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ZX Game Book Update

andrew_rollingsandrew_rollings
edited November 2007 in Sinclair Miscellaneous
Hi all...

For various unrelated reasons the time I have for editing has been limited to weekends, but I'm still plugging away.

I have created 'final' pdf's of all but three of the chapters, and am going to make them available on my website for download.

If anyone sees any errors (apart from the fact I think I may have accidentally rendered them in 256 colours) then please let me know... I plan on having the final versions off to the printers in August. (Yes, yes I know... I'm late).

Anyway, if anyone wants to take a quick look at what's up there now, then use the following links. I'll be sending an email out to the mailing list and updating the website text later this week, so grab 'em while they're hot.

If anyone does find any errors, then please post them in this thread.

The links are:
http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1982-1983_mfk.pdf

http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1988_xjd.pdf

I'll probably be adding the others later in the week... I want to see the quality of feedback I receive from these first... The idea here is to make the book as 'perfect' as it can be, so good feedback will see me upload the other chapters for peer review...
Post edited by andrew_rollings on
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Comments

  • ArjunArjun
    edited July 2006
    Another good read Andrew.

    I did spot a few spelling errors here and there (I'll mail you the details tomorrow - it's 1 AM at the moment and time for bed). Also, a few design inconsistencies like some of the pages appear to have the mag review ratings missing, and in some pages lines seem to overlap each other. Plus, of course, I'm mortified at seeing games like Pitman Seven being featured not because they were bad, but because they were "fun to play"! I guess I can live with that though. ;) :D

    Shaping up nicely though!
    Zero - A modern Spectrum emulator for Windows.
    Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
  • andrew_rollingsandrew_rollings
    edited July 2006
    Arjun wrote:
    Another good read Andrew.

    I did spot a few spelling errors here and there (I'll mail you the details tomorrow - it's 1 AM at the moment and time for bed).
    Shaping up nicely though!
    Please post 'em to this thread too, so they don't get double-posted to me by other people...

    Thanks
    Andrew
  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited July 2006
    Cheers Andrew, I never knew 3D Tanx was Don Priestly's biggest hit. Mind you, it shouldn't surprise me that much as it was one of the Spectrum's first must-have games.

    On to the niggles:

    Was Football Manager ever compiled? The version I've got is 100% interpreted BASIC and I can't find any different ones on WoS.

    I don't think there ever was a third Lord of the Rings adventure planned. Shadows of Mordor covers both the remaining books, albeit only from Sam and Frodo's perspectives.

    Edit: Manic Miner comment removed.

    This came up in another thread, but Splat! wasn't the first game with speech by a good margin. Meteor Storm and The Chess Player (both released in 1982 at around the same time by Quiksilva) came before it.

    Stonkers isn't a turn based game. It actually runs in real-time for the most part, although the action is paused when you are giving orders. Some people even consider it the forerunner to the RTS genre typified by Command & Conquer.

    Anyway, that's all I can spot for the moment. Keep up the good work.
  • liamenikufesinliamenikufesin
    edited July 2006
    http://www.the-tipshop.co.uk/cgi-bin/info.pl?name=Manic%20Miner

    perhaps you should have looked it up :) it is 6031769
  • andrew_rollingsandrew_rollings
    edited July 2006
    liamenikufesin wrote:
    http://www.the-tipshop.co.uk/cgi-bin/info.pl?name=Manic%20Miner

    perhaps you should have looked it up :) it is 6031769

    Hehe... I thought so... That is one number I *do* know by heart...
  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited July 2006
    Sorry guys, I don't know what came over me there. :-?

    I think all the rest of the comments I made stand though.
  • Tom-CatTom-Cat
    edited July 2006
    Andrew: First off, let me say what a GREAT book this is. For all us Speccy games fans it is essential really, and when you see the one and only order from Slovenia - thats gonna be me.

    So far I had a quick look and since English is not my first language I am not really the one to look for typos and such. Content-wise is very accurate, what I did find wrong, though, was the 'Phantom Club' entry.

