A couple of previously unarchived Finnish games by Hedengren

[Skaepoy]

Okay, so here's what happened. I bought a random bunch of Spectrum tapes - some self-compiled C60's and some originals - and by an insane stroke of luck, found a game I had been looking for / wanting to play for the last 35 years: Golf, published by Oy Hedengren Ab in 1984 - this from one of the self-copied compilations. I managed to digitize that, and turn it into a fully working .tzx file, but unfortunately, I have no good scan of the cover art. However, I have made a composition of the cover art from a couple of less than optimal sources, and used that in my review of the game at FRGCB.
http://frgcb.blogspot.com/2021/12/frgr- ... -1985.html

The other game by Oy Hedengren Ab, Lotto, also from 1984, was an original, and I didn't even know about its existence until a couple of months ago. Obviously, the cover art and tape labels for that I can scan in high quality when I have more time for it, but the tape content itself was a bit strange. I couldn't get it loaded up until I transferred it a few times to my PC, but for some reason, I wasn't able to get a good, clean recording of the cassette - there was something decidedly odd about the way it was mastered. So yes, the .tzx I made got through the loading of it, but the game wouldn't boot up properly. I sent the recorded .wav to mr. Alessandro Grussu, who was able to clean it up, but the game still wouldn't boot up properly. It turns out, there is something wonky about the game code, so in order to get it working, some z80 wizard would need to take a look at the game code and fix the damn thing. If anyone's up for it, I have sent all the files I currently have of both Golf and Lotto to my Google Drive, to which you should be able to get using this link here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

I'll upload pictures of Lotto later on. I hope someone out there is able to make some sense of what's wrong with Lotto, and fix it. Thanks for any help in advance.

EDIT: High quality scan of the front cover for Lotto now in the Google Drive folder.

✓ PROCESSED

New ID created for Golf and Lotto. Appropriate files added. DH 5/3/23

[Bedazzle]

What exactly is incorrect?
Seems, graphics of letters with umlauts is ok, as far as I understand, words are ok too.

[R-Tape]

Nice one @Skaepoy. I've made a new ID for Golf and Lotto, and added the tzx, screens and Lotto cassette and inlay scans. I didn't add the Golf inlay because it's not the original one.

Normally when we see Golf games recovered from 1984 I expect a rehashed BASIC type in that was crap to begin with! Hedengren's version is actually pretty good.

I've added the Lotto tzx for now. I see what you mean - it's a bit borked isn't it! I'm having a look now without success. Hopefully I or someone will be able to fix it this week.

We're too late for Einar's latest ZXDB update, but all this should appear in the following one.

EDIT - I see someone^ didn't have a problem loading Lotto. What emulator is that in @Bedazzle?

[Ivanzx]

Nice to see you here, Skaepoy! Also, curious to see those 2 finnish games, incredible that the Speccy managed to reach so many different countries. It is crazy to think that at any given moment of 1984, there was a person in countless countries, typing up something for the Spectrum.

Also, as I have some connection to Finland, it is kind of nice to see these 2 games/programs.

@Skaepoy do you think the author may have more games that are unlisted?

[^m00h^]

There is no CLEAR operator, you should add it.

[Bedazzle]

EDIT - I see someone^ didn't have a problem loading Lotto. What emulator is that in @Bedazzle?

EmuzWin loaded without a problem, while Spectuculator and SpecEmu do not react to Enter keypresses.
And... Yes, there are interrupts disabled on code run!

[Skaepoy]

@Skaepoy do you think the author may have more games that are unlisted?

Not sure, but I have a vague recollection that Oy Hedengren Ab did publish at least one more title, can't remember what it was though. I'm sure it'll come up sooner or later.

[Skaepoy]

Nice one @Skaepoy. I've made a new ID for Golf and Lotto, and added the tzx, screens and Lotto cassette and inlay scans. I didn't add the Golf inlay because it's not the original one.

Normally when we see Golf games recovered from 1984 I expect a rehashed BASIC type in that was crap to begin with! Hedengren's version is actually pretty good.

I've added the Lotto tzx for now. I see what you mean - it's a bit borked isn't it! I'm having a look now without success. Hopefully I or someone will be able to fix it this week.

We're too late for Einar's latest ZXDB update, but all this should appear in the following one.

EDIT - I see someone^ didn't have a problem loading Lotto. What emulator is that in @Bedazzle?

Yeah I agree, I was a bit surprised when I saw how well it compared against other golf games of the time. Of course, it's still no Leaderboard, but for 1984, one of the better ones definitely.

My only Speccy emulator in use is Spectaculator, since it worked the best for me when I started doing the comparison blog, and it has worked well enough until now, so I didn't really expect the problem being with the emulator. I have yet to test out the .tzx on my two actual Spectrums to see if it works on real hardware. The tape wouldn't load up due to mastering problems. Might have to do that a bit later today, unless someone else beats me to it.

[Skaepoy]

Oh by the way, I didn't realize until now, that there are some new rules concerning preservation. I'll do proper full scans of the Lotto cover art later today.

[Skaepoy]

Real life gets in the way of hobbies, and I still haven't managed to scan the full covers for Lotto.

Well anyway, in the meantime, I found this Speccy bundle auction containing Golf and one more Hedengren item called "Kotikirjanpito", which is a home accounting program:

https://www.huuto.net/kohteet/sinclair- ... /578486822

I have no funds to buy such a package at the moment, but I thought to let you know if anyone's interested...

[Morkin]

I used to quite like some of those top-down Golf games.

Congrats on finally obtaining a copy to preserve @Skaepoy, I recall you asking about this on WoS about a decade ago.. Good things come to those who wait..!

[equinox]

The company Oy Hedengren AB still exists! (Perhaps the archive should link to their site?)

It was founded in 1918, and the comprehensive history page mentions a "boom period" 1978–1988 selling electrical appliances, though there is no mention of microcomputers until 1990.