Spectrum Computing

Among the data imported from Martijn's WoS years ago, there were thousands of "lost" game files. These are files stored in the archive but not associated to any product or company, therefore they could never be accessed from websites. I mentioned this problem a long time ago, when I started working on ZXDB.

Over the years, we have fixed most of them, with help from many contributors (especially Thomas). However there are still about 500 "lost" files left, most of them for the ZX81. The remaining "lost" files for the ZX81 are listed in this online spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

If anyone can help to identify the game link for at least a few of them, it will help a lot! For any row in the spreadsheet, this task will require the following steps:

• Download the file from the provided link, then load the file in an emulator (if it's an archive) or simply open it (if it's image or text).
• Find the corresponding game page in SpectrumComputing, then copy the link to column GAME.
• In the same game page, look at section RELEASES to see if the game had more than one release. If so, try to identify the release that best matches this file, then put the corresponding number in column RE-RELEASE (number 0 means original release, 1 means 1st re-release, 2 means 2nd re-release, etc). If the file seems to apply to all releases (or if the game only had the original release), put 0.

The hardest part is to find the correct game page. Sometimes the same game seems to have multiple pages, but only one of them is correct. For instance if you search for "3D Monster Maze" you will find 4 pages, but only one of them is the actual ZX81 game (the other versions are a colorized mod for the Chroma Interface, and 2 ports for the ZX-Spectrum).

(Actually if you find 2 different game pages for exactly the same game, please let me know so I can fix it!)

If you want to volunteer, please let me know so I will enable editing permission for you. Even if you only have time to process a few rows from the spreadsheet, it will already help a lot.

Thanks!

Hi Einar

I can take a look at some.

However, it would also be a good idea to post over on Sinclair ZX World (the main English ZX81 forum).

I can copy your post over to there if you are happy for me to do that.

Mark

1024MAK wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:06 amI can take a look at some.

Thank you!!!

I just sent you a PM.

1024MAK wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:06 amHowever, it would also be a good idea to post over on Sinclair ZX World (the main English ZX81 forum).

I can copy your post over to there if you are happy for me to do that.

Yes, please go ahead. Thanks!

On a related note, it would be nice to work closer to Sinclair ZX World in general. IIRC they don't have a proper archive for ZX81 programs (all released titles are simply posted in a very long thread). On the other side, ZXDB (and consequently sites like SpectrumComputing) already contains most ZX81 programs, books, and magazines, but we are lagging behind so it's still missing the most recent ZX81 releases. Everyone would benefit if we could join forces! Perhaps someone there would be interested on helping to add missing ZX81 content to ZXDB, so everyone would benefit from this information becoming easily accessible from several websites.

That's an idea I had in mind for quite some time, but I have been so busy that I still couldn't find the time to approach them. Since you are going to ask for collaborators there, perhaps you could startup this idea already?

1024MAK wrote: ↑Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:06 am Hi Einar

I can take a look at some.

However, it would also be a good idea to post over on Sinclair ZX World (the main English ZX81 forum).

I can copy your post over to there if you are happy for me to do that.

Mark

Hi [mention]1024MAK[/mention], know it's a little old - did you post on sinclairzxworld? I'm have been monitoring the GAMES thread and are adding new entries as they pop up (latest one is Steps by Bob Smith). However, I haven't added any of the files to ZXDB - as I agree we should try to get a collaboration with them, e.g. by offering them a centralized repository.

/Thomas

The relevant topic is here

Mark