    Phantom Club is not Dusko's second game and he did not produce only three games for the ZX. Here is the list in (I hope correct) chronological order:

    No.1 (Bug-Byte) 1985
    Kung-Fu (Bug-Byte) 1985
    Movie (Imagine) 1986
    Play for your Life (Imagine) 1988
    Phantom Club (Ocean) 1988

    He *MIGHT* also be the author of "Sbugetti Junction" for Bug-Byte in 1986 but I am not sure :)

    Also he never actually worked in the UK, he made all his games in Yugoslavia and sent them to the UK. For MOVIE, however, he went there by plane (he only had money for a one way ticket, after he sold the game they also paid for his way back home) ;-) Nice story ...

    Oh and Movie was not from 1988 but from 1986 ;-)

    Best regards,
    Tomaz
  • DEATHDEATH
    edited July 2006
    Matt_B wrote:
    Sorry guys, I don't know what came over me there. :-?


    Mel the Bell? :D
    Oh bugger!<br>
  • MetalbrainMetalbrain
    edited July 2006
    A pair of details about the spanish games included in year 1988:

    "Sencillamente Sensacional" was said in Micromania 31, and that's January 1988, not February. (There is already a question mark there doubting the date)

    Mad Mix Game wasn't just subtitled "The Pepsi Challenge" in UK, also the first stage was totally removed and the graphics of main character were changed from a classic pacman to something horribly ugly, surely due to fear of lawsuits, so you got a worse version of the game.

    The book is looking great, keep up the good work!
  • sirclive1sirclive1
    edited July 2006
    Just to point out kung fu was 1984 - not 85. Oh and the book looks fab. It will take pride of place in my collection.
  • ArjunArjun
    edited July 2006
    andrew_rollings wrote:
    Please post 'em to this thread too, so they don't get double-posted to me by other people...

    Andrew, these are the errors I've come across so far in my detailed reading of the first 20 pages:

    1) Arcadia: 2nd last line
    semi-invisible = semi-visible?

    2) In the reviews for the Horace games:
    Terrorizes = Terrorises (UK English usage)?

    3) Ah Diddums: 6th para last line
    and the game because much more difficult = and the game became much more difficult?

    4)Android 2: 4th para 3rd line
    android had defeat.. = android had to defeat??

    5) Ant Attack: 2nd para 3rd line
    only revealed the day of? = only revealed on the day of??

    Will post more if I come across anymore errors.
    Zero - A modern Spectrum emulator for Windows.
    Bytes:Chuntey - Spectrum tech blog.
  • Tom-CatTom-Cat
    edited July 2006
    SirClive: I thought Kung-Fu was released January 1985, first reviewed in YS #11 February 1985. Couldn't find an "official" date anywhere...

    Edit: I see now that I was wrong, since it was reviewed in Crash in December 1984 :) Sorry.
  • miskoxmiskox
    edited July 2006
    Tom-Cat wrote:
    Andrew: First off, let me say what a GREAT book this is. For all us Speccy games fans it is essential really, and when you see the one and only order from Slovenia - thats gonna be me.
    ...snip...

    Tomaz

    I pre-ordered mine on 6th of October 2005 :)

    Saso
  • MonkeydunkMonkeydunk
    edited July 2006
    I just found this page a few mins ago and was so impressed by the sample proofs that I've pre-ordered the book. Great job keep it up.

    Monkeydunk
  • Tom-CatTom-Cat
    edited July 2006
    Saso: Ah-ha :)))) Hehe, I will order it when it comes available...
  • andrew_rollingsandrew_rollings
    edited July 2006
    Thanks everyone...

    I've made these changes, and will be updating and posting these and more chapters by the weekend...

    I really appreciate everyone pitching in with this final check... I want this book to be as error-free as possible :)

    Andrew
  • icabodicabod
    edited July 2006
    For a laugh we're all keeping quiet about the place where you've written about the "Sincalir Spetcrum" :D
  • Lee FogartyLee Fogarty
    edited July 2006
    icabod wrote:
    For a laugh we're all keeping quiet about the place where you've written about the "Sincalir Spetcrum" :D

    ..and the part in the into where Sir Clive says he much prefered the commode..
    My test signature
  • andrew_rollingsandrew_rollings
    edited July 2006
    icabod wrote:
    For a laugh we're all keeping quiet about the place where you've written about the "Sincalir Spetcrum" :D
    Dammit.... And I'd thought I'd find all the places where I mispelled "Sinclair's Scrotum".... Amazing how many pages you can dedicate to the subject... (in full colour)
  • NickHNickH
    edited July 2006
    So I take it things are getting a bit hairy?
  • andrew_rollingsandrew_rollings
    edited July 2006
    NickH wrote:
    So I take it things are getting a bit hairy?

