Little bugs in the database 2

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StooB
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by StooB »

Exploding Wall was published by Byte Back, not MC Lothlorien, who had stopped publishing their own titles in 1986:

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The £2.99 price should be moved to the Byte Back release.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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Gauntlet: The Deeper Dungeons should have the same Atari licence as the original Gauntlet.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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According to the adverts and inlay, Tynesoft's Superman - Man of Steel is licensed from First Star. However it's not a conversion of a First Star game like Superman - The Game was, so a new licence type is needed - "Rights Holder"?
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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Artic computing and Artic Computing Ltd should be merged.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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Gauntlet was not released in 1987 - it was the best selling game of 1986.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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Leader Board was released in 1987, not 1986. The earliest review is March 1987.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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StooB wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 5:13 pm Leader Board was released in 1987, not 1986. The earliest review is March 1987.
Not necessarily conclusive if it was cover date, March 1987... as that would mean the mag was out in February 1987... which, with lead in times for magazines, probably means the game was completed in 1986. (If they were reviewing a completed version ;) )
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Stefan »

StooB wrote: Sat Sep 07, 2019 3:57 pm Gauntlet was not released in 1987 - it was the best selling game of 1986.

The first magazine reviews are January 1987, zo I would-be say that the best selling game quote is a typo.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by 8BitAG »

Stefan wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:40 pm
StooB wrote: Sat Sep 07, 2019 3:57 pm Gauntlet was not released in 1987 - it was the best selling game of 1986.
The first magazine reviews are January 1987, zo I would-be say that the best selling game quote is a typo.
Sinclair User review was in the February 1987 issue, which was out January 18th 1987... so will have been written in about November 1986, I'm guessing. It was also reviewed in the C&VG January issue... I imagine that one came out in December 86. Reviews in magazines help with the dates, but they aren't always definite proof.

The "official release date" was meant to be December 1st 1986, from the Your Sinclair preview...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 234&page=9
...I imagine they were keen to get it out for Christmas. Presumably "best selling game of 1986" could include other formats.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by StooB »

8BitAG wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 6:20 pm
StooB wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 5:13 pm Leader Board was released in 1987, not 1986. The earliest review is March 1987.
Not necessarily conclusive if it was cover date, March 1987... as that would mean the mag was out in February 1987... which, with lead in times for magazines, probably means the game was completed in 1986. (If they were reviewing a completed version ;) )
The March review is MicroHobby, but the UK magazines all reviewed it for the April issues which would have been out in March 1987.

I don't think lead in times are relevant when it comes to US Gold though - they had enough control over the magazines to know exactly when their reviews would hit the streets, and as they effectively owned the distribution network too they had a huge influence on what shops like WHSmith and Boots would stock. It's very unlikely that US Gold or the retailers would try to sell an unreviewed golf game at Christmas in direct competition for shelf-space with Gauntlet.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Einar Saukas »

StooB wrote: Sat Sep 07, 2019 2:27 pm According to the adverts and inlay, Tynesoft's Superman - Man of Steel is licensed from First Star. However it's not a conversion of a First Star game like Superman - The Game was, so a new licence type is needed - "Rights Holder"?
I suppose they licensed the comics character Superman, instead of licensing a specific Superman game to be converted. Therefore it should have this kind of license:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5068

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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Einar Saukas wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2019 4:11 pm
StooB wrote: Sat Sep 07, 2019 2:27 pm According to the adverts and inlay, Tynesoft's Superman - Man of Steel is licensed from First Star. However it's not a conversion of a First Star game like Superman - The Game was, so a new licence type is needed - "Rights Holder"?
I suppose they licensed the comics character Superman, instead of licensing a specific Superman game to be converted. Therefore it should have this kind of license:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=5068
Yes, it's got the DC license, but it's also "published in UK and Europe under license from First Star Software Inc" too. First Star have some kind of "all Superman games" license.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by pavero »

Continental Circus - should be (probably) Virgin Games not Virgin Mastertronic as publisher
Double Dragon II: The Revenge - should be (probably) Virgin Games not Virgin Mastertronic as publisher
Gemini Wing - should be (probably) Virgin Games not Virgin Mastertronic as publisher
Dynamix - should be (probably) Mastertronic not Virgin Mastertronic as publisher

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/inlays_ ... 164&kind=1

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Stefan »

8BitAG wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 8:01 pm
Stefan wrote: Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:40 pm The first magazine reviews are January 1987, zo I would-be say that the best selling game quote is a typo.
Sinclair User review was in the February 1987 issue, which was out January 18th 1987... so will have been written in about November 1986, I'm guessing. It was also reviewed in the C&VG January issue... I imagine that one came out in December 86. Reviews in magazines help with the dates, but they aren't always definite proof.

