ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

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Mike Davies
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ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Mike Davies »

I thought I'd start a thread about magazine reference errors that we can correct.

My first one: Death or Glory: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=1293

There are 3 Sinclair User references, two of them are a "Review", but they happen to be the same issue (69), pages 118 and 119. The Review is just on page 119. Page 118 contains no references to Death or Glory. So the correction is to remove the Sinclair User issue 69, page 118 reference.
Incorrect page link to be removed: http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php? ... 9&page=118
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Vampyre
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Vampyre »

Unfortunately there are quite a number of inaccuracies in ZXDB where reviews are concerned. It's not the fault of ZXDB as it's initial feed was from the Infoseek API and it's not the fault of that API either - the magazine references ultimately came from the SPOT-ON database. For example:

Manic Miner https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3012 references a review in C&VG #30 on page 29 (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 81&page=29). It's clear from the review text that it's the C64 version being reviewed, not the Spectrum.

Johnny Reb https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=2635 is classed as a review in C&VG #32 page 23(https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 83&page=23). This is not a review but Game News.

Danger Mouse In Double Trouble https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=1247 C&VG #46 page 33 (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 97&page=33) is an Amstrad review.

Myth https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=3354 C&VG #95 page 50 (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 47&page=50) - a C64 review (although it has screenshots for the Speccy version, the scores are ultimately for the C64 and it even mentions the Speccy version "coming soon").

That's just a small example and It's not just C&VG that has errors but other magazines too and there are a number of them - at a rough guess I would say around 1-2% are inaccurate. That's just from Crash, Your Sinclair, Your Spectrum, Sinclair User, Ace and C&VG. There's undoubtedly plenty more from the other mags.
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Nomad
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Nomad »

You could argue a pretty strong case that most of the magazine reviews are tainted by commercial interest & personal bias. The way certain games publishers constantly got a free pass to release crap while other solid titles got panned because of not being an insider.

You would see companies that had steady advertising space deals with magazines churn out unimaginative poorly written games get good reviews, but an independent guy would make a interesting game and get totally panned. 1 star reviews just because of some totally irrelevant detail. I remember as a kid thinking it was very strange as I had played some of these games and they were in my eyes better than the stuff from the big boys. It was only later I realized what had happened.

Thing is finding concrete proof of this is difficult but the suspicion remains. :lol: These fellas didn't make a lot of money, they were very vulnerable to being influenced by favors in exchange for positive reviews/access.
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Mike Davies
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Mike Davies »

One magazine page image upside down:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 35&page=40
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by PeterJ »

[mention]Nomad[/mention]

ZXSR [mention]Vampyre[/mention] was great for that as you could easily look at reviews for the same title across multiple magazines.

You can do that easily with our site too, but not as neatly.

Peter

PS. I do love reading through all the reviews in the old magazines, and in the newer Spectrum Show Magazine by [mention]PaulJ[/mention]
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by PeterJ »

Mike Davies wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:11 pm One magazine page image upside down:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 35&page=40
Hi [mention]Mike Davies[/mention] because of the disk space requirements and my financial budget for this I take scans from archive.org so not sure we can fix that one, but all the ones we can sort in ZXDB are great to have. Thank you.
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Vampyre »

Nomad wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 11:43 am You could argue a pretty strong case that most of the magazine reviews are tainted by commercial interest & personal bias. The way certain games publishers constantly got a free pass to release crap while other solid titles got panned because of not being an insider.

You would see companies that had steady advertising space deals with magazines churn out unimaginative poorly written games get good reviews, but an independent guy would make a interesting game and get totally panned. 1 star reviews just because of some totally irrelevant detail. I remember as a kid thinking it was very strange as I had played some of these games and they were in my eyes better than the stuff from the big boys. It was only later I realized what had happened.

