Little bugs in the database 4

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PeterJ
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by PeterJ »

Hi [mention]MatGubbins[/mention],

[mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] will know the exact reason for this link to Wizball, but to get just titles published by Codemasters you need to enter Codemasters into the Publisher box, then choose strict results from the results strictness box.

There was a long discussion about something similar a few weeks ago which is why we released the results strictness.

I'm sure Einar will come up with the goods.

Good spot by the way [mention]MatGubbins[/mention]!
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by StooB »

Audionautas wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 10:24 am

The problem here is that if you search by year on the ZXDB, in this case 1993, Dalek Attack is missing, and I think is really important to set right which was the last Spectrum game released, even though it seems that it was finally sold via mail order, not retail.
It's not the last Spectrum game released though, there are re-releases from Alternative and The Hit Squad after that. Plus you've got publishers like Zenobi who carried on even longer.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by StooB »

PeterJ wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 11:38 am Hi @MatGubbins,

@Einar Saukas will know the exact reason for this link to Wizball, but to get just titles published by Codemasters you need to enter Codemasters into the Publisher box, then choose strict results from the results strictness box.

There was a long discussion about something similar a few weeks ago which is why we released the results strictness.

I'm sure Einar will come up with the goods.

Good spot by the way @MatGubbins!
It's because ZXDB thinks Codemasters own Sensible Software.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by PeterJ »

Good spot [mention]StooB[/mention] . Codemasters did acquire them. So you need to use the strict search as mentioned previously.

I understand the issue about points in time [mention]StooB[/mention] , but we just don't have the resources, time, volunteers, or the complete information to ever go down that road. It is noted though.

Strict search was introduced as a partial answer to the issue.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Pegaz »

Just to suggest a correction for these two titles, Galaksija Emulator and Space Invaders Emulator.
Both titles are + 2A/+3 compatible only, do not work with 128k or +2 machines.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... a_Emulator
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3 ... s_Emulator
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Pegaz »

And new and more appropriate screenshot suggestion, for Galaksija Emulator. :)

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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Audionautas »

StooB wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 11:49 am
It's not the last Spectrum game released though, there are re-releases from Alternative and The Hit Squad after that. Plus you've got publishers like Zenobi who carried on even longer.
Yes, I know all that, but I disagree.

* Dalek Attack was a game intended for a release in stores, as all the other versions of the game, except the Spectrum version, that after a lot of delay, it was finally released (via mail order, though), thanks to popular demand.

* Unlike those Hit Squad or Alternative Software reissues, this was a new game. Most probably the last new game intended for retail.

* Yes, Zenobi released new text adventures until 1997 or so. They sold a lot of games through mail order, but did it that way all over its existence. The same goes for Ultrasoft in Slovakia and Czech Republic until 1995 or so. They sold several hundreds, maybe thousands, of some of their games, but as far as I know, they did it by mail order too (also according to author and expert Jaroslav Švelch: https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/gaming-iron-curtain). The same goes for some Russian games produced over the 90's al 00's, and obviously the same goes for the homebrew games released by Cronosoft, Bitmap Soft, Matra or Monument Microgames amongst others in limited runs all over the last ten or fifteen years. But I don't think it's the same case here.

In my humble opinion Dalek Attack is a game of significant historical importance for the Spectrum (despite its average quality), because it was the last new game released by an established software house focused on retail sales and also it was the last new Spectrum game reviewed by a major Spectrum magazine (Your Sinclair).

Thank you!
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by StooB »

You can't say Dalek Attack was the definitely the last "new game" "intended for release in stores" without knowing Alternative's exact release schedule. It could be Playdays!
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by 8BitAG »

Audionautas wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 2:24 pm * Dalek Attack was a game intended for a release in stores, as all the other versions of the game, except the Spectrum version, that after a lot of delay, it was finally released (via mail order, though), thanks to popular demand.
It's an important game, for sure, and deserves to be remembered as one of the last, big name releases. And the year of release should definitely be fixed in the database. :)

But your argument that it was the last "retail" game for the ZX Spectrum is flawed if it was never actually released in a retail store and was only available by mail order.

All this "retail versus mail order" stuff is nonsense, anyway. A commercial game is a commercial game, no matter how it was sold. If someone is selling a game for money then it is a commercial game. There were Zenobi games that sold far more copies than Dalek Attack ever sold.

Many, many, many of the big ZX Spectrum companies started off as mail order only firms. A huge chunk of ZX Spectrum games and software either started out as mail order titles or were only ever available by post. In the latter years of the Spectrum, many of the games were not stocked in most retail shops.

In years to come, when we look back on the history of video games, the period in which video games were sold in physical stores will be tiny.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by PeterJ »

Hi, we will certainly change the year to 1993, but will continue to work through the earlier reports first.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Audionautas »

StooB wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 2:43 pm You can't say Dalek Attack was the definitely the last "new game" "intended for release in stores" without knowing Alternative's exact release schedule. It could be Playdays!
Yes, it probably wasn't the last game, a bold comment on my part, but the only way we have to know if one game was released sooner or later than the other is through magazine reviews. I know that magazines often previewed games that would not be released until months later. Maybe that's the case here, but we don't know. Until we have solid evidence, Playdays was reviewed in May 1993 and Dalek Attack in July 1993. I hope some day we'll know for certain.

All the best!
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by MatGubbins »

PeterJ wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 12:10 pm Good spot [mention]StooB[/mention] . Codemasters did acquire them. So you need to use the strict search as mentioned previously.

I understand the issue about points in time [mention]StooB[/mention] , but we just don't have the resources, time, volunteers, or the complete information to ever go down that road. It is noted though.

