Several software titles, maybe interesting for preservation purposes?

edited July 2014 in MIA/STP/SDP
I don't know if this is an appropriate post in the appropriate forum, but this is my question.

I have about 40 ZX Spectrum games and other software on cassette tape, that I want to get rid of. The most logical thing for me to do is to put them on a Dutch website for second hand trading, Marktplaats.nl.

But I wondered if some of these titles are interesting for preservation purposes, for instance because they might be not included yet in the WoS archive, or in an incomplete state. If so, I would be happy to donate the relevant tapes for preservation purposes.

I do not have much time, so I didn't want to check every game myself in the WoS archive. So I thought, maybe I can list them here, so people who are interested can have a look at it. Or is there something else I can do (on the condition that it doesn't cost me too much time)?

Here's the list:

Action Biker
Agent X
Alien Destroyer
American Football
Bridge Player 2
Crazy Golf
Disco Dan
Dk?tronics Invaders, Maziacs, Jumbly, Zig-zag
Dk?tronics Programmable Joystick Software
Doomdark?s Revenge
Fighting Warrior
Formula One Simulator
Home Computer Software for the ZX Spectrum
Horizons (3x)
Hotch potch
H.U.R.G.
Jet Pac (2x)
Leer in Basic programmeren op de Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Mantronix / Red Door
MCN: Doe mee aan de wedstrijd
Micro instructie snelstart cassette
Minicalc
Oh mummy
Penetrator
Pogo
Punchy
Redhawk
Return of the Po[...]es! / Untouchables (Mega tape 21)
Schiphol Luchtverkeersleider
Scuba Dive
Sinclair ZX Spectrum+ Cassette Bij Handleiding
Sir Lancelot (2x)
Sports Hero
The Flying Formula
The Neverending Story
The Way of the Exploding Fist (2x)
T.L.L. (Tornado Low Level)
Trashman
Treasure Island
Universal Hero
Wham! The Music Box
William Wobbler
Your Sinclair Four Pack No.2: Rugby/Empire/Pool/Piggy Tales
Your Sinclair Four Pack No.3: Sweevo?s World/Shadow of the Beast/Krakout/Shockway Rider
Post edited by ZXHistory on
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Comments

  • edited April 2014
    I dont have a lot of time to check now title by title, but looks like that the british titles are not rare but the dutch titles could be not preserved! it would be worth to check them in infoseek ;)
  • edited April 2014
    I checked the dutch titles, and besides Schiphol, none of them are preserved!
    There is even a very strange case with Micro Instructie, as the inlay is preserved in WoS but there is no entry for the game!! :o

    So if they were preserved, it would be great!
  • edited April 2014
    Thanx, Ivanzx, your comments inspired me to go through the list and check all items on the WoS archive. Wasn't so much work after all. Here are my results:

    The English titles are indeed well preserved (two are distribution denied). The only exception is Red Door - which is only non-TZX.

    Leer in Basic programmeren op de Sinclair ZX Spectrum (by Wolters Software):
    This is the dutch version of 'Learn BASIC Programming on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum' (by Logic 3). It's a large box containing a book and two tapes. The English version is well documented, but there is no reference to this Dutch version.

    MCN: Doe mee aan de wedstrijd:
    The MCN, Microcomputer Club Nederland, was a well known marketing campaign by the Dutch stores V&D and Dixons. This is a cassette with an adventure on it, and you could join a competition by solving the adventure. At least, that's what it says on the insert, I haven't LOADed it yet. I couldn't find a reference to this on WoS.

    Micro instructie snelstart cassette:
    As Ivanzx pointed out, there is only an inlay (jpg) on WoS. Actually, this is not a program tape but an audio tape. It's an audio book (' "luister"-gebruiksaanwijzing', it says on the cover). I haven't listened to it yet, maybe there are programs on it as well.

    Minicalc (by Aackosoft Software):
    This a Dutch spreadsheet. It's in TZX on WoS, but there is no cassette inlay, and there are no scanned instructions. I have here the complete package including a 12-page manual.

    Schiphol Luchtverkeersleider (by MCN Software):
    The Dutch version of: Heathrow International Air Traffic Control (by Hewson Consultants). It is mentioned under it's English counterpart, and the inlay cover is scanned. But the Dutch instructions are not scanned. And there is no TAP or TZX of the dutch version, which, according to the inlay text, was adapted to the situation of Schiphol (actually, I doubt that it is different, it might just be completely the same, but I haven't tried out yet).


