A suggestion about new games
I'm talking about "Brand New Games" (Isotopia, Daytona USA, Space Rocks...)
Don't you think they must be in a separate part in the archive (like Text Adventures, Educational, Demos, Utilities...) and not mixed with classic games?
Don't you think they must be in a separate part in the archive (like Text Adventures, Educational, Demos, Utilities...) and not mixed with classic games?
Post edited by JuanF. Ramirez on
Comments
Yes, you're right, but why do many groups exist like demos, educational, utilities, ...
I think these new games would be put in order better if an specific 'New Games'' group existed...
Sent off my platform game designer game ages ago and it never got submitted ! Its not that bad compared to some !
I think there's a place for that sort of categorisation, but not neccessarily as an actual archive category. Where would you draw the line? I'd say 1994 as that marked the lull between the living & resurrected Speccy scene, but it's pretty arbitrary and IMO anyway...
Better to make a separate webpage/site to catalogue all the 'new' software, maybe with links to reviews in ZXF / ZX Shed / the fansites, buy or download links, etc. I'm sure Martijn would link to such a thing if anyone was up for doing it.
It's occurred to me before that a Speccy fansite concentrating entirely on new software and hardware (i.e. no nostalgia content!) could have enough unique content to make it worth establishing. I even have a vague design in mind. But it won't be me doing it, not for the foreseeable future, as my life is currently monumentally busy (in a positive, exciting way) and my Speccy is packed away in the loft.
A smaller-scale variant on this idea might be a page of WoS itself, going on excitably and Google-accessibly about all the new software available.
https://twitter.com/bobsstuffgames
https://www.facebook.com/bobs.stuff
http://www.bobs-stuff.co.uk
That's sort of what we're doing with Oldschool Gaming, except that it's multi-format so we're always bloody playing catch up on the reviews and need more people. =-)
Clearly more people need to know (or be reminded) about Richard Gabor Tarjan's fantastic articles...
Agree, this is another thing that weakens the case for 'new games' to exist as a category in its own right, besides my librarian-like aversion to an inherently subjective classification...
I think a new-stuff-only Speccy site, done well, wouldn't have that negative effect - it would promote the new material and hopefully encourage people to investigate the Spectrum scene...
Of course, taken in isolation such a site might promote modern ZX software as a little hobby/niche... but of course it wouldn't exist in isolation. When I said the site would be "worth establishing", I was thinking there's already many excellent sites out there covering nostalgia, reviews, demo scene, cataloguing hardware, and so on. If someone had the urge to do a Spectrum site, they'd really need a new angle to make it a) worth their time writing, b) worth everyone's time reading. So my contention was pragmatic, rather than trying to make a hard distinction between old and new games.
Also, any scene exposure that doesn't have the whole legality / distribution / emulation / licence thingy hanging over it can only be a good thing, IMHO.
EDIT: And gasman, that article looks epic and action-packed. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.
Agree with DanForth, great link, cheers for that. Shall have a good read of it now.
It's easy to miss new soft in quite large old games archive. And the most important thing which keep retro-machines alive is new soft.
interesting point on keeping retro machines alive, though the bulk of people's initial interest seems to be directed at classics. I suppose new software is the way to keep them interested when they say "very nice, but what now?"
I think the current classifications should stay, but perhaps there's a way of drawing attention to the WoS advanced search? I don't think a "show me the new games" button is the way to go, if only because it opens the floodgates for potentially zillions (Ok dozens) of other custom buttons; also there's the debate about what year would constitute the cutoff date anyway. But maybe a little paragraph saying something like "Do you know Spectrum software is still being published? You can refine the search options such as publication date _here_..."
At the risk of repeating myself, singling out new software for attention is a good idea but it should be a consciousness-raising exercise, not a cataloguing one.