Strict search was introduced as a partial answer to the issue.
StooB wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 12:00 pm
PeterJ wrote: Thu Jul 02, 2020 11:38 am Hi @MatGubbins,

@Einar Saukas will know the exact reason for this link to Wizball, but to get just titles published by Codemasters you need to enter Codemasters into the Publisher box, then choose strict results from the results strictness box.

There was a long discussion about something similar a few weeks ago which is why we released the results strictness.

I'm sure Einar will come up with the goods.

Good spot by the way @MatGubbins!
It's because ZXDB thinks Codemasters own Sensible Software.
Thanks for the answers. I shuffled my Wizball tape from the Ocean stack and onto the Codemasters stack. It looked wrong and put it back onto the Ocean tape stack.
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Re: Little bugs in the database

Post by 1024MAK »

akeley wrote: Sun Jun 28, 2020 6:19 pm A pedant writes: Our beloved micro is listed in ZXDB's "Machine Type" entries as "ZX-Spectrum". But shouldn't it actually be "ZX Spectrum"? Just wondering...
Yes, it should be “ZX Spectrum”.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Audionautas »

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!
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by StooB »

Reversi (Sinclair Research) for the Spectrum
and
Reversi also known as Othello (Sinclair Research) for the ZX81

should have the same name
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by 8BitAG »

Dungeon
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/2 ... um/Dungeon
and
The Dungeon
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... he_Dungeon

are the same game so the entries should be combined.

The entry with ID 25764 contains the most information about the game and the game in its purest type-in form.

The entry with ID 11932 is a nice version of the game with a custom font and blue background.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by Stu »

Bubble Bobble has the comment "V2 runs on the ZX Spectrum, V3 (see BBEv3r2.zip in additional material) is for Windows" and the file BBEv3r2.zip in the Main File Downloads section which both belong to Bubble Bobble Editor.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by StooB »

The Bulge

features multi-machine medium as according to the cover it "runs on both Spectrum 48k and Commodore 64"
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by 8BitAG »

The page for Adventure by Nigel Brooks
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... /Adventure

...has magazine references that do not refer to that specific Spectrum port of the game, but to the original mainframe game (or other conversions of that game) and should be removed as many of these reference pre-date the release of the Nigel Brooks Spectrum conversion by several years...

Namely...
C&VG (Computer & Video Games)#30 - 1984/4114 (PDF) (VIEW)Feature
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 1&page=114

Micro Adventurer#12 - 1984/1011 (PDF) (VIEW)Feature - First adventure
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 13&page=11

Micro Adventurer#14 - 1984/124 (PDF) (VIEW)Letters
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 115&page=4

Popular Computing Weeklyv.2 #13 - 1983/3/31 - "week#5"27 (PDF) (VIEW)Feature
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 48&page=27

Popular Computing Weeklyv.2 #22 - 1983/6/2 - "week#1"41 (PDF) (VIEW)Feature - Tony Bridge's Adventure Corner
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 57&page=41

Popular Computing Weeklyv.2 #36 - 1983/9/8 - "week#2"37 (PDF) (VIEW)Feature
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 71&page=37

Sinclair User#23 - 1984/2135 (PDF) (VIEW)Feature - Mind Games ...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 3&page=135

Sinclair User#32 - 1984/11146 (PDF) (VIEW)Feature - Adventure feature
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 2&page=146

Which Micro? & Software Review1983/484Feature
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 05&page=84

*THIS* is the only reference from that magazine reference section that refers to the Nigel Brooks Adventure...
Popular Computing Weeklyv.5 #49 - 1986/12/4 - "week#1"24 (PDF) (VIEW)News/Note
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 37&page=24

NB: All the references in the *Magazine Reviews* section *are* correct.

Also... *see post below*
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Last edited by 8BitAG on Sun Jul 05, 2020 2:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by 8BitAG »

Connected to the above...

The Serf's Tale
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6 ... Serfs_Tale

Tony Bridge's PCW column states that this would be released in time for Christmas 1986.
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 37&page=24

The current date of release in the database is 1987. There is a copyright notice on the back of the inlay that mentions 1987 so 1987 should probably remain as the date of release. *no change necessary; although my gut feeling is that this was prepared in time for Christmas 1986

However...

The Serf's Tale needs a *derived from* connection to...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... /Adventure

...as they are basically the same game.

You may even consider combining the entries. I would.

The reviews on the back of The Serf's Tale inlay are actually reviews of the original release of the game under the title Adventure.
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 8&page=104
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 3&page=151
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by 8BitAG »

According to this review...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/page.ph ... 82&page=30

There was a second text & graphics version of the text adventure
The Adventures of Barsak the Dwarf
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/5 ... _the_Dwarf

...which was self-published by the authors in 1985
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=999
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=999

An appropriate re-release entry needs to be added to the game entry.

I'm unsure if you are able to tag the game both text-only and text-illustrated.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by druellan »

Hi! [mention]Audionautas[/mention] something interesting: The Clone by K. Burkhill - https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1 ... /The_Clone A type-in tape duplication tool published in 1984 on Your Computer: https://archive.org/stream/your-compute ... 2/mode/1up

Now, on the magazine you can read: K. Burkhill, Deeside, Clwyd. Clwyd is in Wales, so, could be Keith Burkhill himself?

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Re: Little bugs in the database 4

Post by druellan »

Slaine: https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/4 ... rum/Slaine has some complete credits inside the game, including roles:

Image

So, the author list can be completed with:

Neil Dodwell: Design
Jason Austin -- Design, Code
Dave Dew -- Design, In-game graphics
Glenn Fabry -- Cover art
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