    So having figured this out so far, what would be the next step to get these titles preserved? Can I send the tapes to someone?
  • edited April 2014
    Thanks a lot for checking! :)

    Yes, indeed, there is a preservation team, where you can send the tapes. Usually they are around here and participate quite often in the f?rums, so lets give them another day to check the thread, although I think they will find about it son and contact you :)
  • edited April 2014
    ZXHistory wrote: »
    Micro instructie snelstart cassette:
    As Ivanzx pointed out, there is only an inlay (jpg) on WoS. Actually, this is not a program tape but an audio tape. It's an audio book (' "luister"-gebruiksaanwijzing', it says on the cover). I haven't listened to it yet, maybe there are programs on it as well.

    The preservation team also preserves music tapes that comes with games so I'd say this can very well be preserved as a MP3 file.

    (I'm more interested in the text adventure game but they're all worth preserving.)
  • edited April 2014
    I loaded the MCN Competition text adventure, and it works! :)
    I'm not good at text adventures. :(

    It's copyright Hewson Consultants 1984. I looked in the WoS archive to see if I could find an english equivalent, but I couldn't. It might be written for the occasion.
  • edited April 2014
    ZXHistory wrote: »
    I loaded the MCN Competition text adventure, and it works! :)
    I'm not good at text adventures. :(

    It's copyright Hewson Consultants 1984. I looked in the WoS archive to see if I could find an english equivalent, but I couldn't. It might be written for the occasion.

    Isnt it one of these? :

    http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0006286

    http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0006839

    Otherwise it would be a huge surprise!
  • edited April 2014
    I've found it in the archive, and it's a MIA.

    http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0009847

    Also, found a picture of the c64 version on ebay, and it shows "copyright 1984 radarsoft" on the tape. But the spectrum version could be different though.

    Anyway, worth preserving. :) Thanks in advance.

    Can you compare this with the screenshot of the C64 version?
    http://www.gb64.com/game.php?id=3736



    (I only think this because the C64 version contained that game, but it could be that they used a different game for the Spec.)
  • edited April 2014
    It's none of the suggested adventures. It's a very very simple plain text adventure (no graphics), just a couple of pages of BASIC, which I somehow managed to BREAK in to, although that obviously shouldn't be possible.
    It starts out with something like a ZX Spectrum in one room, a cat in another, and cat food in the kitchen. If you don't feed the cat, it'll eat the power cable to the Spectrum. Further on in the game, you can end up in jail somehow. At the end you'll find a code that you had to send in.
  • edited April 2014
    Wow, then its really surprising that there is a text adventure, only in dutch made by Hewson... It would be nice to have it preserved and try to find out the mystery there ;)
  • edited April 2014
    I'm afraid I won't add anything really valuable to the thread but would ljust like to say "Thanks!" for the MIAs :)

    Maybe somebody from Netherlands could help you with preservation? It wouldn't make much sense if the tapes had to travel all around the Europe ;)
  • edited April 2014
    Ralf wrote: »
    Maybe somebody from Netherlands could help you with preservation? It wouldn't make much sense if the tapes had to travel all around the Europe ;)
    I'm not sure about that. Nowadays only Ben and I are on the forum and while I think we both have the equipment to do it (to be honest I'm not even sure if mine still works), I have no idea how to (yet).
  • edited April 2014
    No reply from some Preservation Team member yet, so...

    Of course I could do some scanning of manuals, covers, etc. myself. But to whom do I send the files to get them archived? Also, I'm not going to scan the full 200+ pages of the basic programming course :(

    I can probably make some .tzx files as well. My current laptop can't do it (lousy soundcard), but I'll buy a new one in a couple of weeks (months?), so then it won't be a problem.

    But still, isn't there a physical archive as well, somewhere I can send these tapes to?

    Anyway, I'd rather send the tapes to someone who is more into the ins and outs of preservation, than to give it a try myself.
  • edited April 2014
    Maybe you could create .wav files and place them here? Even with your current sound card :) Then people, even me, would try to convert them to tape images? Using some filtering can make a lot of improvement.
  • edited April 2014
    Hi,
    ZXHistory wrote:
    No reply from some Preservation Team member yet, so...

    First, my sincere apologies for a so late reply.

    You have some ways to choose from. And of course you can send the tapes to one of us if you like. From a start point this is the less desired choice, mainly due to packing and sending the tapes for twice, and also to the money expenses involved. The preservation members are all a bit far from you (I'm Spain based, as an example).

    As Ralf says, also you could try to dump wav files for yourself, if you like to. For sure we could try to properly convert them to TZX files. Give us a shout if you want to know more about it.

