Little bugs in the database 4

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Stu
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

Superman - The Man of Steel has author roles in the loading screen that could be added:

Sarah Day - Art
Richard Cheek - Art
Paul Drummond - Art
Mike Talbot - Code
Tim McCarthy - Code
Doug Thrower - Design
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by 8BitAG »

The Z80 snapshot of Cuddles...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6 ... um/Cuddles

is labelled as being from 1984. It is not the version from 1984; it is one of the later re-releases. (The original 1984 version, contained in the TZX, is a different version of the game with a standard Spectrum font)
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by 8BitAG »

The page for In Search of Angels will probably need a bit of work too, at some point...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6 ... _of_Angels

...as it also has lots of versions with the wrong dates attached; one of the issues inherited from the original WOS database sadly... it's harder to retrospectively match a date to the files for games released multiple times.

Some obvious fixes, though...

Date of release should be 1984... the page links to two 1984 reviews.

The Z80 version on the page is *not* a 1984 (or even 1985) version. It has a custom font rather than the standard Spectrum font of the first release.


Similarly....
Faerie
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6 ... rum/Faerie

Listed as 1985, is reviewed in 1984.

Quann Tulla
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6 ... uann_Tulla

Listed as 1985, is reviewed in 1984.

Ice Station Zero
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6 ... ation_Zero

Listed as 1985, is reviewed in 1984.

Four Minutes to Midnight
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6 ... o_Midnight

Listed as 1985, is reviewed in 1984.

i.e. All six of those 8th Day, Games without Frontiers titles, were released in 1984 *not* 1985.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by StooB »

Monster Mine by Gem Software (1982)

The Richard Shepherd version is the original version first advertised in November 1982. The Gem version isn't advertised until May 1983.

The Spectrum version should also be in the multi machine medium group like the ZX81 version already is because they are on the same tape.

The blank "Original publisher" and "Original release" fields on the ZX81 version should also be Richard Shepherd Software.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

At present there are two versions of System 15000 listed in ZXDB:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/5 ... stem_15000
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... nd_Edition

These are linked in a series:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... up_id=3498

However there is little difference between the two -- only 10 bytes are different between the TZX files. Would it be better to combine the two into a single entry and count the 2nd edition as a re-release?
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

Bored of the Rings:

The loading screen is from the CRL/Silversoft version, not the original Delta 4 release -- does this need to be replaced?

There's a TAP file for the original release but not the CRL/Silversoft releases -- would this be worth uploading?

I don't know if it's worth adding to the description but the TAP file currently uploaded is taken from the "v2" TZX. This can be checked by loading part 3, starting the game (the passphrase is "Work for money, spend money, spend for love, love for money") then typing JUDITH -- v2 responds differently to v1 and v3.

The original Delta 4 release has a different version of Sceptical to the CRL/Silversoft release (mostly the same text but some pages are different, and the pages are displayed differently) -- does this need a separate entry or can it be listed under the existing entry? Either way, does it need a loading screen, running screen and TZX/TAP file to be uploaded?
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

As noted in this WOS thread, Chain Reaction has 128k music which is disabled but can be re-enabled by patching one byte. According to the source code it's by Rob Hubbard. I don't know if this should be added to ZXDB since it's technically in the final game, but not readily available?
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Invasion Force (Artic):

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=2535
The displayed loading screen is from Forward Software re-release edition; the original Artic first-release should be displayed instead.

Image
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

Stu wrote: Sat Jul 18, 2020 4:32 pm Bored of the Rings:

The loading screen is from the CRL/Silversoft version, not the original Delta 4 release -- does this need to be replaced?

There's a TAP file for the original release but not the CRL/Silversoft releases -- would this be worth uploading?

I don't know if it's worth adding to the description but the TAP file currently uploaded is taken from the "v2" TZX. This can be checked by loading part 3, starting the game (the passphrase is "Work for money, spend money, spend for love, love for money") then typing JUDITH -- v2 responds differently to v1 and v3.

