An update to the site - yes, the site and not the database for a change :-) Don't expect too much though...
As suggested by Einar, there are now links to the following external sites: Infoseek, Spectrum Computing, ZXInfo, Spectrum2.0 and The Tip Shop. Thanks for those suggestions Einar!
The disclaimer that used to appear above every Your Sinclair review has been replaced with a generic disclaimer that appears above every single review. There's no point mentioning YSRNRY any longer as it's no longer available and the disclaimer really should have covered everything from day one anyway.
The Awards page that lists all Crash Smashes, Megagames, Classics, etc has been fixed. It was erroneously reporting some titles as awarded due to an old flag.
Ace is coming along nicely - 12 issues of 42 so far done. Taking longer to grab each one, but I've not helped myself by including the Predicted Interest Curve AND including the text/scores where there's some for the C64 or Amstrad for example.
One thing though: there are several Ace reviews that have been classed as a review by Infoseek/SPOT (I used their data to generate the necessary records that are then filled in) that are clearly not for the Speccy. For example, page 64 of Issue 8 is quite clearly an Amiga review of Gee Bee Air Rally. Infoseek has this listed as a review (http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0002000) but as you can see from the scan it is not. There's mention of a Speccy version in the Release Box and that's why I believe it's been classed as such. To me it should not be included as a Speccy review - what does everyone else think?
I supposed Spectrum players would still find these reviews interesting (some may still remember a few of them from old times), so it's nice to keep them catalogued. However they could be distinguished from Spectrum specific reviews with an special flag.
Technically, in SPOT/SPEX database, these reviews would be associated with a special feature, then displayed in WoS as "(Review - not Spectrum specific)" or perhaps "(Review- mostly another platform)" instead of just "(Review)". In ZXDB it's even easier, the same behavior is obtained simply associating these already existing reviews in table "magrefs" to a new entry in table "features".
If you implement this flag in ZXSR, just let me know and I will integrate it into ZXDB!
I supposed Spectrum players would still find these reviews interesting (some may still remember a few of them from old times), so it's nice to keep them catalogued. However they could be distinguished from Spectrum specific reviews with an special flag.
Technically, in SPOT/SPEX database, these reviews would be associated with a special feature, then displayed in WoS as "(Review - not Spectrum specific)" or perhaps "(Review- mostly another platform)" instead of just "(Review)". In ZXDB it's even easier, the same behavior is obtained simply associating these already existing reviews in table "magrefs" to a new entry in table "features".
If you implement this flag in ZXSR, just let me know and I will integrate it into ZXDB!
Thanks Einar. That's given me something to think about.
In the end I decided not to add any reviews that did not include any kind of Speccy evaluation - in a nutshell if there were some Speccy "scores" (graphics/audio/etc) then I've added it, regardless of if the actual text of the review is for another machine or it's ambiguous. For example the review text of The Real Ghostbusters could be for either the ST or Speccy.
I just noticed a small bug in ZXSR. Book "Over the Rainbow" is missing InfoseekID (it should be 2001486) and program "Monetor" has wrong InfoseekID (it should be 0029719 instead of 2001486).
Hey all. It is with deep regret that I'm going to have to announce the closure of the ZXSR website for the forseeable future - it will be gone sometime before the New Year.
In the New Year I will be starting a new job, well, contracting for the first time ever, which is frankly terrifying, and I won't be able to take advantage of the free hosting on my current employers web server. Well, I could, but at some point it would be taken down without any notification so I'm taking the decision to do it early.
I'll still be updating the database when I can as I don't want that to disappear - particularly as I'm in the middle of over 100 issues of C&VG. If your hosting a website that contains links to ZXSR I would advise removing them so there's no dead links.
However! I will be looking at alternative hosting eventually so it will be back using the same domain. This might not be for a while though as I'm going to be very, very busy with the new job so I won't actively be doing anything for a a few months at least.
Comments
As suggested by Einar, there are now links to the following external sites: Infoseek, Spectrum Computing, ZXInfo, Spectrum2.0 and The Tip Shop. Thanks for those suggestions Einar!
The disclaimer that used to appear above every Your Sinclair review has been replaced with a generic disclaimer that appears above every single review. There's no point mentioning YSRNRY any longer as it's no longer available and the disclaimer really should have covered everything from day one anyway.
The Awards page that lists all Crash Smashes, Megagames, Classics, etc has been fixed. It was erroneously reporting some titles as awarded due to an old flag.
Ace is coming along nicely - 12 issues of 42 so far done. Taking longer to grab each one, but I've not helped myself by including the Predicted Interest Curve AND including the text/scores where there's some for the C64 or Amstrad for example.
One thing though: there are several Ace reviews that have been classed as a review by Infoseek/SPOT (I used their data to generate the necessary records that are then filled in) that are clearly not for the Speccy. For example, page 64 of Issue 8 is quite clearly an Amiga review of Gee Bee Air Rally. Infoseek has this listed as a review (http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=0002000) but as you can see from the scan it is not. There's mention of a Speccy version in the Release Box and that's why I believe it's been classed as such. To me it should not be included as a Speccy review - what does everyone else think?
Technically, in SPOT/SPEX database, these reviews would be associated with a special feature, then displayed in WoS as "(Review - not Spectrum specific)" or perhaps "(Review- mostly another platform)" instead of just "(Review)". In ZXDB it's even easier, the same behavior is obtained simply associating these already existing reviews in table "magrefs" to a new entry in table "features".
If you implement this flag in ZXSR, just let me know and I will integrate it into ZXDB!
Thanks Einar. That's given me something to think about.
In the end I decided not to add any reviews that did not include any kind of Speccy evaluation - in a nutshell if there were some Speccy "scores" (graphics/audio/etc) then I've added it, regardless of if the actual text of the review is for another machine or it's ambiguous. For example the review text of The Real Ghostbusters could be for either the ST or Speccy.
I just noticed a small bug in ZXSR. Book "Over the Rainbow" is missing InfoseekID (it should be 2001486) and program "Monetor" has wrong InfoseekID (it should be 0029719 instead of 2001486).
Thanks for those Einar, I've made the adjustments.
In the New Year I will be starting a new job, well, contracting for the first time ever, which is frankly terrifying, and I won't be able to take advantage of the free hosting on my current employers web server. Well, I could, but at some point it would be taken down without any notification so I'm taking the decision to do it early.
I'll still be updating the database when I can as I don't want that to disappear - particularly as I'm in the middle of over 100 issues of C&VG. If your hosting a website that contains links to ZXSR I would advise removing them so there's no dead links.
However! I will be looking at alternative hosting eventually so it will be back using the same domain. This might not be for a while though as I'm going to be very, very busy with the new job so I won't actively be doing anything for a a few months at least.
Expect it to be back, eventually...