The "official release date" was meant to be December 1st 1986, from the Your Sinclair preview...
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/mag.php ... 234&page=9
...I imagine they were keen to get it out for Christmas. Presumably "best selling game of 1986" could include other formats.
It's all a bit on the edge - the first advert in Your Sinclair is January 1987 - if it were released in 1986 then I would expect an ad in the December issue (and probably November as well) for Christmas sales - but instead Electric Dreams got in front with Dandy with a the Your Sinclair December cover, full page advert and two page feature - plus multiple full page adverts for other Electric Dreams titles - so they may have pushed US Gold out.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by 8BitAG »

Stefan wrote: Thu Sep 12, 2019 11:20 pm It's all a bit on the edge - the first advert in Your Sinclair is January 1987 - if it were released in 1986 then I would expect an ad in the December issue (and probably November as well) for Christmas sales - but instead Electric Dreams got in front with Dandy with a the Your Sinclair December cover, full page advert and two page feature - plus multiple full page adverts for other Electric Dreams titles - so they may have pushed US Gold out.
The first adverts for Gauntlet are in Sinclair User's December 1986 issue, which came out November 18th and Crash's December 1986 issue, which came out on November 20th 1986. There was an advert in Popular Computing Weekly 4th - 10th December 1986. Your Sinclair's January 1987 issue will have come out in December 1986.

With the official release date given as December 1st 1986, I don't see that there is enough evidence for a 1987 release date.
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Frankie »

About Colony - Softek

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 96&id=1013

This was published as a Type-In game in the Softek book The Spectrum Handbook by Tim Langdell page 73:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... id=2000356

However there are huge differences between the version online, and the version in the book. So therefore I decided to change the online listing to match the book listing, but quickly found out that the book listing is a huge mess, and just not good in any way. My guess is that the version online is a modified version still with a few text bugs, but a whole lot better that the listing in the book. On the SOFTEK start up screen, the book listing only say TM below SOFTEK, which I would think is TRADEMARK. But the online version has two more sets of letters added below TM, which are MR and LR. I suppose that are the initials of the modifiers, probably siblings with a surname starting with R.

I'm very sure this has never been released on tape, simply because it is to bad/simple to be able to sell, and due to the text bugs. It should be noted that its a:

Modified version of a Type-In game from book mentioned above.

Yeah, that's how I work. When I saw that game, and noticed that there were text bugs in the game, I immediately thought this can only be a Type-In, as no one would release it like that, and the detective work began :D

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by StooB »

Gauntlet II was not released in 1988, but for Christmas 1987, according to Ace Magazine (which also confirms that the compilation Solid Gold should also be 87 rather than 1988). Further confirmation in Your Sinclair - "out in time for Christmas"

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by StooB »

Harlequin by Mr Micro

Release date is currently 1985, but the loading screen shows 1984 and both adverts are from mid 1984. This Currah Speech advert suggests it was published in March 1984 when this copy of Micro Adventurer came out as it's not mentioned in the Currah advert from the previous month.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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Joystick Thunder isn't "bundled with a joystick", you have to send 99p postage & packing to claim the "free joystick" according to the sticker on the box.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by StooB »

Street Fighter

The second Kixx inlay, StreetFighter(Kixx)_2.jpg, has disappeared in the transfer from http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0009425&loadpics=3
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Einar Saukas »

StooB wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 11:48 am Street Fighter

The second Kixx inlay, StreetFighter(Kixx)_2.jpg, has disappeared in the transfer from http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0009425&loadpics=3
Good catch!

This file was moved out of the downloads list per [mention]pavero[/mention]'s request, because the Kixx inlay was replaced by a hi-res version:

Code: Select all

select file_link,comments from zxdb.extras where entry_id = 9425 and file_link like '%StreetFighter(Kixx)%';

/pub/sinclair/games-inlays/Rereleases/s/StreetFighter(Kixx).jpg    ** replaced by hires version **
/pub/sinclair/games-inlays/Rereleases/s/StreetFighter(Kixx)_2.jpg    ** replaced by hires version **
However nobody realized that Kixx actually released 2 different inlays, until you pointed it out. Now I'm moving this one back in...

How did you manage to find out a bug like this???
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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Einar Saukas wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 8:49 pm However nobody realized that Kixx actually released 2 different inlays, until you pointed it out. Now I'm moving this one back in...

How did you manage to find out a bug like this???
I didn't know there were 2 Kixx inlays either, someone just happened to mention its existence in one of the Facebook collectors groups so I checked if they were both here.

Einar Saukas wrote: Tue Sep 17, 2019 8:49 pm This file was moved out of the downloads list per @pavero's request, because the Kixx inlay was replaced by a hi-res version.
I will pay more attention to pavero's inlay updates!
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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Bedazzle »

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.p ... 6&id=12648

Max Iwamoto is from Kharkiv (Ukraine).

Maybe root of mistake is https://zxart.ee/eng/authors/m/max-iwamoto/
where his country is placed as Russia.

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

Post by Stefan »

Mark Strachan, cofounder of DoMark is not from NL, but from UK - https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/offi ... pointments

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Re: Little bugs in the database 2

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Stefan wrote: Thu Sep 19, 2019 5:39 am Mark Strachan, cofounder of DoMark is not from NL, but from UK - https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/offi ... pointments
Probably shouldn't have credits on Thunderceptor and Fast 'n' Furious as a member of Ernieware either.

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