Spectrum Computing

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 5:28 pm Whenever you find a game that says (c)1987 but it was released later, it's almost certain they intended to release it in 1987 but it took longer than expected for the actual release.

Something that I also noticed and seems confusing is the copyright owner vs the publisher. For example, on Virgin Mastertronic games, VM is the copyright holder, but the games are usually published by Virgin Games. I was thinking on having an extra field: copyright label and copyright year, but, of course, if we do that, we need to populate this on the database, that can be a challenge.

StooB wrote: ↑Thu Jul 18, 2019 12:37 pm Convoy

F. David Thorpe (UK) is credited for the loading screen for this, but according to the inlay, he wrote the program too.

This is wonderful, great job spotting this StooB!!

Referencing this advert from Adventure Probe (Volume 1 Issue 10 March 1987)...


The following games should have a first publication date of at least 1986, under the publisher name 'Anthony Collins' [this release pre-dates Pegasus Software/The Guild]

Nythyhel
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6752

Miami Mice [Note: this title was Quilled]
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=27701

Theseus ***
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=7094

Teacher Trouble ***
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=27701

*** NOTE: Both Theseus and Teacher Trouble were QUILLed games in these 1986 releases, before being recoded as PAWed games for the later releases by The Guild/Zenobi etc. The Quilled versions seem to be MIA.

I don't think that we have yet decided on a firm line for whether we combine games as a single entry, even if completely different versions exist.

There are both instances where we do... e,g. Quest for the Golden Eggcup

and where we don't!

...e.g. Federation / Quann Tulla

Presumably, the use of a different title would be a deciding factor?

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=1333
http://speccy.info/Ascendancy - it's a group from Belarus, Grodno. The full name is Ascendancy Creative Labs.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=6412
Izhevsk is not a publisher, Izhevsk is a city in Russia.

druellan wrote: ↑Sat Jul 27, 2019 1:07 pm

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Fri Jul 26, 2019 5:28 pm Whenever you find a game that says (c)1987 but it was released later, it's almost certain they intended to release it in 1987 but it took longer than expected for the actual release.

Something that I also noticed and seems confusing is the copyright owner vs the publisher. For example, on Virgin Mastertronic games, VM is the copyright holder, but the games are usually published by Virgin Games. I was thinking on having an extra field: copyright label and copyright year, but, of course, if we do that, we need to populate this on the database, that can be a challenge.

It was common practice for publishers to have multiple labels. One for top games, other for budget titles, another for re-releases, sometimes yet another for adventures, etc. Then it made more sense to keep all copyrights in the main company, so if it decided later to close a subsidiary, it wouldn't have to move all existing copyrights somewhere else. Or perhaps all those labels were not real companies, just different brands belonging to a single company.

ZXDB already stores information about labels that belong to other labels. I think that's enough, we don't need to keep track of copyrights separately. If a certain game was published by label A that belongs to B, someone would need to talk about any copyright issues with B anyway, regardless if the game copyright was assigned to A or B.

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2019 2:44 pm ZXDB already stores information about labels that belong to other labels. I think that's enough, we don't need to keep track of copyrights separately. If a certain game was published by label A that belongs to B, someone would need to talk about any copyright issues with B anyway, regardless if the game copyright was assigned to A or B.

Yes, but that information is not timestamped, for example currently on ZXDB, the owner of Virgin Games is Titus, since Titus bought Virgin Interactive on the 2000. There is no reference that, on the '80, Virgin Games was part of Virgin Mastertronic.
Just to be clear, my concern is more towards the information displayed on SC, specially since we are starting to deviate from other databases like WOS or MobyGames, that tend to list the copyright owner, not the publisher.
Again, not sure if this information is worth to be preserved, I don't like to add new fields that later we need to populate on 30.000+ entries, but it is kind of bothering me, since I myself find fascinating to discover that some labels I remember from back in the date, were in fact "fantasy" labels owned by another company.

druellan wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2019 7:26 pm

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Sat Aug 03, 2019 2:44 pm ZXDB already stores information about labels that belong to other labels. I think that's enough, we don't need to keep track of copyrights separately. If a certain game was published by label A that belongs to B, someone would need to talk about any copyright issues with B anyway, regardless if the game copyright was assigned to A or B.

Yes, but that information is not timestamped, for example currently on ZXDB, the owner of Virgin Games is Titus, since Titus bought Virgin Interactive on the 2000. There is no reference that, on the '80, Virgin Games was part of Virgin Mastertronic.

But it's because this information (imported from Martijn's WoS) isn't detailed enough. It simply says all these companies are owned by Titus.

I suggest changing this information as follows:

• "Virgin Games Ltd" became "Virgin Mastertronic Ltd"
• "Mastertronic Ltd" owned by "Virgin Mastertronic Ltd"
• "Virgin Mastertronic Ltd" owned by Titus

This way, the information should be more accurate. Agreed?

Strictly speaking this isn't a bug, but Black Lamp features Rainbow Graphics and isn't listed so.

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 5:29 am
But it's because this information (imported from Martijn's WoS) isn't detailed enough. It simply says all these companies are owned by Titus.

I suggest changing this information as follows:

• "Virgin Games Ltd" became "Virgin Mastertronic Ltd"
• "Mastertronic Ltd" owned by "Virgin Mastertronic Ltd"
• "Virgin Mastertronic Ltd" owned by Titus

This way, the information should be more accurate. Agreed?

Virgin Games was part of Virgin Mastertronic until Sega (not Titus) bought the Mastertronic part of the company, and then they continued being Virgin Games independently.

The current system can't define Virgin Games as only being a part of Virgin Mastertronic from 1988-91.