The original Delta 4 release has a different version of Sceptical to the CRL/Silversoft release (mostly the same text but some pages are different, and the pages are displayed differently) -- does this need a separate entry or can it be listed under the existing entry? Either way, does it need a loading screen, running screen and TZX/TAP file to be uploaded?
I can't edit this now (maybe because I accidentally quoted it first? :roll: ) but just to clarify, the existing Sceptical entry is the CRL/Silversoft release.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Audionautas »

Audionautas wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 8:39 am Hi guys!

I'm doing some searching on ZXDB and I miss an interesting feature.

I'm doing an advanced search by "Language" in this case. My intention is to list all games in Serbian language, for example. Great!, I have a list of games in that particular language. But after reviewing that list I can't find any game from the most famous Serbian 8 bit programmer, Duško Dimitrijević, and that's is because he released all his games in the UK, so the language is English.

So, I miss the option of searching by "Nationality" (of the , not only by "Language". The same case goes for Homega Software, the Hungarian guys who coded Express Raider for U.S. Gold. They're Hungarian but you can't find it as a game made in Hungary because it's in English.

I think this feature of searching by "Nationality" would be very useful to have a real outlook of the software production made in a certain country, regardless the language in which was made.

Thank you!
Hi guys

The other day I made the suggestion above on the "advanced search" feature on SC that I think would be great to be added on ZXDB, but now I'm trying to do another kind of search that I think it could be useful to add to the ZXDB too. I'm trying to search by "film licence" or "arcade licence" in order to list all games based on films and arcade machines. The same would be great for "comic-book licence", "tv series licence" and so on. Perhaps it would be a great addition to the search engine. What do you think?
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

The David Shaw that is credited for Boxing is David A. Shaw of the Shaw Brothers, as mentioned on their website.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by druellan »

StooB wrote: Fri May 15, 2020 11:30 am Steve Blower

His role on ZZoom is presumably 'Inlay/Poster Art' as he did all the other Imagine covers. Mobygames agree.
Old Imagine software credits can be improved just looking at the instructions:

Zip-Zap (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/5 ... um/Zip-Zap)
GAME DESIGN & SOFTWARE by Ian Weatherburn
GRAPHIC DESIGN by Steve Blower.

Also, the Spanish instructions seems to be from a pirated version and marked as incomplete. Perhaps worth to remove them. https://archive.org/download/World_of_S ... plete).pdf

Arcadia (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... um/Arcadia)
Might be nice to credit David H. Lawson as D.H.L. as in the game, and to have those initials as an alternate nickname.

Ah Diddums (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... Ah_Diddums)
Spectres (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/4 ... m/Spectres)
Also signed as D.H.L.

Jumping Jack (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... mping_Jack)
PROGRAM CODING by Albert Ball
GRAPHIC DESIGN & ILLUSTRATION by Steve Blower
Stuart C. Ball - Graphics

Pedro (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3 ... trum/Pedro)
GAME IDEA, AND MANY THANKS to Stephen Knight.
PROGRAM by Frank Johnson.
GRAPHICS by Ally Noble & Dawn Jones.
MUSIC by Fred Gray & Abdul Ibrahim.
ILLUSTRATIONS by Brial Wall.
PHOTOGRAPHY by Bernard Rose.
COFFEE MADE by Lynn Livingstone.

B.C. Bill (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/4 ... um/BC_Bill)
B.C.BILL (C) 1984 by Creative Technology Group Ltd. We know Abdul Ibrahim was part of Creative Technology, but I wonder who "Eric the Bear" was.

Cosmic Cruiser (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... ic_Cruiser)
Again, (C) Creative Technology Group Ltd

Dominoes (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... m/Dominoes)
** All programs written by D.G. Cross.

Something very odd about this game. D.H.L. is credited, but his name is not present on the game. But, if you inspect the code of the TAP version, you can find "1982 by IMAGINE SOFTWARÅCopyright: Program,Audio,VisuaìPresentóBY D.H.L?" This looks like a leftover on the tape image.