    Anyway, if you still want to send your tapes away, I guess you could send to me the stuff pending for preservation. As a warning, I can't say for sure if I could sort your tapes as quick as I would like, sorry. It is expected my free time will shorten a bit in the near future.

    Cheers,
    Jose.
  • edited May 2014
    I suppose the easiest way is that I do the conversion to tzx and the scanning of the additional material myself. I've already started to do so.

    Is there a way to upload the files? I couldn't find an option to attach them to forum posts. Alternatively, I'll put them on my own web space, and place the link here. I'm afraid I can't keep them there forever, though.

    Next post will be the files concerning 'Doe mee aan de wedstrijd'. The others will follow. As mentioned before, the only thing I probably won't do is scan the entire manual of 'Leer programmeren in BASIC', unless I can find a book scanner somewhere.

    Then again, I won't keep these tapes myself. If there's anyone, preferably in The Netherlands, who would like to archive them (physically), I'd be happy to send them.
  • edited May 2014
    Here's the first set of files. WAV's and TZX's of 'Doe mee aan de wedstrijd', by MCN ((c) Hewson Consultants 1984).

    Cassette inlay scans and TZX files only:

    http://akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/Doe%20mee%20aan%20de%20wedstrijd.zip

    Cassette inlay scans, TZX files, and WAV's (8 bit mono):

    http://akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/Doe%20mee%20aan%20de%20wedstrijd%20(incl%20WAVs).zip

    WAV's were made using Windows Soundrecorder, TZX's using MakeTZX.

    If these files are OK this way, I'll proceed with the other tapes the same way.
  • edited May 2014
    Hi,

    First, thank you very much for your work, it is very welcome! :-)
    ZXHistory wrote:
    Is there a way to upload the files? I couldn't find an option to attach them to forum posts. Alternatively, I'll put them on my own web space, and place the link here. I'm afraid I can't keep them there forever, though.

    I just downloaded and send it to WOS member team. Alternatively, you could upload them to WOS anonymous FTP (ftp.worldofspectrum.org, folder /pub/sinclair/incoming) and then post a commentary using the upload form (www.worldofspectrum.org/upload.html). Unfortunately, this way will result on only the WOS maintenance team will be able to enjoy your uploads. Anyway, do as it better suits your needs.
    ZXHistory wrote:
    If these files are OK this way, I'll proceed with the other tapes the same way.

    All the work is superb as you've done :-). Thanks again!

    Cheers,
    Jose.
  • edited May 2014
    I made a translation in English of all the Dutch words I could find in the TZX file.

    Maybe it's of use to people who want to play the game but don't know Dutch.

    Here is the link:

    http://akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/Doe%20mee%20aan%20de%20wedstrijd%20Dutch-English.txt

    I've also added it to the zip files in the previous post.
  • edited May 2014
    Thank you for the upload. This is very rare indeed.

    I will try it out when I have more time, but it's special that you've uncovered something that's not even in the database before.

    Also it's from Hewson??? Unbelievable that they wrote something in Dutch.

    Also it's funny that most of it is in basic and you can BREAK out of it. Almost like they've made an mistake. (It's a mistake for sure.)
  • edited May 2014
    I just uploaded a zip file to the WoS ftp server with files concerning Schiphol Luchtverkeersleider.

    You can download it here:

    akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/SchipholLuchtverkeersleider.zip

    'Schiphol Luchtverkeersleider' is the Dutch version of 'Heathrow International Air Traffic Control'. It was translated to Dutch and adapted to the situation of Schiphol Airport (Schiphol is also the B-side on the updated English version, but then of course in English).
    There are two tzx files in this zip file, side 1 and 2, which seem to be identical.
    The zip file also contains scans of the Dutch instructions (in 4 jpg files).
    On the WoS archive there is only a scan of the cover, not of the instructions, and only a tzx file of the English version, not this Dutch version.
  • edited May 2014
    I have just uploaded some scans concerning Minicalc by Aackosoft. Not very spectacular, but I'll put a link to the zipfile here as well anyway:

    http://akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/Minicalc.zip

    In the zip file are scans of the cassette inlay (or rather the cover of the book like case), and the manual. Both are missing from the WoS archive entry of Minicalc ( http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0015567 ). A TZX file is already archived, so I didn't include one in this zip file, also because the quality of my tape is very bad.
    Minicalc seems to be pretty identical to Aackocalc. They share the same code: 221/36s. Only Aackocalc not only has a dutch manual, but also a french one. The dutch manual of Aackocalc seems identical to this manual of Minicalc.
  • edited May 2014
    I have uploaded two mp3's (side A and side B) of Micro Instructie Snelstart Cassette to the WoS FTP server. For those interested, it can also be downloaded here:

    http://akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/MicroInstructieSnelstart.zip

    There is an inlay scan of this cassette tape in the WoS archive: ftp://ftp.worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/music/bonustracks/MicroInstructieSnelstartCassette.jpg , but there is no recording yet.

