New category of "commercial" games
Hi Martijn,
I was thinking about an idea which I already commented, but in a rawer way before.
Its about these games that we know were released commercially, but not in the ordinary way, but in mail order way.
Do you think it would be possible to add this category, to separate the games which were released in general shops, computer shops and so on from the ones which were only released and therefore available by mail order?? (I have a big quantity of these games from Spain catallogued, basically the homebrew text adventures)
I was thinking about an idea which I already commented, but in a rawer way before.
Its about these games that we know were released commercially, but not in the ordinary way, but in mail order way.
Do you think it would be possible to add this category, to separate the games which were released in general shops, computer shops and so on from the ones which were only released and therefore available by mail order?? (I have a big quantity of these games from Spain catallogued, basically the homebrew text adventures)
Post edited by Ivanzx on
<a href="http://rincondelspectrum.blogspot.de/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://rincondelspectrum.blogspot.de/</a>;
Comments
So many entries in the database, for titles I know were available in the shops like WH Smiths, have magazine adverts where the companies were also selling them by mail order. The two distribution methods weren't mutually exclusive during the lifetime of the Spectrum. Certainly not in the UK anyway.
Well, in those cases we would have to use the category that was the first to happen. As a release, and re-release. To my experience with the spanish market, there wont be many cases, but it could be that in the UK is more complicated?
Big name titles, such as Football Manager, fall into both categories (commercial mail order and commercial retail) and make any delineation pretty difficult and ultimately a little meaningless.
I can understand, a little, your desire to demote titles like home grown adventures from the commercial category but I really don't see the point or how it can be done either accurately or comprehensively.
Personally, those games which, like football manager, were released in both ways, I would catalogue them as commercial; and only those which were released exclusively via mail would be tagged as "mail released" type...
Anyway, a better solution would be to provide this sort of detail about the actual software companies in some sort of bio rather than completely have to re-evaluate the status of every game in the database.
Well, even if its a big task, we have been doing similar stuff, like, for example, checking hundred games to determine if there were differences between 48 and 128k versions. It took some time, but with the help of several people is something that can be done.
Moreover, I dont think we have to reevaluate the status of all the games, I even think that most of these games are quite known for some people (mostly homebrew adventures and late years spectrum releases). I would say that 95% of the archive wouldnt even have to be evaluate...
Late years Spectrum releases might be easy to evaluate but I don't think early Spectrum titles would.
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek.cgi?regexp=^Centipede$&pub=^DK%27Tronics+Ltd$&loadpics=3
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek.cgi?regexp=^Games+Tape+1$&pub=^Gilsoft+International$&loadpics=3
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek.cgi?regexp=^Bomber$&pub=^Llamasoft$&loadpics=3
I would much rather get proper listings for all titles for which the publication method is entirely unknown (2,384 titles, or 10% of the database!).
The options are: Commercial, Freeware, Public Domain, GPL, Creative Commons or Rental (or type-in, compilation or covertape) - all of the values you can search for in the advanced engine.
I'll set the 2 you mention to Commercial, thanks!
edit: plus, Super Golf was also published for the C64.
Yyyyyy, what's the difference? ;) And why so many categories?
Spectrum programs were either sold for money or they were some amateur attempt done for fun.
In case of software that has never been sold legal things are mostly unspoken. Some teenager wrote a game, showed it to a few friends, his cassette was recovered 25 years later. What's the licence? :)
The various suggested changes have been made.
That doesn't fit into either category you mention, Ralf.
The various possible values have clearly specified legal implications.
They determine what you can do with the software, from 'just copy it for free, author retains the copyright' (Freeware) to 'whatever you want, including selling it as your own work' (Public Domain).
That would be 'unknown', which is what started my question. :-)
I'd also like to see to a searchable option like "non-commercial" that covers everything other than "commercial" and "unknown". Note that if it's too much work than just disregard my request. :)
Games List 2016 - Games List 2015 - Games List 2014