database, one for the game itself and the other one as part of the CSSCGC Crap Games Contest 2011.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=0027129
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=0031207

I just noticed a small mistake, Clicky Click's Dungeon is listed as Clickety Click's Dungeon in the database.

druellan wrote: ↑Sun Feb 24, 2019 2:30 pm For some reason the game "Salen Tan Ricos" has two entries on the database, one for the game itself and the other one as part of the CSSCGC Crap Games Contest 2011.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=0027129
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=0031207

Fixed! This will be in the next archive update, thanks!

Zenobi's 'Retarded Creatures & Caverns'
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6883

was actually produced with the Quill NOT the Professional Adventure Writer

(despite what the Your Sinclair review says).

Only just noticed this, as I've just been playing John Wilson's new Amstrad CP/M PAWs conversion of the game.

Edit: The author for the game should really be "John Wilson" too. http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.ph ... el_id=7370 'The Balrog' is just a pen-name.

8BitAG wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2019 3:19 pm Zenobi's 'Retarded Creatures & Caverns'
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6883

was actually produced with the Quill NOT the Professional Adventure Writer

(despite what the Your Sinclair review says).

Only just noticed this, as I've just been playing John Wilson's new Amstrad CP/M PAWs conversion of the game.

Fixed! This will be in the next archive update, thanks!

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:52 pm

druellan wrote: ↑Sun Feb 24, 2019 2:30 pm For some reason the game "Salen Tan Ricos" has two entries on the database, one for the game itself and the other one as part of the CSSCGC Crap Games Contest 2011.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=0027129
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=0031207

Fixed! This will be in the next archive update, thanks!

Thanks!!!! Check also the author name, seems that he is also duplicated.

Done already

Peter Shilton's Handball Maradona (3669) was not published by Grandslam (5522) in 1986 - Argus Press didn't become Grandslam until 1987. The publisher is Argus Press (1243) on the "Grand Slam" label. (sources: cover shows "Grand Slam", cassette label says ©1986 APS)

-----

Wizard Computer Games (15458) was not owned by Gremlin, they were just in the same building: (source: Gremlin Archive)

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Black Tiger (9310)
and
Street Fighter II (9426)

are published by US Gold (14899), not Go! (5416). (source: boxes)

-----

US Gold and Go! were not owned by CentreSoft (2312) - they were all separate entities. (source: The Story of US Gold)

Chess , Time-Gate, and Zolan

were released in 1982 (article in Your Computer Jan 83 https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 58&page=50)

Ghostbusters

was released in 1985 according to every review - only the C64 version came out before the film in December 1984.

Microbot

was released in 1984. Although the inlay has a 1983 copyright date, the review dates range from March - July 84.

Transversion and Robotics (Ocean's re-release of Frenzy)

were released in 1983 - as seen in this advert from September 1983: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 94&page=48

The Balrog & the Cat
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5989

I'm not sure why George E. Hoyle receives a credit for this game?

International Match Day

was released in 1986, not in 1985 when there were no 128K machines to play it on.

Stars Spectrum issue 05 - Juegos

this 48k covertape from 1985 presumably has Match Day on it rather than International Match Day, however it's denied distribution due to the Ultimate titles so cannot check

Stars on the 128:

the comment:

not a compilation tape, but four separate tapes packaged together

should be deleted: it is a compilation tape!

Rambo

was released in 1986, rather than 1985 as planned - source: Sinclair User.