Little bugs in the database 3

[Einar Saukas]

As for the magazine in English. I take most of the information from English sources, I simply combine all this into one whole. My level of English is not very good

Exactly. Most of your magazine content is already in English, especially interviews. You only need someone that can translate the rest.

Please think about it. Then if you decide you want to translate it, either create a new thread asking for volunteers to translate it, or let me know and I will post it for you.

[8BitAG]

Corrections and links connected to...
Kevin Maddocks

King Software
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=8082

shares the same postal address as (the later) Sigma-Soft/SigmaSoft
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... l_id=13268

See the early advert, which also lists J. Maddocks [Kevin's father?] as the contact name & cheque recipient...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 91&page=50

So King Software and SigmaSoft [2] need to be linked in the database in some way.


K. Maddocks
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=7796
and
Kevin Madocs
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... el_id=8029

are both actually
Kevin Maddocks

("Kevin Madocs" was misspelled on the Gilsoft's Characters packaging. He was later credited correctly in the Gilsoft PAW manual; as the fonts were reused in that utility. The character sets in the SigmaSoft Characters Collection are the same as the ones in Gilsoft's Characters)

Kevin Maddocks is a missing credit from the
Professional Adventure Writer
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6825
where he should be credited for graphics (as mentioned in the manual)
along with...
Dicon Peeke
[who really should have a database entry... Dicon appears to be missing off some games too, so I will address that at another point]
and...
A. Williams

Kevin Maddocks' text adventures...

Dwarfs Domain
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6238

and

Elfindor
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=6244

are almost identical.

The later game, Elfindor, has some changes to a few parts of the map, tweaked message text, the inclusion of a help command, and a more generous inventory limit.
http://8bitag.com/temp/dwarfs-elfindor.pdf

As a further addition to this... The game, as Elfindor, was mentioned in a Popular Computing Weekly magazine issue from November 1985... So the date of release needs to be altered appropriately.
https://archive.org/stream/popular-comp ... 1/mode/2up
(also linked to already on the game's page)

Kevin's surname is misspelled in a completely different way in this mention... ie. Maddox

✓ Reviewed

[druellan]

Skyfox

Not released in 1985, but on January 6th 1986.

I'm still investigating this. What I found interesting is that there are adverts on the Spanish Microhobby from back November 1985 (https://microhobby.speccy.cz/mhf/050/MH050_35.jpg Dro Soft, including pricing), and another from December 1985 (https://microhobby.speccy.cz/mhf/055/MH055_32.jpg Serma). This seems like a move to promote the game before Christmas, and also, from two different distributors, but since they are promoting a translated version of the game (and +2a compatible), I wonder if this might be true and the game was published in Spain early. The proper review of the game didn't come out until May of the same year, so, perhaps it was delayed.

[Rorthron]

Mobygames says Skyfox was released in Feb 86. The scanned inlay on that site has copyright messages of 1984 for Ray Tobey (presumably the C64 version) and 1985 for Ariolasoft. Make of that what you will.

I can't help but feel a lot of this analysis of release dates is wasted effort. Evidence like adverts, reviews, copyright dates, magazine news stories, etc are all unreliable. Much of the time I suspect we just can't reach the level of precision sought.

Incidentally Skyfox is another instance where the .txt instructions in SC are lacking. Mobygames has good scans, however.

[druellan]

Mobygames says Skyfox was released in Feb 86. The scanned inlay on that site has copyright messages of 1984 for Ray Tobey (presumably the C64 version) and 1985 for Ariolasoft. Make of that what you will.

I can't help but feel a lot of this analysis of release dates is wasted effort. Evidence like adverts, reviews, copyright dates, magazine news stories, etc are all unreliable. Much of the time I suspect we just can't reach the level of precision sought.

Probably, but there are also reasonable clues, the problem is that often you don't know if you're going into a rabbit hole until you are well into it
In this case the "Jan 6th, 1986" figure on the magazine seems fair, the problem is that on doing the change I'm indirectly stating that Spanish versions were published first.
In any case, even when we don't reach consensus, there is usually enough material for a quick note.

[druellan]

Scuba Dive

Re-release #5 has an empty publisher field and should be removed.

In fact, the problem seems to be a tape image from unknown origin that seems to be from the Spanish version, and for some reason was decided to create a new release, but without a publisher. The only known publisher for Spain is Grupo de Trabajo de Software, so I think it is safe to link the image to that release and remove #5. Also, the release list is not properly sorted.

EDIT: Ops, there is also a Spanish release from Intelligent Program, now we are in trouble

[druellan]

Also, re Eureka, there is this Big-K feature on the game, which mentions Katalin Matsa as having worked on the game (not sure which version)
https://archive.org/stream/12-big-k-mag ... 9/mode/2up

On the game source, there is a message:

GREETINGS FROM HUNGARY¡***EUREKA'84**ªPROGRAMMERSºKATALIN MAJSA ZOLTAN HORVATÈANDRAS FORDOS TIBOR HORVATÈIMRE JAKOBICZ DONAT KISÓ

So, I think it is confirmed, and also, we have other names.