Thing is finding concrete proof of this is difficult but the suspicion remains. :lol: These fellas didn't make a lot of money, they were very vulnerable to being influenced by favors in exchange for positive reviews/access.
Although I wouldn't call it concrete proof (but let's face it, we all knew it happened) Dominic Handy in this interview (http://www.crashonline.org.uk/99/handy.htm) on Crash Online admits Great Giana Sisters was heavily influenced into giving a good score for a major advertiser.
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Mike Davies
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Mike Davies »

PeterJ wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:24 pm Hi @Mike Davies because of the disk space requirements and my financial budget for this I take scans from archive.org so not sure we can fix that one, but all the ones we can sort in ZXDB are great to have. Thank you.
Ah, I didn't think to check the source of the image to see where it's hosted. My bad.
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Kweepa »

Vampyre wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:30 pm admits Great Giana Sisters was heavily influenced into giving a good score
Those sisters... so easily bribed! :P
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Einar Saukas
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Einar Saukas »

Next ZXDB update will have some of the corrections reported here. Thank you!

In fact, ZXDB stores more than 170,000 magazine references, almost all of them imported from SPOT. We will need a more automated way to bulk process corrections in this area. Reporting individual links one-by-one here would take a looooooong time! :)
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Mike Davies
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Mike Davies »

Bug report: Warlords by Century:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12220
links to a Crash review for a different game:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 87&page=92
^ That's Warlord by Interceptor Systems (not Warlords by Interceptor Micros as Crash have it)

so the Crash review link should be removed from Warlords by Century.

I've checked that Warlord by Interceptor Systems links to this Crash review and it does:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=7173
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Einar Saukas
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Einar Saukas »

Mike Davies wrote: Wed Aug 08, 2018 5:18 pm Bug report: Warlords by Century:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12220
links to a Crash review for a different game:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 87&page=92
^ That's Warlord by Interceptor Systems (not Warlords by Interceptor Micros as Crash have it)

so the Crash review link should be removed from Warlords by Century.

I've checked that Warlord by Interceptor Systems links to this Crash review and it does:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=7173
Done! This correction appear in the next ZXDB update.

Thank you!
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by StooB »

These references for Hercules (2298):
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 76&page=18
http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php? ... 15&page=15
should be deleted as they are for for Hercules: Slayer of the Damned (2299).

This one needs adding to Hercules: Slayer of the Damned (2299)
http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php? ... 15&page=15



The single reference for Orpheus (10018):
http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php? ... 72&page=91
should be deleted as it is for a different Orpheus (10019) and is already listed on that entry.

This reference for Space Ace (12091)
http://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php? ... 2&page=120
should be deleted as it is for the Space Ace compilation (12092) and is already listed on that entry.
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Vampyre »

Whilst I've got my corrections head on here's a few missing or incorrectly flagged reviews from The Games Machine that I've been going through recently.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 89&page=50
Wizball (5713) - Issue 1, Page 50. This is flagged as News/Note when IMO it should be flagged as a Review. It's got an Overall score which in my mind makes it a review.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 98&page=50
Marauder (3030) - Issue 10, Page 50. Missing.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 99&page=78
Summer Games (4990), Issue 11, Page 78. Missing.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 99&page=80
Summer Games 2 (4992), Issue 11, Page 80. Missing.

The following are all flagged as being reviewed in C&VG Issue 93. They were not reviewed in this issue, and I guess they're flagged against the wrong magazine as, apart from Thunderbirds and Infiltrator, C&VG didn't review any of them.
Shinobi (44457) Page 16
Thunderbirds (5255) Page 48
Super Scramble Simulator (5034) Page 51
Mr Heli (3310) Page 66
Kosmos (2760) Page 82
Ninja Commando (3434) Page 82
Arcade Flight Simulator (9304) Page 83
Bomb Jack 2 (619) Page 83
Infiltrator (2482) Page 83

Here's a really early one:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=10096
Pyramid of Doom (10096), C&VG Issue 3 Page 62
This was in the January 1982 issue - the Spectrum wasn't even for sale at this time. The review doesn't even exist in that issue anyway, so I guess it's flagged against the wrong magazine.

[mention]PeterJ[/mention] I've also noticed that the links to the C&VG scans aren't working.
ZX Spectrum Reviews REST API: http://zxspectrumreviews.co.uk/
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by PeterJ »

Thanks [mention]Vampyre[/mention]
I will take a look
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by PeterJ »

Hi [mention]Vampyre[/mention]

Computer and Video Games should now be fixed.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 0&page=113

[mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] I will email you as I had to change a database field.
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Vampyre
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Re: ZXDB Magazine reference corrections

Post by Vampyre »

Excellent. Can confirm working fine!

Thanks Peter.
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