New Database Model ZXDB

This is the place for general discussion and updates about the ZXDB Database. This forum is not specific to Spectrum Computing.

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Einar Saukas
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Einar Saukas »

jpablo wrote: Tue Jan 22, 2019 8:24 am
Einar Saukas wrote: Sat Jan 19, 2019 1:19 pm Column spanish_price wasn't moved. This is typically the release price of the Spanish release of each game, so I'm now working to identify the proper release for each case and assign this value properly. Approximately a thousand games had a spanish price, I have just reassigned about half of them. I will try to sort the rest in the next update.
I just read this. Please don't waste time on this - this information came in from the SPA2 database, and the prices are mapped on a per-release basis there.

I can send you a copy of the current (provisional) state of the SPA2 datase, so that you can work from this. Please pass me an e-mail address so that I can send a database dump to you.

Cheers :)
Thank you!!! I received your material, it will be included in the next update!
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PeterJ
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by PeterJ »

Einar Saukas wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 7:40 am A new ZXDB update is available!


EDIT: Internal definition of table "relatedlinks" was changed. I'm sure this won't affect SC but it may affect other sites like ZX Info.
Hi [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention]

Thanks for the update. I think it has broken the RZX section. I will contact you offline.

Peter
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druellan
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by druellan »

Einar Saukas wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:34 pm ZXDB adopts the convention (inherited from Martijn's WoS) that only actual releases are stored, for released games. Only if a game was never released, then it stores the publisher that was behind it, although it's not really a "publisher" since it wasn't really "published".
Mixing information about real and imaginary releases for the same game would be confusing IMHO.
I'm trying to understand this so I can improve the contributions to the ZXDB, tell me if I'm wrong but I understand that:

Not a publisher:
A game developed in the '80/'90 just for fun, they didn't have any intention to publish the game, but they created an imaginary software house.
Same as above, but they have several titles developed.

A publisher:
A game developed in the '80/'90, they HAD intention to publish the game, but that never happened.
A modern developer that sells physical copies of their games.
A modern developer that distribute digital copies of their games on their own page.
A modern developer that distribute digital copies of their games but does not have any proper Internet webpage or identity.
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8BitAG
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by 8BitAG »

druellan wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:10 pm Not a publisher:
A game developed in the '80/'90 just for fun, they didn't have any intention to publish the game, but they created an imaginary software house.
Same as above, but they have several titles developed.
I wouldn't disappear down that rabbit hole if I were you... a lot of "software houses" were "imaginary" and still published games. :)
8-bit Text Adventure Gamer - games - research.
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druellan
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by druellan »

8BitAG wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:22 pm I wouldn't disappear down that rabbit hole if I were you... a lot of "software houses" were "imaginary" and still published games. :)
Haha, well, yes, that's why I made the distinction about intention. If they had the intention to sell or distribute the game (by mail, etc), even if in the end that doesn't happened, even if the name was a fantasy name, I think we can add the name as a publisher, since it was a commercial endeavor after all, but let's see what other people think about it :)
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Einar Saukas
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Einar Saukas »

druellan wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 9:10 pm
Einar Saukas wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 12:34 pm ZXDB adopts the convention (inherited from Martijn's WoS) that only actual releases are stored, for released games. Only if a game was never released, then it stores the publisher that was behind it, although it's not really a "publisher" since it wasn't really "published".
Mixing information about real and imaginary releases for the same game would be confusing IMHO.
I'm trying to understand this so I can improve the contributions to the ZXDB, tell me if I'm wrong but I understand that:

Not a publisher:
A game developed in the '80/'90 just for fun, they didn't have any intention to publish the game, but they created an imaginary software house.
Same as above, but they have several titles developed.

A publisher:
A game developed in the '80/'90, they HAD intention to publish the game, but that never happened.
A modern developer that sells physical copies of their games.
A modern developer that distribute digital copies of their games on their own page.
A modern developer that distribute digital copies of their games but does not have any proper Internet webpage or identity.
Martijn's criteria (that we still follow at ZXDB) was much simpler:

A publisher: whoever is named responsible for releasing the game. It could be a real company, or a fantasy name chosen by someone, or the main developer(s). This information is based on whatever evidence can be obtained from inlay, cover, poster, website, or simply mentioned by the author(s). Whatever was declared by the owner of the game is a much more reliable source of information than any guesswork about the developer's intentions...
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by druellan »

Well, that fit exactly the example I posted above, so, yeah, I think I get it :D
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Einar Saukas
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Einar Saukas »

Yet another ZXDB release is available!

This time it's just a minor update, modifying the licensing structure to support multiple inspirations or tie-ins per title.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Einar Saukas »

Yet another ZXDB update was released!

Technically all game licenses are now stored in a new table called "relatedlicenses". The old columns "entries.license_id" and "entries.was_inspired" were kept for backward compatibility, but they will be removed in the next update. Therefore if you are running a website based on ZXDB, please modify it accordingly (just let me know if you require any assistance).
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by PeterJ »

Thanks [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention]

We will get SC updated on Monday evening.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Einar Saukas »

Another ZXDB update is available!

This update includes lots of RZX video links (thanks Daren!), lots of hi-res inlays (thanks Pavel!), lots of Spanish name corrections (thanks Juan!), lots of new interview links and several bug fixes.