Edit: looking around, Zoltan Horvath and Katalin Majsa are C64 developers, authors of Traffic for the C64. Tibor Horvath (14562) is in fact T. Horvath (14161), Andras Fordos is in base (849), also Donat Kiss (3930).

✓ Reviewed

[druellan]

California Games (1987)

Originally scheduled for September 1987, it wasn't released until 1988. The preview in Your Sinclair February 1988 says it's available "now". The PCW review states "It is the first week of cold January and US Gold have finally got around to releasing the Spectrum version of California Games."

The Spanish release also seems to take place around 1988. First mention of the game on January 1988, first review February 1988. The Kixx label started publishing on 1988, so all releases can be moved to 1988.

[druellan]

Human Killing Machine (1988)
was released in 1989. (C) 1989 on the back cover.

The only reference for a 1988 date is a preview. Also, features a dynamic load, so, can be added to that group.

[druellan]

Black Tiger (1989)

Originally scheduled for October 1989, the back of the box shows (C)1990, and the YS preview gives a date of February 1990.

First mention as a "news" on a Spanish magazine is from February 1990 (MicroHobby 196), so, Spanish release was also around 1990.

[druellan]

Pogo (1983)

was released in 1984. Reviews range from May to August 1984, there are no adverts for it until April 1984. Personal Computer News lists it as a new release in their 14th April edition (nb: the [url=https://spectrumcom uting.co.uk/mag.php?issue_id=4715&page=7]page link[/url] doesn't work for this, but the viewer link does)

Ocean was not particularly active on magazines prior to 1984, but I can confirm there is no information I can find about POGO before 1984. The 1983 figure was probably extracted from the copyright notice on the instructions, that is by the author, not Ocean. The author was also active in Ocean around 1984.

Also, Bob Wakelin is the author of the inlay. Source: signature.

[druellan]

Galaxian (1984)
Reviewed in April 1985, year of release should be 1985.

Ms Pac-Man (1984)
The Your Spectrum review of September 1984 is of Pac-Man, not Ms Pac-Man.
The other reviews are from March and April 1985, so the year of release should be 1985.

I'll probably leave this two unchanged for now. There are some AtariSoft adverts from 1983 stating "out now!" for those titles. Might be the case they dropped the release for Christmas, but let's roll with this.

[druellan]

N.O.M.A.D. (1985)
Cosmic Wartoad (1985)
Zoids (1985)
Benny Hill's Madcap Chase (1985)

are all 1986 releases, listed in the "This Week" section in Popular Computer Weekly 9th-15th January 1986 here and here.

Oh, boy! Let's see

NOMAD. No information about the game prior to January 1986, same for the Spanish release. First advert I can find on Sinclair User 46 (1986), and a full page one! So, seems like a big release.
Comsmic Wartoad. No information about the game prior to 1986. Spanish version advertised for the first time on January 1986.
Zoids. There are some ads for November 1985, probably for christmas. I prefer to leave this one alone for now.
Benny Hill. First Spanish review, April 1986. First english review April 1986.

[druellan]

"Again Again" is still listed as a Grandslam label when it's an Alternative one.

Looking at the database, we have Again Again listed as:


But looking at the adverts, it says that Again Again logo is trademark of Tiger Developments.


So, instead of "from Tiger Developments" and "owned by Grandslam" perhaps should be only "Owned by Tiger Development"?

[StooB]

"Again Again" is still listed as a Grandslam label when it's an Alternative one.

Looking at the database, we have Again Again listed as:


But looking at the adverts, it says that Again Again logo is trademark of Tiger Developments.


So, instead of "from Tiger Developments" and "owned by Grandslam" perhaps should be only "Owned by Tiger Development"?

The magazine references all indicate that Again Again is an Alternative label (here, here and here) and the address given for Tiger Developments on the adverts is the same as Alternative Software.

But in 1992, the Again Again label re-appears on a budget re-release of Spitfire 40 + Strike Force Harrier whose inlay is completely Alternative with no mention of Tiger. Tiger Developments seem to disappear after 1989.

So:
Tiger Developments should be owned by Alternative
and
Again Again should be founded by Tiger Developments and owned by Alternative.

✓ Reviewed

[druellan]

Excellent!

[Einar Saukas]

Tujad (1986)

Original publisher should be Orpheus Ltd, who advertised it in 1985.

Home Computing Weekly said it was finished and "out now" for £8.95 in the week beginning 17th September 1985, and Popular Computing Weekly listed it as a new release in the week beginning 12th September 1985.

Crash reported in June 1986 that Orpheus wouldn't be releasing it themselves.

Does it mean Orpheus developed the game and planned to release it in 1985, but they didn't? I assume they notified publications in advance about their upcoming release dates, but then cancelled it.

That's how I'm interpreting the news from Crash. In this case, original publication by Ariolasoft in 1986 would be correct.