Anyway, confirmed label D.H.L. in the database is indeed David H. Lawson

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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

BLAM has a Tipshop page not currently linked to: https://www.the-tipshop.co.uk/cgi-bin/info.pl?name=Blam
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

Unidentified covertape program Hacks Amazing is from Sinclair User 127.

As an aside, I've extracted all the SU, YS and Crash pokes programs (Poke City, Pokemania, Practical Pokes etc.) as TZXs -- if there's any interest in creating separate ZXDB entries for each of them then I'm happy to upload them somewhere and help create the entries.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by redballoon »

Bill the Kid (Codemasters/Virgin Mastertronic)

Has this as an advertisement for it:

https://ia800604.us.archive.org/view_ar ... TheKid.jpg

Image

But that advert was for Billy the Kid released by Ocean on the Atari ST and Amiga...a completely different game.

See here for the full advert for the Ocean game.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Audionautas »

Hi

A couple of things to add to ZXDB.

* KING VALLEY (1994). https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... ing_Valley

This entry doesn't include creators, but according to the .txt included on the entry, we have the following credits:

Authors: Andrey Ugolnik (coding, graphics), Evgeny Yanushkevich (graphics), Oleg Romanovich (music), Nikolay Kozhevnikov (levels), Kamikaze (screens), Dik Aleksey & Alex Plusow (consultation).

So this entry might be enhanced.

* THE CHAMP (1991). https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/8 ... /The_Champ

In the Original Publisher row it reads: "Linel (Liechtenstein)". I ever thought that this was a Swiss company because they did the Amiga ports for Exolon and Eliminator by Hewson, but I didn't know that this company also released three late games for the Spectrum.

At the end of the booklet of the System 4 Spanish release it reads "© LINEL SWITZERLAND PRODUCIDO POR MERIMPEX GA.", but on the other hand, in an advert for this game on Popular Computer Weekly it seems it was from Liechtenstein (https://archive.org/stream/popular-comp ... 8/mode/1up).

Your Sinclair claims it's a Swiss company on their unreliable T-Zers column (https://archive.org/stream/YourSinclair ... 8/mode/1up), but here on The Games Machine magazine they comment that it was a Swiss company "based in Arbon near Lake Constance" and it was made up of 25 people (coder, graphic artists, musicians...). (https://archive.org/stream/the-games-ma ... 4/mode/1up).

The only information I came across about this company it that it was both publisher and developer, their softography and that they don't exist anymore. https://www.mobygames.com/company/linel

What do you think? Liechtenstein or Switzerland?
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

The following games have padlock protection:

Fish!
The Guild of Thieves
Jinxter
The Pawn
Starglider (+3 version only)
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by R-Tape »

The 'Adventures in Italiano' tape magazines should be called the "Viking - Adventures in Italiano Nr 01"...

27103 Adventures in Italiano Nr 01
27107 Adventures in Italiano Nr 02
27111 Adventures in Italiano Nr 03
27112 Adventures in Italiano Nr 04
27113 Adventures in Italiano Nr 05
27117 Adventures in Italiano Nr 06
27118 Adventures in Italiano Nr 07
27119 Adventures in Italiano Nr 08
27120 Adventures in Italiano Nr 09
27121 Adventures in Italiano Nr 10
27184 Adventures in Italiano Nr 11

This is a recommendation from [mention]wallyweek[/mention] from his MIAs. I agree it is 'from Viking' as much as Outlet tape mag is 'from Outlet'.

There doesn't appear to be a series for these. I will create one; let me know if I should not.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

Your Computer August 1986 seems to have a different url format to the other issues so should be https://archive.org/details/yourcomputer198608 instead of https://archive.org/stream/your-compute ... ne-1986-08
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stefan »

Audionautas wrote: Sun Jul 26, 2020 7:44 pm * THE CHAMP (1991). https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/8 ... /The_Champ

In the Original Publisher row it reads: "Linel (Liechtenstein)". I ever thought that this was a Swiss company because they did the Amiga ports for Exolon and Eliminator by Hewson, but I didn't know that this company also released three late games for the Spectrum.

