How I find [CENSORED] game

[akeley]

It's referring to ZXDB being the largest Spectrum database in the world @akeley. You perhaps should have quoted a little bit more. What it says is 'powered by the open source ZXDB database - The largest ZX Spectrum database in the world!' We just use ZXDB as many sites do. We are not a database. ZXDB and this website are separate entities. This website just chooses not to include all titles from ZXDB in search results.

99.7% visitors to this page will be completely oblivious to these distinctions (only known to some insiders and a handful of people who read this and a few other threads) and understandably assume that SpectrumComputing does represent the largest ZX Spectrum database in the world. It mostly does, after all, and is rightfully the most well know and respected resource at the moment (even if WoS still tops it in SEO rankings)

WoS won't show you any titles post 2013. ZXDK is a better option. However you can't download anything from there. You can link to us from ZXDK and access any title that way. All titles are here, you just can't search for them.

To search both Zxinfo and WoS you need to know the actual title, there doesn't seem to be a searchable "adult" category or some such, unless I'm missing something? But WoS at least has the downloads. I can pull a list from Gamebase, btw, I'm just curious how it works regarding the web databases.
As an aside, I don't really see the point in keeping these entries here if they are invisible and also nerfed. If you're a worried about possible risk then they still are a part of your site and while it is rather unlikely somebody will act on it, it'd give them some ammo (and crazier things have happened over the last decade).

I've added the following to the home page: "Please note that you can't search for X-rated via this site. They are not omitted from ZXDB though, so we suggest you use a site like https://zxinfo.dk/ to search for such titles."

This is perfect, problem solved. Thank you.

[PeterJ]

@akeley,

99.7% visitors to this page will be completely oblivious to these distinctions

I think you are underestimating the audience. The text is very clear, and the majority of users will understand the difference between a website and a database..

Thanks for the aside. Perhaps it's best then that I ask zxdk to remove their links to SC.

The X category is just a flag on the entries table.

Have a good evening.

Thanks

[R-Tape]

This is perfect, problem solved. Thank you.

Amen. Hopefully we can leave it at that, for the sake of 261 entries with the adult flag.

[Timmy]

I don't live in the UK, but I understand that if you live in a country with an Online Safety Law, then it's better to self-censor, just in case?

For these things, it might be better to be safe than sorry.

[5MinuteRetro]

Some people would be offended by (and I know I give this example a lot), a game where the object is to hunt and kill homosexuals.

Honestly not trying to make light of any of this but… does this describe a real Spectrum game?!

[R-Tape]

Honestly not trying to make light of any of this but… does this describe a real Spectrum game?!

Yep. Sending you a PM.

[Ralf]

By the way, if you are after X-rated games, you can always check a copy of old WOS (current WOS is total trash)
and you'll find the proper link there.

https://worldofspectrum.net/archive/

It's not as actual as ZXDB but it's okay and most people would just look for Samantha Fox Strip Poker anyway Or not?

[dfzx]

I've added the following to the home page:

Please note that you can't search for X-rated via this site. They are not omitted from ZXDB though, so we suggest you use a site like https://zxinfo.dk/ to search for such titles.

Actually, what you've added to the home page says:

Please note that you can't search for X-rated via this site. They are not ommited from ZXDB though, so we sugget you use a site like https ://zxinfo.dk/ to search for such titles.



So, add what is probably a missing word, fix the two typos and make the zxinfo site a link?

Please note that you can't search for X-rated titles via this site. They are not omitted from ZXDB though, so we suggest you use a site like https://zxinfo.dk/ to search for such titles.

[PeterJ]

Thanks @dfzx,

I was in a bit of a rush! I obviously posted one version in the post, and an early draft on the front page. It's was a bit of a mess . It's all sorted now.

As a aside, I've mentioned previously that I see no reason for UK commercially released titles by mainstream companies (such as Martech) to be marked as 'X' in ZXDB. Maybe a good measure would be 'Was the game reviewed in Crash?'. Hopefully this will be changed in ZXDB at some point. These handful of titles are part of the commercial history of the Spectrum in the UK.

Finally, as Dave said last night the number of 'X' rated titles in the database is 261. There are a total of 40,876 entries in the database, so we are partially hiding 0.64% of the entries in ZXDB.

[firelord]

Many of CSSCGC submissions are racist and politically incorrect! At least this contest is safe for now*.

Spoiler

*One of them is not safe cause of a specific older contest submission. I believe he will soon be "accidentally" poisoned by plutonium radiation ...

[+3code]

Agree with PeterJ. It's a hobby and it would be stupid to endanger your job or curriculum for that thing. And almost all of these titles are very low quality; as a curiosity or for historical purposes, okay, we were all teenagers. I see no problem in removing them from the SC website, since they are in the database, someone can make a web with that purpose. I remember "Ke rulen los petas", a GAC ​​comic sci-fi commercial text adventure in Spanish that has some racist jokes about Jews and Nazis absolutely unpublishable today. But was a nice adventure, you can change between two protagonists, not a first class adventure but an interesting piece. So: some exceptions should be made. I thinks it's not about to be pro or anti political correctness. No one can choose the times were we live: adapt or die, it's easy. Tomorrow will a different day, as yesterday was too.

PS: "Ke rulen los petas" means "Pass me the joints", not sure how it's said in English.

PS2: There is a remake of the original: https://asvelin.itch.io/ke-rulen-los-petas-remake

[Einar Saukas]

As a aside, I've mentioned previously that I see no reason for UK commercially released titles by mainstream companies (such as Martech) to be marked as 'X' in ZXDB. Maybe a good measure would be 'Was the game reviewed in Crash?'. Hopefully this will be changed in ZXDB at some point. These handful of titles are part of the commercial history of the Spectrum in the UK.