✓ Reviewed

[Einar Saukas]

Blue Max

The PCW review is for Blue Max 2001 on the Commodore 64.

This is tricky.

The article explicitly says "Spectrum 48K".

Also the reviewer seem to believe it's the Spectrum version. When writing about the sequel for a popular game from the same platform, it's more natural to assume most readers were already familiar with the original game. Even if that's not the case, it still sounds much better than assuming player's ignorance by default. Therefore a reviewer would most probably write something like "Blue Max 2001 is the sequel to the popular and successful Blue Max". Instead, the reviewer assumed the opposite, implicitly meaning something similar to "Blue Max 2001 is the sequel to Blue Max, a title you probably never heard of, but it's a popular and successful title that any C64 would know".

However Blue Max 2001 was never released for the Spectrum. So how can we explain it?

Blue Max for C64 was released in 1983. Both Blue Max 2001 for C64, and Blue Max for Spectrum, were released about the same time in 1984. Perhaps the magazine intended to write about the Spectrum version but didn't receive it on time, so they assumed it would be nearly identical to the new C64 version and wrote accordingly. Perhaps they even published the low quality screenshot on purpose (it's much worse than other screenshots from the same issue) so it's not possible to distinguish the platform.

Or perhaps the magazine simply wrote "Spectrum 48K" by mistake. Based on this wrong information, the reviewer tried to write accordingly, without ever playing the game. It would explain the evaluation "the game is fine but not a classic", it's the kind of generic sentence someone says when pretending to know a game they don't...

Or perhaps I'm overthinking it

[druellan]

I don't remember my resolution about this report, but I think I decided to call it a print error, since the image above does not seems to be from a ZX Spectrum computer.

[Einar Saukas]

I don't remember my resolution about this report, but I think I decided to call it a print error, since the image above does not seems to be from a ZX Spectrum computer.

The screenshot is certainly from the C64 version, but there are these other discrepancies that I pointed out.

Instead of removing this review, perhaps we could add a note such as:

"Curiously the Spectrum review at PCW describes instead its sequel Blue Max 2001 for the Commodore 64."

[StooB]

Tujad (1986)

Original publisher should be Orpheus Ltd, who advertised it in 1985.

Home Computing Weekly said it was finished and "out now" for £8.95 in the week beginning 17th September 1985, and Popular Computing Weekly listed it as a new release in the week beginning 12th September 1985.

Crash reported in June 1986 that Orpheus wouldn't be releasing it themselves.

Does it mean Orpheus developed the game and planned to release it in 1985, but they didn't? I assume they notified publications in advance about their upcoming release dates, but then cancelled it.

That's how I'm interpreting the news from Crash. In this case, original publication by Ariolasoft in 1986 would be correct.

So for consistency, Inspector Gadget, Beach Volley and Vampire's Empire should have have original publishers as Erbe, Erbe and Dro Soft rather than Melbourne House, Ocean and Gremlin?

[druellan]

The screenshot is certainly from the C64 version, but there are these other discrepancies that I pointed out.

Instead of removing this review, perhaps we could add a note such as:

"Curiously the Spectrum review at PCW describes instead its sequel Blue Max 2001 for the Commodore 64."

I did the exercise of reading it as a pure C64 title and I think it is consistent, but I like the idea of keeping it with a note, enriches the database and also is future proof in case anyone finds this review again and wonders why is not in the database.

[StooB]

Blue Max for C64 was released in 1983. Both Blue Max 2001 for C64, and Blue Max for Spectrum, were released about the same time in 1984. Perhaps the magazine intended to write about the Spectrum version but didn't receive it on time

The same magazine lists Blue Max 2001 as a new entry in the Atari charts for that week so it may well be a review of that version.

[Einar Saukas]

Does it mean Orpheus developed the game and planned to release it in 1985, but they didn't? I assume they notified publications in advance about their upcoming release dates, but then cancelled it.

That's how I'm interpreting the news from Crash. In this case, original publication by Ariolasoft in 1986 would be correct.

So for consistency, Inspector Gadget, Beach Volley and Vampire's Empire should have have original publishers as Erbe, Erbe and Dro Soft rather than Melbourne House, Ocean and Gremlin?

Can you please explain what you mean?

It seems Orpheus announced they were going to publish Tujad but they never did. Therefore Orpheus cannot be the original publisher of Tujad.

What's the relation with the other games you mentioned?

[StooB]

So for consistency, Inspector Gadget, Beach Volley and Vampire's Empire should have have original publishers as Erbe, Erbe and Dro Soft rather than Melbourne House, Ocean and Gremlin?

Can you please explain what you mean?

It seems Orpheus announced they were going to publish Tujad but they never did. Therefore Orpheus cannot be the original publisher of Tujad.

What's the relation with the other games you mentioned?

It's the same situation:
- Inspector Gadget was never released by Melbourne House but it has an original publisher of Melbourne House.
- Beach Volley was never released by Ocean but it has an original publisher of Ocean.
- Vampire's Empire was never released by Gremlin but it has an original publisher of Gremlin.