    Micro Instructie Snelstart Cassette is an audio cassette that contains an (dutch spoken) introductory course into working with and programming the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
    It's copyright Micro Instructie, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, july 1983, produced for Compac, Kortenhoef, the Dutch importer of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.

    The recordings are not completely clean, there is a noise in the background, introduced by my sound card. But at the moment it's the best I can do.
  • edited May 2014
    I've just uploaded to the WoS ftp server a zip file concerning "Leer in Basic programmeren op de Sinclair ZX Spectrum". It's also available here:

    http://akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/LeerInBasicProgrammeren.zip

    This was the Dutch re-release of "Learn BASIC Programming on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum" by Andrew & Veronica Colin, published by Logic-3 in 1984.
    WoS entry: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek.cgi?regexp=^Learn+BASIC+Programming+on+the+Sinclair+ZX+Spectrum$&pub=^Logic+3$&loadpics=3

    It's full title is "Leer in Basic programmeren op de Sinclair ZX Spectrum", and it was translated and edited by Ton van Veen and Hugo Maier. It was published on the Wolters Software label by Wolters-Noordhoff in 1984. It is a box containing a 208 page A4 sized manual and two cassette tapes with Basic programs.

    In the zip file are included: four tzx files of the two cassette tapes, and an excerpt (pdf) of the manual: front and back, first pages including contents and introduction, and a few pages of the last chapter. I found it too elaborate to scan the entire manual.
  • edited May 2014
    I have a tape with Mantronix on side A and Red Door on side B. Both are in the WoS archive, but Red Door is not archived in tzx format. So I tried to tzx Red Door. Unfortunately, that didn't work. Either because the tape is not good enough, or because a special loading scheme was used. I don't know. So I decided to upload the wav file instead. Maybe someone else can make something out of it.

    Here's a copy: http://akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/RedDoor.zip

    On the tape is written: A MANTRONIX / B RED DOOR / PROBE / TARTAN SOFTWARE / (c) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PROBE & TARTAN SOFTWARE / 48K/128K SPECTRUM / 2 complete games!!

    This was the last upload. The rest of the tapes listed in the opening post are already well archived.
  • edited May 2014
    Hi ZXHistory,

    Thank you very much for all the work preserving this stuff, and many thanks also for linking it here for the people. Both are highly appreciated!

    Cheers,
    Jose.
  • edited May 2014
    ZXHistory wrote: »
    I have a tape with Mantronix on side A and Red Door on side B. Both are in the WoS archive, but Red Door is not archived in tzx format. So I tried to tzx Red Door. Unfortunately, that didn't work. Either because the tape is not good enough, or because a special loading scheme was used. I don't know. So I decided to upload the wav file instead. Maybe someone else can make something out of it.

    Here's a copy: http://akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/RedDoor.zip

    On the tape is written: A MANTRONIX / B RED DOOR / PROBE / TARTAN SOFTWARE / (c) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED PROBE & TARTAN SOFTWARE / 48K/128K SPECTRUM / 2 complete games!!

    This was the last upload. The rest of the tapes listed in the opening post are already well archived.

    I guess it's not kept in TZX format because it wasn't ever released on it's own. It was always part of a compillation of titles (like yours).

    Isn't yours the YS issue 41: Smash Tape 17 ? It's preserved in TZX format, with a file containing both sides / titles.
    If not, can you shed some more light on the tape itself (photos / scans), and possibly the inlay also, please?
  • edited May 2014
    Isn't yours the YS issue 41: Smash Tape 17 ?

    Yup! I suppose it is! I overlooked this one when searching the WoS archive.

    Though it doesn't say 'Your Sinclair' or 'Smash Tape' on the cassette tape itself. And I don't have a cassette inlay. But still, I guess this must be the same tape.

    Here's a scan of the tape itself:

    http://akhdj.home.xs4all.nl/Spectrum/MantronixRedDoor.jpg
  • edited May 2014
    Hi,

    Yes, it is as lfaria pointed out, this is the YS covertape, so no more work is needed around this. Thanks to both :-)

    Cheers,
    Jose.
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