    Um no... Have you seen his head lately???
  • andrew_rollingsandrew_rollings
    edited July 2006
    http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1982_jke.pdf

    http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1983_edw.pdf

    Here are the latest proofs... Hopefully they are the final versions... If anybody sees any more mistakes, please let me know...

    :)

    Thanks everyone.
  • ghbearmanghbearman
    edited July 2006
    Hi Andrew

    For some reason I can't download these updates.

    :o

    from Guy
  • andrew_rollingsandrew_rollings
    edited July 2006
    ghbearman wrote:
    Hi Andrew

    For some reason I can't download these updates.

    :o

    from Guy
    fixed...
    here are some more to look at too...


    http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1982_jke.pdf
    http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1983_edw.pdf

    http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1985_sif.pdf
    http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1986_jdl.pdf
    http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1987_usf.pdf
    http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1988_ylf.pdf
    http://www.zxgoldenyears.com/proofs/1989_xwg.pdf
  • ghbearmanghbearman
    edited July 2006
    Thank you Andrew

    * goes off to read *
  • chop983chop983
    edited July 2006
    Any chance of a 1984 Proof?
  • Tom-CatTom-Cat
    edited July 2006
    Great stuff here Andrew !

    Reading through the chapters now. So far only this struck my mind:

    - Apart from the games with huge characters that Don Priestly wrote in Popeye entry you forgot "Gregory Loses His Clock" :) I am not sure if that was the last one, but it was certainly one of the series...

    TC
  • psj3809psj3809
    edited July 2006
    Just a general question, sorry if its been asked before.

    What years are covered, 1982-1992 ? Also how many games in total are in the book ? Look to be a fair few !
  • Tom-CatTom-Cat
    edited July 2006
    Hmm, for the entry of the movie you write:

    "
    The author of this game, Dusko Dimitrijevic started on the way to getting M.O.V.I.E
    published by flying one-way to England in order to sell a couple of games he had
    written to Bug-Byte software. Unfortunately for him, they had already gone bust, but
    he was pointed in the direction of Ocean, who bought the games to use as
    promotional freebies. Before he left back to Yugoslavia, he spent some time with the
    Ocean programmers, in order to get a feel for what kind of games Ocean would want.
    Six months later, he returned with M.O.V.I.E.
    "

    In the beginning of this paragraph you said that the author first flew to UK to get MOVIE published, then in the end you say that six months later he returned with the MOVIE. A bit confusing, I am not sure if I understand this correctly or not... (it might just be that I am a bit tired)...
    There are a couple of syntax errors in there too (he had written TO Bug-Byte... again I might be wrong - thats why I don't like to proof read the grammatical stuff, since I am not English ;-) ). I might be wrong there too.
    Might be a good idea to go through this paragraph once more and re-write it ?
    I am pretty sure he went to the UK with MOVIE finished. He only had a one-way ticket, and, as you said, Imagine was bust when he arrived. Luckily Ocean bought the game and also payed for his trip back.
    I am not sure if the other info of him being in the UK before (for Bug-Byte stuff) or if he returned six months later.

    I might be just nit-picking (or whaterver) and confusing you. So I apologise in advance :)

    Best regards,
    Tomaz
  • Matt_BMatt_B
    edited July 2006
    Some nitpicks on the Chaos entry:

    It's set on the "plane of limbo" rather than the "planes of Chaos"

    As well as mounts, there are also the Shadow Form and Magic Wings spells that allow your wizard to move more than one square per turn.

    There's a typo: "ias" just before gooey blob.

    The lawful/chaotic nature of the battlefield only affects the chance of casting spells. I.e. law makes lawful spells become easier to cast. Hoever it doesn't affect the chances for chaotic or neutral spells. The same goes for chaos and chaotic spells.
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