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Hitch Hikers Guide etc

ADJBADJB
edited April 2012 in Infoseek database
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0006438

Original price was ?8.95, the ?16.95 in infoseek was for the Apple II (Disc) version

Was never released as a budget title

Year of release was 1983 (see all mag references) not 1985

Also listed on Wikipedia - Sort of, the link points to the general entry for HHGTTG which does not include any info on this particular game.
Post edited by ADJB on

Comments

  • grey keygrey key
    edited July 2010
    I have posted some information on the Supersoft version on another thread, I was told that the game you are talking about was copied directly from the supersoft one, even though it was banned and from what I remember, this is true.

    The Supersoft one is listed on WOS as MIA, I am fairly sure that it was only available for the Vic 20 with expansion pack and the C64. It was on the banned list on the day I bought it, they gave me the last four copies free, I think I paid ?14.99 for the first copy. They only had it available for the Vic 20, so it may not even have been on the C64 even, the confusion may have arisen because it was on the Vic. It was a really nice little adventure !
    Every time I read that the oldest person in the world has died, I have to do a quick check to see it isn't ME..........
  • mheidemheide
    edited July 2010
    The year has been corrected.
    The price comes from SPEX, and I can only manually override the 'main' price.

    The Wikipedia reference comes from the bit further down the page about video games (which also reports the C64 version).

    I'm very confused about the Supersoft version. What should I do with this record? Delete it? Have it shown as re-release for the Estuary version? The other way around?
  • mheidemheide
    edited July 2010
    A quick screenshot comparison between the Estuary version on WoS and the Supersoft version on GB64 indeed suggests it's the same game, but it lacks the year of publication.
    So, um, still confused as to what to do. :-(
  • ADJBADJB
    edited July 2010
    grey key wrote: »
    I was told that the game you are talking about was copied directly from the supersoft one, even though it was banned and from what I remember, this is true.

    I find this difficult to believe as assuming the Estuary program was a direct copy / port it can be seen to be on sale at least 2 months before the Supersoft program was banned. This is from the PCW/HCW classifieds.

    I am in the process of scanning a lot of the missing PCW's from around that time and may well be able to give a more exact date for the first advertisement.

    Thus if it was a copy / port the two must have been on sale at the same time and it could not have been "copied" after the Supersoft version was banned, It must have been copied before the ban.

    In fact it is quite viable that the Vic / C64 versions were copies of the Estuary program. It is quite reasonable that the Apple version was actually the original but I have no evidence for this.

    It does however appear that the C64 and Spectrum versions are the same or very close at least, as the solution for the C64 version as listed on CASA (http://www.solutionarchive.com/file/id,351/) appears to work in the early stages of the game.

    grey key wrote: »
    The Supersoft one is listed on WOS as MIA, I am fairly sure that it was only available for the Vic 20 with expansion pack and the C64. It was on the banned list on the day I bought it, they gave me the last four copies free, I think I paid ?14.99 for the first copy. They only had it available for the Vic 20, so it may not even have been on the C64 even, the confusion may have arisen because it was on the Vic. It was a really nice little adventure !


    This could well be true for the Supersoft release but the Estuary release was also available on the Apple II.

    I can find no evidence in any of the weekly mags or Your Computer for any of the Commodore releases. This isn't surprising and I would expect that if it was advertised in print at all the best chance of finding it would be in one of the specialist Commodore mags which I don't have access to any copies from the dates were talking about. To emphasise this I cannot find any adverts for any Supersoft products in the weekly's or YC prior to the ban so if they were advertising it must have been almost exclusively in the Commodore press at this time.

    Gamebase64 (http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=3551&d=18&h=0) shows the 64 version so I think its fair to assume that version exists.

    The C64 Supersoft game was re-released with changes to names / locations etc as "Cosmic Capers". http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=1692&d=18&h=0 . Again the solution appears to be identical.

    Despite there being solid evidence for a C64 version I can't find the Vic version anywhere so you could well have a gem there.

    Given the fact that these games are obviously the same basic program is it possible that ESP software evolved into Supersoft especially as I can't find any evidence for ESP existing in any form after the ban?.
  • mheidemheide
    edited July 2010
    D'oh. :oops:
    Just found the other thread.

    The Supersoft MIA version has thus been removed.
  • Battle BunnyBattle Bunny
    edited July 2010
    mheide wrote: »
    The year has been corrected.
    The price comes from SPEX, and I can only manually override the 'main' price.

    Hmm, I don't know why I did that. I'd usually only enter a non-Spectrum price for the few non-Spectrum titles included in the mags index, such as Origin's Ultima series or the Infocom adventures. Anyhoo, I've corrected the SPEX entry for the Estuary game to just have the single Spectrum price of ?8.95.
  • ghbearmanghbearman
    edited April 2012
    My copy of the Estuary title...has an inlay. Unfortunately I can't prove this at the moment; need to buy a camera.
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