Spectrum Computing

wallyweek wrote: ↑Sat Jul 18, 2020 12:30 pm On each issue of each magazine you find has a screenshot, the fake name and the real name of each game

Great site! I enjoy browsing tape magazines.

I have found one error. On the page for 'HIT GAMES' there is a snooker game 'Biliardo' with no original game quoted, it is a rip of Steve Davis Snooker :

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/4 ... is_Snooker

[edit] link to Hit Games from Edicola 8-bit :

https://www.edicola8bit.com/giochi.php? ... =hit_games

MonkZy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 18, 2020 12:49 pm Great site! I enjoy browsing tape magazines.

Indeed! Giuseppe is putting much effort in his site. He's mainly a C64 user, but his interest evolved on other platforms and he's now hosting nearly everything ever published in Italy

MonkZy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 18, 2020 12:49 pm I have found one error. On the page for 'HIT GAMES' there is a snooker game 'Biliardo' with no original game quoted, it is a rip of Steve Davis Snooker

Nice one! It's one of the unresolved entries!
There are many others as "Hit Games" was a pirated-only magazine, but I don't know the real names.

Here's the Facebook group for the site, unfortunately it's in italian:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/579478902239898

You can tell Giuseppe yourself, or I can forward the info to him on your behalf if you prefer.

Indeed! Giuseppe is putting much effort in his site. He's mainly a C64 user, but his interest evolved on other platforms and he's now hosting nearly everything ever published in Italy

Yes, it' seems to be a great site with a lot of work put into it.

I've just added it to my Spectrum bookmarks in my browser and I rarely do it nowadays

Just to mention that I'm also starting to uncover many cases of "pirated" software, most just unofficial translations. In such cases I'm starting to mark the software as "derived of", so we can have a proper link to the original work.

wallyweek wrote: ↑Sat Jul 18, 2020 3:04 pm

MonkZy wrote: ↑Sat Jul 18, 2020 12:49 pm I have found one error. On the page for 'HIT GAMES' there is a snooker game 'Biliardo' with no original game quoted, it is a rip of Steve Davis Snooker

You can tell Giuseppe yourself, or I can forward the info to him on your behalf if you prefer.

I've forwarded your suggestion to Giuseppe. Entry now fixed!

wallyweek wrote: ↑Sat Jul 18, 2020 12:30 pm I guess a new relationship table with original game ID and fake alias, magazine and issue should suffice.

I've made a pull request on github with the new table and the entries for all 1984 issues of Load'n'Run as a start.

Any feedback welcome, please!

wallyweek wrote: ↑Sat Jul 25, 2020 5:03 pmAny feedback welcome, please!

My apologies for not replying sooner! I didn't notice the latest posts until now.

First of all, thank you very much for your willingness to contribute, I really appreciate it!

ZXDB already had detailed information about the first 7 issues of Load'n'Run. For instance if you visit this Load'n'Run page, click on issue #4, then click on "Software/Tape: Load 'n' Run issue 04", you will see a full list of games included in Load 'n' Run #4's covertape. Since these games were distributed in the covertape that came with the magazine, instead of directly inside the magazine pages, it makes more sense to list them as covertape contents.

Notice that besides listing the pirated games in each tape, we also list original programs (like Stock Libri) and even programs that don't deserve a separate game page (like "Presentazione" and "Prossimamente"). We also list the tape side and order of each program in the tape.

This organization works quite well for unauthorized copies in magazines. If you search for "Oro Nero" at SpectrumComputing you will find the corresponding game page just fine.

This information was added using this spreadsheet. Alessandro Grussu and myself filled the first 7 issues, but we both have been too busy to do anything else. If you can help complete this spreadsheet, even if it's just a few more issues, we will be very grateful! Just send me a PM with your email address so I can give you editing permission in this spreadsheet. I also added a second "tab" in the spreadsheet so you can add a link to Giuseppe's page (and anything else you consider relevant) for each magazine issue, I'm sure he will like it. I already added all links to Giuseppe's page that will appear in the next ZXDB update, I'm sure he will like it.

You just need to be careful when filling the spreadsheet because there are different games with similar titles. For instance "Carambola" is Pool by Bug-Byte Software, not Pool by Omega Software. Also "Cowboys" is Cowboy Shootout by Micro Power, not Cowboy Shoot Out by 16/48 Tape Magazine. It's easy to get them wrong

Einar Saukas wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 4:15 pm This information was added using this spreadsheet. Alessandro Grussu and myself filled the first 7 issues, but we both have been too busy to do anything else. If you can help complete this spreadsheet, even if it's just a few more issues, we will be very grateful! Just send me a PM with your email address so I can give you editing permission in this spreadsheet.

I didn't notice that!

I'll be glad to complete the sheet, and if it's fine to you, can also add other magazines.
PM sent!

Oh, and don't forget to discard my pull request.

wallyweek wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 5:21 pm I'll be glad to complete the sheet, and if it's fine to you, can also add other magazines.
PM sent!

Awesome, thank you!!!

I gave you editing access to 2 spreadsheets:

• Use this spreadsheet when you want to list programs distributed in magazine covertapes, like Load'n'Run. Please create a different spreadsheet tab for each magazine. You don't need to worry about the SQL columns, that's the easy part for me, I can add them later.

• Use this spreadsheet when you want to list magazine page contents. It's not useful for Load'n'Run that doesn't have any actual content in magazine pages, everything's on covertapes. But you may need it for other magazines. In this case, everything does in the 1st tab. Except if there's a magazine issue that doesn't exist in ZXDB yet, you can use the 2nd tab to add it.

wallyweek wrote: ↑Sun Jul 26, 2020 5:21 pm Oh, and don't forget to discard my pull request.

Done!