Yes actually I do work in a library :D
Do think thought if there was a seperate 1994-xxxx category it would be good for a lot of people though. Even though i have friends who play Speccy games theyre never aware of any latest games which come out unless i tell them
1.- 'Classic Games': in order to preserve
2.- 'Current Games': to keep retro scene alive
...and people go straight to what are interested in.
Actually, no, I don't think so... being published more recently doesn't stop something from being a Game, Text Adventure, Utility or what have you.
It would also have to be a rather arbitrary line to draw. What's a classic? You can't determine that from the year, since a lot of dire games were published in any year, and apart from commercial games there's homegrown software (small ads, Freeware, PD) since 1982. Similarly, look at the recent games from, say, Jonathan Cauldwell. Hardly rubbish... :-)
If one wants to be kept up to date with additions, there's the What's New page (with subscription facility).
WoS's mission is to archive anything and everything for the Spectrum. As you can see, no date is mentioned.
Of course anybody can set up a new site dedicated to new material. That's what the Internet is all about, isn't it? I won't stop you! :lol:
Because it is a Spectrum title and we store anything and everything (except when the file is broken or comes off the Crap Games Competition (and even then, some of these gems are in the archive too)).
Unless it was broken, I have no immediate answer. It should be added. Could you please remind me of the title and possibly the upload date? Was it a TZX file?
I've submitted the tzx again. Always one of my ambitions to have a game listed on WOS !
I dont think I will submit the controversial 'Beachy Head Simulator' though !
Necros.
here you go, matey! Hopefuly I got the details right (the game itself to appear on the next archive update).
Why not? You know you want to.
fucking hell it sounds like the renaisance or someat "the late classic period"
i think all speccy games should go in the games archive
Thank you, come again!
Skruppy
:evil:
It can be annoying looking for new games, but I don't think they should be seperated...
I mean, where would it stop?? We'd soon be splitting games into categories like "Games that are flip-screen" or " Games that feature a toilet in them somewhere" & stuff....
And that would just get out of hand....
Therefore we could do with a bit of awareness-raising. Could be WoS subpages with Martijn's approval, or could work equally well / better as independent sites which link to the relevant WoS files. We're basically talking about a 'portal' here, something which takes the existing, accurate database information and presents slices of it in interesting & informative ways - while not affecting the data itself with such wobbly issues as "what is classic" and "what's the year that divides old from new". Such things are a vicious scourge upon the very soul of an Information Dude such as myself :)
Personally I'd love to see a Spanish Spectrum portal. I am UK born and raised, and always found the Dinamic games very distinctive and pleasantly different to the UK based games. My first exposure was the YS covermount Dustin, which I got hooked by and played to completion. With the benefit of the internet + hindsight I can see the Spanish ZX scene is (and likely was back then) as important and lively as the British ZX scene. I'd love to know where to start to find out more and play a few more key titles, but searching through something like that through *any* database is doomed to randomness and failure. Humans are way better at this sort of expert-system pattern-matching than even the smartest computer. I basically need a "guide" to Spanish Speccy games. The fact that WoS doesn't do this isn't a criticism either - it's not *supposed* to do stuff like that. Reports != data.
Similarly I think a guide website to the modern Speccy scene would slot in well to the existing cloud of Speccy sites. I've read a few posts on these forums over the last couple years, saying "I want to launch a Spectrum website and was looking for ideas" - these sites need a new angle to be worth everyone's time. I think a modern ZX site would fill such a unexploited niche.
I'd do it myself if I had the time... I do have the web design/development skills but I also have a full-time job and a young family... plus my Spectrum gear is boxed away... anyway I wouldn't want to disappoint the community by promising things I couldn't currently deliver. But if anyone is reading this, who feels the siren call of Spectrum Fansites and is looking for a hook: I implore thee, concentrate on (say) games from 2000 on. It will give you and your site focus, and help let the world know the Speccy is far from dead, and what all the awesomely talented mob who keep it alive are up to.
The Speccy spanish portal: speccy.org