I see no reason that a Crash review should affect the classification whether a certain game has x-rated content or not.

However we could open a discussion about the exact criteria for x-rated content. Perhaps mild nudity would be fine, as long as it doesn't show genitalia or sexual content? In this case, most strip poker games wouldn't be x-rated anymore (such as Samantha Fox). Their images are not much different than Phantomasa screens for instance...

What do you think?

[PeterJ]

I would prefer a small team to do it offline @Einar Saukas. Not another discussion please Einar......

There's probably only two or three titles. I mentioned about UK released titles from major publisher. Hence the comment about Crash (or any other mainstream UK Spectrum magazine).

[R-Tape]

What do you think?

I think we should review them privately*, sometime in January. Whenever these threads (regularly) pop up, not everyone appreciates Peter's understandable caution, or that it's important to tread carefully and not paint Peter into a corner.

I really think we should let this drop.

(People should have a look at zxinfo.dk, at the 261 adult entries, many of which are MIA electronic magazine, and see what you're not missing!)

*if anyone wants to help here, send us a PM

[catmeows]

(Because I have started it) Personally I think, the message "We are not showing <number> titles because.. " is allright for me. In my case, I was looking for Jmeno Ruze, which fetaures slightly obscene dialogs and a naked women of cca 32x32 pixels. However the reason why I was interested about the title is not lack of porn on internet but rather fact it is one of few point and click adventures on Spectrum. I was really upset because my picture of omniscient SC got some scratches. So I would like to apologize if I touched anyone, I don't live in UK and I have no idea how sensitive is public about low resolution porn there. Anyway, even in my country some parents can be very horrible beings deaf to any arguments, so I understand PeterJ angle of view.

[Stefan]

I was looking for Jmeno Ruze, which fetaures slightly obscene dialogs and a naked women of cca 32x32 pixels.

The guess the screen$ thread had better watch out!

[Lee Bee]

I think the change made to the homepage is highly satisfactory. Thanks for taking feedback on board.

Incidentally, anyone interested in exploring the subject of western censorship and offence may want to check out a refreshing documentary called "Offended" by Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting). May contain images some find offensive, especially viewers made of snow

[PeteProdge]

I couldn't find a way for zxinfo.dk to show those 261 titles, the interface doesn't seem to have 'adult' listed. I did type the name of a game I know for sure to be highly explicit, and saw [adult] in the filename. Searching for that in the general search only brings up two games.

Anyway, did a quick search in my TOSEC folder of ZX Spectrum games and had 438 results. (Albeit, lots of these are duplicates, like the same game in .tap, .z80, .tzx, .trd, .scl, that kinda thing.)

Still, I emphasise with PeterJ here. Ultimately, the technical owners of the website are first in the legal frontline when there's any trouble. Having been a webmaster for quite a few websites on subjects such as television history, I've had to face all kinds of threats, like the BPI sending an invoice because of some copyrighted music being available; some faded celebrity hinting of a physical threat because I didn't take down a forum member's rant about them; a banned forum member deploying a script to make multiple accounts accusing us all of being Nazis and perverts... I could go on, and this was before the era where social media really took off!

[PeterJ]

Hi @PeteProdge,

Thanks for the comments.

Our friends over at WoS.net have them (see link earlier in this thread). Note though that they only include data upto 2013

[Stefan]

Our friends over at WoS.net have them (see link earlier in this thread). Note though that they only include data upto 2013

worldofspectrum.net (not org) is also powered by zxdb:

[PeterJ]

It is @Stefan, but as mentioned they only include titles upto 2013. It doesn't look like they have updated their version of ZXDB for over a year, but that shouldn't make any difference when searching for old stuff. I believe their 'adult titles' page is based on an old one from WoS so shows fewer titles.

I suggest anyone that is that interested either downloads ZXDB or asks Thomas (site owner of zxdk) to add a filter.

[PeteProdge]

Hi @PeteProdge,

Thanks for the comments.

No probs! I'm still a webmaster for one of the sites, although things have gone very quiet these days when most people live their lives on Facebook/TikTok. Ah, the days of phpBB and PHP updates, crossing fingers that they wouldn't break the site's code.

Our friends over at WoS.net have them (see link earlier in this thread). Note though that they only include data upto 2013

I picked a few games at random this morning to have a go at them, thinking there'd be something amusing to make a YouTube video on, but, eeeugh...

Crappy old games can be a source of amusement, but there's a kind of crap that's not remotely entertaining. And that's what these games fall under.

One exception - there's an unofficial conversion of an excellent SNES game, in .TRD format, very well done. The game itself seems pretty much straight, nothing offensive I saw, but it's that title screen that's a digitised image of the kind of photo you'd have in a top shelf magazine. It has absolutely no relation to the game whatsoever, I guess it's the programmers being edgy. If someone hacked out that graphic, I'd happily recommend it, it's an excellent homebrew clone of a classic game.

[PeterJ]

Ah, the days of phpBB and PHP updates, crossing fingers that they wouldn't break the site's code.

Indeed! I learnt from experience to do a full backup first!

[Einar Saukas]

There's some mixed information here:

Site worldofspectrum.net is powered by ZXDB (properly credited) and it includes titles upto 2022. It has not updated their version of ZXDB for over a year.

Site worldofspectrum.org is powered by ZXDB (not credited) and it includes titles upto 2013. It's not updated.

[PeterJ]

@Einar Saukas,

I never made any mention of .org

The links to WoS.net earlier were to the archive pages (for getting listings of titles) which are only up to 2013 (or earlier) as they are taken from the old WoS. You are correct though that if using the infoseek search you can get titles up to 2022. It's a very basic search though, and you can't apply any filters.

We both know that WoS.org uses ZXDB but we should probably add that they deny this.