I think there's only two ways to solve this:
1. add extra fields to every single release - like 'owner', 'label'
2. treat the titles as joint publications, so for Silkworm the original would be published by Virgin Games and Virgin Mastertronic, while the Tronix re-release would be published by Tronix and Virgin Games

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=14280 - Taranovsoft is not a company, but alias of Dmitriy Taranov (Russia, Rostov-on-don)

Taranovsoft is not a company, but alias of Dmitriy Taranov

Thanks for the info.
I believe however that our rules here say that if he used such name in his productions, it should remain as publisher's name.

Publisher in ZXDB doesn't have to be a "real" company. It can be a name thought up by some teenage boys, or as in this case
a name thought up by a single person.

Ralf wrote: ↑Sun Aug 04, 2019 8:48 pm

Taranovsoft is not a company, but alias of Dmitriy Taranov

Thanks for the info.
I believe however that our rules here say that if he used such name in his productions, it should remain as publisher's name.

Publisher in ZXDB doesn't have to be a "real" company. It can be a name thought up by some teenage boys, or as in this case
a name thought up by a single person.

That's my understanding too — a 'company' doesn't have to rank on the FTSE100 to qualify as a publisher in ZXDB.

Useful info though, as Dmitriy can now be listed as the owner of Taranovsoft if [mention]druellan[/mention] can add it to the list.

In my opinion generally it's a right thing to have persons and their aliases as publishers since this describes the reality. However, this was more like a personal alias than the "virtual" company, because Dmitriy was a part of Earpsoft group (Russia, Rostov-on-don). Imho, Earpsoft fits the "company" better than the Taranovsoft. There were many people having "soft" as a part of their personal nickname, and I think most of them had no intention to imitate a company, but I may be wrong.

FAO whoever maintains the database entries...

A while ago I moved all my ZX81 and Spectrum titles over to Itch.io, and as a result will likely be shutting down my original website at some point in the future. When that happens the database entries for my games will have broken links. It would be great if those links could, at worst, be updated to the point at my main page on the itch.io site - https://bobs-stuff.itch.io/ - and at best have each title link to its own sub-page - i.e. https://bobs-stuff.itch.io/farmer-jack-in-harvest-havoc

Why have them on Itch and not directly on ZXDB? Because having them all hosted on Itch makes it much easier for me to maintain and keep track of download numbers and interest in the titles, and also provide a single repository for all my games across various platforms.

Many thanks

Bob

bobs wrote: ↑Mon Aug 05, 2019 8:23 pm FAO whoever maintains the database entries...

Just moved this—it's a ZXDB correction, rather than a 'website' one

The entry for 'The Tebbit' needs to be updated...

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=10296

Currently this is listed as Never released with the following notes:

This was to be a political satire on Norman Tebbit, in the style of The Hobbit. The game was advertised by Applications along with their game Denis Through the Drinking Glass. The description of the game was thus:
"Join the magical quest for the elusive monetarist dream, in which you, a humble Tebbit must seek the assistance of Magdalf and Tomkin-Gee, to find and defeat the ferocious (and balding) Scarg".
The Games That Weren't website states that there are two rumours why this game was never released: the first being that the game was finished but withdrawn because of poor sales of Denis. The second is that the game was considered too sensitive after the bombing in 1984 of the Conservative party conference when Norman Tebbit was injured. They say, though, that this second reason is unlikely as Applications' adverts disappeared from magazines around May 1984 when the bombing didn't take place until October 1984.

That doesn't reflect the current The Games That Weren't entry which has clarified both the release of the game and firmed up the reason for withdrawal, thanks to an interview with the author by Tony Bridge in C&VG. https://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/the-tebbit/

The article in question is below...



So, the following changes need to be made...

Original release year changed to 1984
A 'Missing in Action' tag added.
Author added... Roger Taylor https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=12546

Updated notes section... Perhaps along the lines of...

The Tebbit was the second game in a planned trilogy of politically satirical text-adventure games. Themed as a parody of The Hobbit, The Tebbit spoofed the UK politician Norman Tebbit. Playing as The Tebbit, you had to defeat the ferocious (and balding) Scarg [ [Arthur Scargill].

Once regarded as 'never released', the Games That Weren't website points to a C&VG interview by Tony Bridge with the author who states that it was released (or at the very least, it was completed), but later withdrawn from sale due to the Brighton bombing, with any existing stock (and the masters) destroyed. A third game in the series Kinnochio (presumably spoofing Neil Kinnock) was planned.

Both New Cylon Attack and Chuckie Egg 2 from A'n'F Software, states that they were made by the R&D Team, which seems to be an in-house programming team. That can be added to both games

Casino Royal https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=96&id=834 is compatible with Currah Microspeech system.

The advert on the Mr Chip Software (UK) page:

/sinclair/company-pics/m/Mr.ChipSoftware/Mr.ChipSoftware-ad.jpg



should be on the Mister Chip (Spain) page.

Is Skate Wars really turn-based?

Allison Kerr, author of 1983's Spectrum Darts should be listed in the team Mr Chip Software rather than Magnetic Fields as Mr Chip wont become Magnetic Fields for another five years.

S.A.V.E seems to be the same person. The signature on the loading screen is almost identical (check Power Pyramids and International Cricket re-release).
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=12811
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=12810

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... bel_id=420
Adrian Sumera (Sauron) is not the author of:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12728 - Ten Fingers
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12817 - Doom.

Not sure about Pink Pills - Manic Moritz and the Meds. If the game music is taken from the public archives then it's most likely to be the other Sauron. Th other Sauron is Alexander Vasilyev, from Digital Reality group, Velikiy Novgorod, Russia

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=3686 - Denis Ryabtsev, not Ayabcev
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=3052 - D.J.Dens is alias of Denis.