Little bugs in the database 4

[Rorthron]

Marble Madness Deluxe Edition (1986)

The only review for this specific release is Your Sinclair's review in May 1987.

There is also a very clear "Copyright 1987, John F Cain" in the instructions. Also, Music by Consult Computer Systems, Cover artwork by Bill Scolding.

✓ Reviewed

The same cover is used for Marble Madness: The Construction Set, so the Bill Scolding cover credit should be added there, too.

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/3 ... le_Madness

Incidentally the published titles of both games seem to be Marble Madness: The Construction Set (1986) and Marble Madness: The Game (1987). These titles are listed as aliases, but should probaby be the main titles.

✓ Reviewed

[StooB]

That's the 'Concept' part of 'Design/Concept'.

I disagree. It's kinda like saying that every game submitted to this contest should credit the organizer for "design/concept" because he has chosen the theme "bike games".

No, it's a completely different situation. How many "bike games" have there been before 2021? How many games let you take control of a Harrier Jump Jet and bomb the Argentinians before Harrier Attack in 1983?

You're ignoring the fact that the unique ability of the Harrier to take off and land vertically on an aircraft carrier is part of the gameplay, and you're ignoring the popularity of the Harrier in the UK in 1983 where it had just helped win us a war which directly contributed to the success of the game.

MIke Richardson says Harrier Attack was Robert White's idea. Ron Jeffs says it was Robert White's idea.

Here, Robert White himself says

"I had done the spec for Harrier Attack so I got a couple of guys to join me."

In Retro Gamer 11, Robert White says

"Harrier Attack was my idea and it was a crackingly good idea because basically what all kids wanted to do was take off in a harrier and bomb everything.”.

In ZX Computing February 84 it says:

"Robert supplied all his programmers with suitable machinery and briefed them with his current game idea - an aircraft arcade game which he called Harrier Attack"

Crediting the concept of the game to Ron Jeffs rather than Robert White is simply incorrect.

[Juan F. Ramirez]

The Boss (Peaksoft, 1984):

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6 ... m/The_Boss

The year of the Alternative re-release is unknown, but in the scanned instructions a '(c) 1987' message appears.

✓ Reviewed

[StooB]

The Boss (Peaksoft, 1984):

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/6 ... m/The_Boss

The year of the Alternative re-release is unknown, but in the scanned instructions a '(c) 1987' message appears.

Yes, it was a new entry in the budget charts in Sinclair User December 1987.

[Einar Saukas]

I disagree. It's kinda like saying that every game submitted to this contest should credit the organizer for "design/concept" because he has chosen the theme "bike games".

No, it's a completely different situation. How many "bike games" have there been before 2021? How many games let you take control of a Harrier Jump Jet and bomb the Argentinians before Harrier Attack in 1983?

I don't think it matters.

What if the contest theme asked for wingsuit flying instead of bike? Should everyone credit the contest organizer for game design/concept in this case? AFAIK there are no wingsuit flying games for the Spectrum yet.

MIke Richardson says Harrier Attack was Robert White's idea. Ron Jeffs says it was Robert White's idea.

I'm not denying it was Robert's idea. My point is that he only provided a basic idea, not a design or concept. In their own words: “Robert explained his idea and it was quite primitive really. You basically took off in your plane and got shot at, and you shot back, and that was it.”

However I agree this is a grey area. There's also the fact that both authors mentioned Robert's participation, albeit small. So here's my suggestion: let's credit both Robert and Ron for design/concept, and add a note clarifying each one's participation. OK?

[StooB]

I'm not denying it was Robert's idea. My point is that he only provided a basic idea, not a design or concept. In their own words: “Robert explained his idea and it was quite primitive really. You basically took off in your plane and got shot at, and you shot back, and that was it.”

"Idea" and "concept" are the same thing. You seem to have a different definition of the word "concept" to everyone else!

But regardless, the game is primitive - it was 1983. If you take out Robert's concept of using a "Harrier" to do the "attacking" then it's nothing but a Scramble clone.

However I agree this is a grey area. There's also the fact that both authors mentioned Robert's participation, albeit small. So here's my suggestion: let's credit both Robert and Ron for design/concept, and add a note clarifying each one's participation. OK?

Yes, that gives credit where it's due, so that's fine!

✓ Reviewed

[Frankie]

Is there a reason why there are 3 Profisoft in the database? I suppose all of them are the German Profisoft

[druellan]

However I agree this is a grey area. There's also the fact that both authors mentioned Robert's participation, albeit small. So here's my suggestion: let's credit both Robert and Ron for design/concept, and add a note clarifying each one's participation. OK?

For sure I'm going to add some of the quotes provided here in the entry, so, yes, definitely is going to happen Thanks guys!

✓ Reviewed

[Stu]

Xecutor

There's a type-in hack for this in Microhobby #168 - 1988/4 p68

✓ Reviewed

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Chain Reaction by Durell:

https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/8 ... n_Reaction

The release year is 1987, but in the available advert it says:"release date: 25th january 1988"

✓ Reviewed

[StooB]

Star Trader

The white cover version is for Spectrum and Commodore 64 so should be marked as featuring Multi Machine Medium.