Technically, old columns "entries.license_id" and "entries.was_inspired" were removed, as mentioned in the last update. Use the new table "relatedlicenses" instead. Also temporary tables "sscgc_authors" and "spex_magazines" were removed, since their content was finally integrated into other tables, as part of ZXDB continuous cleaning process.
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Einar Saukas wrote: Tue Feb 12, 2019 3:41 am Another ZXDB update is available!

[...] lots of hi-res inlays (thanks Pavel!), [...]
First of all, again, thanks for the good work!

Second, I hope [mention]PeterJ[/mention] includes a list of these new inlays provided by [mention]pavero[/mention] in the updates section, if possible. Thanks a lot!
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by pavero »

Juan F. Ramirez wrote: Tue Feb 12, 2019 6:41 am
First of all, again, thanks for the good work!

Second, I hope @PeterJ includes a list of these new inlays provided by @pavero in the updates section, if possible. Thanks a lot!
I will do it myself when ZXDB will be updated at SC. ;-)
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by PeterJ »

I will update the site on Friday. Apologies for the delay on this occasion.
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Ralf »

lots of hi-res inlays (thanks Pavel!)
By the way, are there any up to date rules/guidelines what is the preferred size for hi-res inlays? Or inlays in general?
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by pavero »

Ralf wrote: Tue Feb 12, 2019 12:13 pm
lots of hi-res inlays (thanks Pavel!)
By the way, are there any up to date rules/guidelines what is the preferred size for hi-res inlays? Or inlays in general?
It was a compromise due to size per file vs. hosting server capacity.

Rules are following:
single jewel case - 900 pixel height
double jewel case / small boxes - 1150 pixel height
big boxes - 1900 pixel height

(all inlays are resized fully automatically by PHP script)

Of couser I still have all inlays in their original size (300 or 600 dpi).

So maybe in the future there will be two links per every inlay - the second would be external link (on Archive.org) with files in their max resolutions.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Einar Saukas »

Yet another ZXDB update is available!

It contains lots of new inlays (thanks Pavero!) and many archive fixes reported in this forum.

Also technically, I'm now working on some internal improvements to the ZXDB schema (I will detail them later). In preparation for these upcoming changes, I have just renamed a couple tables and columns in ZXDB, as follows:
  • Table "relatedlinks" was renamed to "webrefs"
  • Table "origintypes" was renamed to "sourcetypes"
  • Column "downloads.origintype_id" was renamed to "downloads.sourcetype_id", and now it's nullable
  • Column "extras.origintype_id" was renamed to "extras.sourcetype_id", and now it's nullable
As usual, I have kept the old tables and columns, so websites based on ZXDB can update to this new ZXDB release without breaking anything, before making any changes. However if you have a website that uses these tables and columns, please make these changes ASAP, because old tables and columns will be removed in the next update.

Have fun!
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Ralf »

Keep the good work Einar !
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by PeterJ »

The latest ZXDB has now been installed. I will let [mention]pavero[/mention] add the details about the new scans. Thanks [mention]Einar Saukas[/mention]

As far as I'm aware there are no new titles in this release.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Einar Saukas »

A new ZXDB update is available!

It contains several new titles (thanks Dave!), several hires inlays from Proxima Software (thanks Pavel!), and several other fixes (thanks everybody!)

Technically table "aliases" now has a composite natural key, instead of artificial key "id". This is part of our ongoing process to improve the database structure. This "id" served no practical purpose in this table, so I doubt removing it will affect anybody.
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by druellan »

[mention]Einar Saukas[/mention] is the database tracking games sound capabilities, like Covox, Currah or General Sound? I see the Currah support mentioned sometimes on the comments, but there is still no structure to flag the entries based on the supported hardware, right?
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Einar Saukas »

druellan wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 12:33 pm @Einar Saukas is the database tracking games sound capabilities, like Covox, Currah or General Sound? I see the Currah support mentioned sometimes on the comments, but there is still no structure to flag the entries based on the supported hardware, right?
There's already a tag for "Currah Microspeech Support". Here's a list of games marked with this tag:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... up_id=1003

There are so few games supporting these other devices, that it's probably not worth it creating tags for them.
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Ralf »

There are a few games with General Sound support but they are mostly Russian mods of existing, standard games and they aren't present in ZXDB

You can check them here, General Sound emulation is supported by Spectaculator for example:
https://vtrd.in/gs.php
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by druellan »

Einar Saukas wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:42 pm There's already a tag for "Currah Microspeech Support". Here's a list of games marked with this tag:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... up_id=1003
There are so few games supporting these other devices, that it's probably not worth it creating tags for them.
Oh, I missed the Currah tag, great! About the games using the other interfaces, well, recently I was researching some MODs on TOSEC, and found that some of them have GS support just by chance, and I was thinking that if in the future we add them to the database, a way to indicate they have GS support could be interesting.
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Einar Saukas
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Re: New Database Model ZXDB

Post by Einar Saukas »

druellan wrote: Tue Feb 26, 2019 12:14 am
Einar Saukas wrote: Mon Feb 25, 2019 4:42 pm There's already a tag for "Currah Microspeech Support". Here's a list of games marked with this tag:
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... up_id=1003
There are so few games supporting these other devices, that it's probably not worth it creating tags for them.
Oh, I missed the Currah tag, great! About the games using the other interfaces, well, recently I was researching some MODs on TOSEC, and found that some of them have GS support just by chance, and I was thinking that if in the future we add them to the database, a way to indicate they have GS support could be interesting.
Sure!

Right now It seems we have only 3 games that support GS in ZXDB. A tag is not worth it. However if we later add more titles, please remind me to create a tag for this.
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