At the end of the booklet of the System 4 Spanish release it reads "© LINEL SWITZERLAND PRODUCIDO POR MERIMPEX GA.", but on the other hand, in an advert for this game on Popular Computer Weekly it seems it was from Liechtenstein (https://archive.org/stream/popular-comp ... 8/mode/1up).

Your Sinclair claims it's a Swiss company on their unreliable T-Zers column (https://archive.org/stream/YourSinclair ... 8/mode/1up), but here on The Games Machine magazine they comment that it was a Swiss company "based in Arbon near Lake Constance" and it was made up of 25 people (coder, graphic artists, musicians...). (https://archive.org/stream/the-games-ma ... 4/mode/1up).

The only information I came across about this company it that it was both publisher and developer, their softography and that they don't exist anymore. https://www.mobygames.com/company/linel

What do you think? Liechtenstein or Switzerland?
On page 38 of New Computer Express issue 83 (June 1990) there's an ad asking for programmers, address of Linel:

Guetlistrasse, 9050 Appenzell, Switzerland - which is not that far from Liechtenstein.

The same ad is also on page 113 in ACE issue 35 (August 1990).
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Audionautas »

Stefan wrote: Wed Jul 29, 2020 9:17 pm
On page 38 of New Computer Express issue 83 (June 1990) there's an ad asking for programmers, address of Linel:

Guetlistrasse, 9050 Appenzell, Switzerland - which is not that far from Liechtenstein.

The same ad is also on page 113 in ACE issue 35 (August 1990).
Thank you [mention]Stefan[/mention] !!! According to all the information gathered there seems to be more evidences that Linel was a Swiss company than from Liechtenstein, but hey, Appenzell and Vaduz are only 50km away by road.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

Frameworks X: The Mainframe Quest

A bit of background on this -- it was included on the b-side of the 1983 single Talk to Me by Mainframe. Some more info can be found here:

http://msknight.com/bbc/mainframe.html
https://stardot.org.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=15405

And a video of it in action here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eIzNE356-Q

The back of the record sleeve (in the first link) credits John Molloy and David Green for the Spectrum version. It's the same John Molloy that worked at Magnetic Scrolls so this can be linked to him:

https://twitter.com/computermuseum/stat ... 7560748032

Sadly, John died in 2018 so that can be added to his entry.

As an aside, I'm not sure that "Frameworks X: The Mainframe Quest" is the program's actual name -- maybe I'm wrong but from reading the text in the program, it sounds like "Frameworks X" is referring to the competition included in their album Tenants of the Lattice-Work; a little more info on that can be found here: http://www.swanfungus.com/2018/04/mainf ... -work.html

However the competition is referred to as "The Quest" here so who really knows? https://archive.org/details/Lode_Runner ... 7/mode/2up
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by StooB »

Dark Force

This seems to be an amalgamation of two different titles.

The tzx and the cover are for a compilation called Dark Force containing Midnight Resistance and Night Breed.

The advert and all the reviews are for a compilation called Dark Force containing Batman The Caped Crusader, Last Ninja 2, Dark Side and R-Type. No scans of the box are available.

The magazine references imply that the 4 title compilation was released for Christmas 1989 which is before Midnight Resistance and Night Breed were even released. This version doesn't appear to exist - there's no sign of it on eBay or in any of the Facebook groups.

It looks like they cancelled this release. Last Ninja 2 was already on 100% Dynamite which was released at the same time, and R-Type and Batman turned up in early 1990 on The Biz. It seems Ocean never released Dark Side, either on a compilation or on even on Hit Squad.

So, there should be two entries:

1. Dark Force, date 1989, never released, Batman/Ninja/Dark Side/R Type + all magazine references + the compilation advert

2. Dark Force, date 1990 (probably - that's the copyright year on the manual and cassettes), Midnight Resistance/Night Breed + no magazine references + all "additional file downloads" apart from the compilation advert
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

Stu wrote: Thu Jul 30, 2020 11:12 am Frameworks X: The Mainframe Quest
I just noticed that this has versions for both the Spectrum and the ZX81 uploaded under the same entry -- should these be split into separate entries?
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