✓ Reviewed

[Stu]

Adventures on the Spectrum

There's a review in The Games Machine #28 - 1990/3 p86

✓ Reviewed

[Stu]

Striker Manager has Amiga and Atari ST versions. The Shaw Brothers' website confirms that they're the same game.

✓ Reviewed

[Stu]

Not sure if this is a ZXDB issue or site issue, but the screenshot for Hollywood Featuring Batman & The Untouchables is looking a bit, uh, weird.

✓ Reviewed

[StooB]

The missing year for the Classic Conflicts re-releases of Battle for Midway and Theatre Europe is 1987 - reported in Popular Computing Weekly August 1987.

✓ Reviewed

[StooB]

Mind Stretchers
The Triple Pack

These two are actually the same compilation. The Triple Pack should be deleted and its reviews, price and release year should be moved onto MInd Stretchers. The name "Triple Pack" comes from the Crash review, SU called it "Leisure Genius Compilation" and YS called it "Monopoly, Cluedo, Scrabble".

✓ Reviewed

[Juan F. Ramirez]

Sabre Wulf, Underwurlde, Knight Lore, Pentagram, Mire Mare.

In their entries, when the game series are shown, the title is 'Titles in Sabre Wulf series'.

Sorry for being too geek, but I think the proper name of the series should be 'Sabreman', not 'Sabre Wulf'.

✓ Reviewed

[Einar Saukas]

Not sure if this is a ZXDB issue or site issue, but the screenshot for Hollywood Featuring Batman & The Untouchables is looking a bit, uh, weird.

This is a site issue.

There's a thread here about these problems. Could you please report it there? Thanks!

✓ Reviewed

[PeterJ]

Please do not report new bug fixes here. Instead use Little bugs in the database 5. Thank you.

[druellan]

The page for In Search of Angels will probably need a bit of work too, at some point...
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.

I'm looking at all the versions stored there and almost every one is different: different font (two different graphic fonts among the system one) and also, some of them have a "help" command, and others does not. The Z80 has the "help" command corrupted, but since it is trying to do something I bet is related to the versions having that command.
So, based on all this, I think we can sort the files like this:

1. InSearchOfAngelsV1.tap.zip - system font - no help - V1
2. InSearchOfAngels(alternate-Side1).tzx.zip - system font - no help - V1
3. InSearchOfAngels(different).tzx.zip - special font 1 - no help - V2
4. InSearchOfAngels(alternate2).tzx.zip - special font 1 - no help - V2
5. InSearchOfAngels.tzx.zip - special font 2 - help - V3
6. InSearchOfAngels(G.I.Games).tzx.zip 2 - special font - help - V3

[druellan]

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.

I think the Forward Software screen is displayed because the original Artic release has no loading screen. The loader in the TAP file seems to be a pirated one.

[druellan]

Bill the Kid (Codemasters/Virgin Mastertronic)
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.

This is an interesting one, it is not unusual for artists to sell the art to different companies, so we MIGHT have an explanation for this, BUT looking at the art itself, seems that there is a signature in the middle with a '91 year (https://www.mobygames.com/images/covers ... -cover.jpg) not 100% sure, the text is so small, but if this is case, since the Codemasters game is from 1989, we can completely discard this advert.

[druellan]

According to the April issues of C&VG, ZX Computing and Your Sinclair, the Adventure Writers Handbook was sold directly by Incentive for £1.25.

There doesn't appear to be any evidence of it also being supplied via the Home Computer Club - it definitely wasn't in my copy at the time.

I was looking in to this, and yeah, couldn't find any indication for the "free handbook", but, I've found the Home Computer Club hosted a competition, and some copies distributed by them included a card announcing that. I wonder if they also distributed the handbook for free on that ocasion or perhaps later. In any way, I'm going to add that fact that the handbook can be bought for £1.25.

[druellan]

No, I think the current DB policy is for them to be listed under the same entry. I generally agree with the decision in these sorts of cases; although I have argued differently for games where the two versions/editions of the adventures are much more different.

The PAW and DAAD versions in this case are actually very similar; and they both were developed from the original C64 Quilled version. The three generations of "Gilsoft" tools share common DNA.

In this particular case I think worth to add it as an independent entry, the game is basically the same, but there are a lot of internal changes:
Renamed as "Hibernated 1: Director's Cut"
Platform is Spectrum +3 disk only, and needs the CP/M OS to work.
Parser is now DAAD instead of PAW.
This version was re-ported to other platforms, but a lot of new systems were added.

[druellan]

So, I think we can conclude that 3D Labyrinth might have been written in 1983, but it must have been released in 1984+

I think you're right, but the thing is: we are really not sure about the publication date for any of those games since the inlays/instructions have no dates, so, before opening a pandora's box with this, I think we can remove the date from 3D Labyrinth alone, as an indication we know the actual one might be wrong.