HELP WANTED: ZX81 "lost" files

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1024MAK
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HELP WANTED: ZX81 "lost" files

Post by 1024MAK »

Over on the forum at Spectrum Computing a member is asking for some help with improving the archive of ZX81 software.

Here is a copy of that post:
Einar Saukas wrote: Wed Aug 21, 2019 9:32 pm Among the data imported from Martijn's WoS years ago, there were thousands of "lost" game files. These are files stored in the archive but not associated to any product or company, therefore they could never be accessed from websites. I mentioned this problem a long time ago, when I started working on ZXDB.

Over the years, we have fixed most of them, with help from many contributors (especially Thomas). However there are still about 500 "lost" files left, most of them for the ZX81. The remaining "lost" files for the ZX81 are listed in this online spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

If anyone can help to identify the game link for at least a few of them, it will help a lot! For any row in the spreadsheet, this task will require the following steps:
  • Download the file from the provided link, then load the file in an emulator (if it's an archive) or simply open it (if it's image or text).
  • Find the corresponding game page in SpectrumComputing, then copy the link to column GAME.
  • In the same game page, look at section RELEASES to see if the game had more than one release. If so, try to identify the release that best matches this file, then put the corresponding number in column RE-RELEASE (number 0 means original release, 1 means 1st re-release, 2 means 2nd re-release, etc). If the file seems to apply to all releases (or if the game only had the original release), put 0.
The hardest part is to find the correct game page. Sometimes the same game seems to have multiple pages, but only one of them is correct. For instance if you search for "3D Monster Maze" you will find 4 pages, but only one of them is the actual ZX81 game (the other versions are a colorized mod for the Chroma Interface, and 2 ports for the ZX-Spectrum).

(Actually if you find 2 different game pages for exactly the same game, please let me know so I can fix it!)

If you want to volunteer, please let me know so I will enable editing permission for you. Even if you only have time to process a few rows from the spreadsheet, it will already help a lot.

Thanks!
Einar is not a member here, but I can supply contact details to anyone who wishes to help.

Also from the same thread:
Einar Saukas wrote: Thu Aug 22, 2019 10:22 pm On a related note, it would be nice to work closer to Sinclair ZX World in general. IIRC they don't have a proper archive for ZX81 programs (all released titles are simply posted in a very long thread). On the other side, ZXDB (and consequently sites like SpectrumComputing) already contains most ZX81 programs, books, and magazines, but we are lagging behind so it's still missing the most recent ZX81 releases. Everyone would benefit if we could join forces! Perhaps someone there would be interested on helping to add missing ZX81 content to ZXDB, so everyone would benefit from this information becoming easily accessible from several websites.
So if anyone wants to help, please let me know, either by replying in the thread below, or via PM.

Mark
ZX81 Variations
ZX81 Chip Pin-outs
ZX81 Video Transistor Buffer Amp

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XavSnap
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Re: HELP WANTED: ZX81 "lost" files

Post by XavSnap »

Hi,

:shock:

What about a CRC for each "p" file !

… using "ZxCollectorv.1.00" … for example. (VB5 DLL- Same "Xur"'s DLL)
http://dskcenter.free.fr/zxtools.html

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stefano
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Re: HELP WANTED: ZX81 "lost" files

Post by stefano »

AVVMARTE and others probably come from "SuperSinc", an Italian magazine.

http://zxspectrum.hal.varese.it/zx81.htm

..at bottom you can see three links including the correct references.
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Re: HELP WANTED: ZX81 "lost" files

Post by stefano »

http://zxspectrum.hal.varese.it/riviste.htm

.. some of the covers. The magazines came optionally with a cassette tape, ZX81 on one side, ZX Spectrum on the other side.
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1024MAK
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Re: HELP WANTED: ZX81 "lost" files

Post by 1024MAK »

Bump!

Mark
ZX81 Variations
ZX81 Chip Pin-outs
ZX81 Video Transistor Buffer Amp

:!: Standby alert :!:
There are four lights!
Step up to red alert. Sir, are you absolutely sure? It does mean changing the bulb :!:
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kolbeck
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Re: HELP WANTED: ZX81 "lost" files

Post by kolbeck »

XavSnap wrote: Fri Aug 23, 2019 4:11 pm Hi,

:shock:

What about a CRC for each "p" file !

… using "ZxCollectorv.1.00" … for example. (VB5 DLL- Same "Xur"'s DLL)
http://dskcenter.free.fr/zxtools.html

Image
Hi

Some time ago, we introduced md5hash on files in ZXDB - this makes it easier to identify identical files, and it also works across all platforms (Windows, Max Unix that is).

However - even if md5 are different, the actual software can still be the same. For example some files gives a warning in e.g. EO, but looks exactly the same as their counterpart not giving warnings. Some more investigations need to be done :-)

/Thomas
https://api.zxinfo.dk/v3/ - ZXDB API for developers
zxinfo-file-browser - Cross platform app to manage your files
https://zxinfo.dk - another ZXDB frontend
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