Consolidating and matching inlays, files & publication dates

[druellan]

@8bitag what do you think about the inlays and releases on https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5913 ? We have:

Original Release Artic Computing Ltd (UK)
Re-release #1 Profisoft [1] (Germany)
Re-release #2 Sinclair Research Ltd (UK)

But looking at the inlays, we have an old additional (clearly homebrew) inlay by Artic. Perhaps is not considered a release?

[8BitAG]

@8bitag what do you think about the inlays and releases on https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5913 ? We have:

There are so many different inlays for the early Artic games... I think there are additional variants of a couple of those two, that haven't been scanned.

I don't think we have collated release dates for the different inlays (it's so hard to tell, especially with the very early variants).

For example, here are just a collection of the variants for Adventure C, Ship of Doom... including two different early inlays, two different glossy inlays, and the Sinclair branded release...


There may even be an additional later glossy inlay with the different Artic logo (there certainly is on other formats)... i.e.


I think you'd need the help of some of the dedicated Artic collectors (who have the original physical items) to document every single version/release.

[druellan]

I don't think we have collated release dates for the different inlays (it's so hard to tell, especially with the very early variants).

Thanks! And yeah, the question was related to the aliases, since each alias must be assigned to a release (and the alias is related to the inlay), I was thinking that perhaps we might streamline a little bit all the relationships, but I completely agree with you that it can become a Pandora's Box. So I'm going to try and do my best with the releases we have right now, and perhaps I can uncover something among the way.

My idea is to rename the adventures to their original names "Adventure X" and then assign the aliases to each release, pretty much how the ZX81 versions are entered: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=28637

[mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] Is that ok o perhaps you prefer not to touch the entry title?

[Juan F. Ramirez]

What I think is sure is the Sinclair covers are a re-release edition. They were released after the artic release.

As to the artic covers, there are some variants, as we can check in the fantastic [mention]Mort[/mention] 's archive.org site. For example, about Espionage Island, it seems this is the very first release:



But [mention]Mort[/mention] classifies it as 'V2'.

And this is what I think (IMHO) is clearly the second Artic Release:



Maybe V2 version is a ZX81 release?

[8BitAG]

My idea is to rename the adventures to their original names "Adventure X" and then assign the aliases to each release, pretty much how the ZX81 versions are entered: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=28637

But is that information even accurate for the ZX81? The Sinclair branded re-release wasn't published in 1981, as that page shows.

If things are going to be linked together then it needs to be accurate. Each inlay needs to match the corresponding tape image and, if possible, needs to have the date of release.

I don't think we have that information and, as I said, I think you'd need to work with the dedicated Artic collectors to try and work this out.

Even some of the most dedicated collectors out there aren't aware that there are quite so many variants around. (Artic is not a publisher to collect if you're a completionist!)

[If this is going to turn into a detailed discussion about inlays and publication orders then it probably needs its own thread]

[druellan]

If things are going to be linked together then it needs to be accurate. Each inlay needs to match the corresponding tape image and, if possible, needs to have the date of release.
I don't think we have that information and, as I said, I think you'd need to work with the dedicated Artic collectors to try and work this out.

Understood, but my intention is to gather the information from the inlays we have available, for example, on Adventure A we know it was called "Adventure A", then renamed as "Planet of Death" as we can see in the Artic inlay, and then renamed again to "Adventure A: Planet of Dearh" by Sinclair Research, again, based on the inlays and the releases. The problem is that might not be possible on other titles, but let's see, I'm not going to change anything until we have a plan

Even some of the most dedicated collectors out there aren't aware that there are quite so many variants around. (Artic is not a publisher to collect if you're a completionist!)

Hahaha, I'm starting to see that!

[If this is going to turn into a detailed discussion about inlays and publication orders then it probably needs its own thread]

Agree! Let's see if [mention]R-Tape[/mention] [mention]PeterJ[/mention] can move the messages into their own thread

[druellan]

As to the artic covers, there are some variants, as we can check in the fantastic @Mort 's archive.org site. For example, about Espionage Island, it seems this is the very first release:

Oh, yep, forgot about that archive, we can cross information to gather conclusions

[8BitAG]

Mocagh is quite a useful source for text adventure inlays and documentation...
https://www.mocagh.org/loadpage.php?get ... Adventures

[druellan]

Ok. Aventure A - https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5913

The first inlay corresponds to the first release, BUT was only released to the ZX81: https://www.mocagh.org/loadpage.php?getgame=adventurea The inlay only says "ZX", and "ZX81" is on the cassette, so, no indication this release was also published for the ZX Spectrum. So this inlay can be re-assigned to the ZX81 version

So, for the ZX81:
The game was called originally "Adventure A", Artic later added the "Planet of Death" subtitle, based on CASA: https://www.solutionarchive.com/game/id ... Death.html
So, the information on the ZXDB is accurate.

For ZX Spectrum:
The game was released by Artic as "Planet of Death", not "Adventure A: Planet of Death". We can check this on this instructions but also magazines: https://archive.org/stream/crash-magazi ... 3/mode/1up
Then was re-released by Sinclair Research as "Adventure A: Planet of Death" - https://archive.org/stream/sinclair-pro ... 7/mode/1up
We don't have further information about the Profisoft release.

Edit: I did a bit more research on the titles.