| Posted By
Gunness
on 2010-05-26
08:08:23
|  Plus/4 original adventures
Hi,
I'm webmaster of The Classic Adventures Solution Archive (CASA), which has dealt with solutions, maps and such for all 8-bit and 16-bit formats for quite some time. Recently I was able to revamp the site so that it now also features information on the various adventure games.
I'm trying to add information to the admitted slim Plus/4 section of my site. Therefore I'm looking for a list of adventure games that were published for the Plus/4. I've browsed through the games list on this site, but it includes quite a lot of unofficial conversions, which are not featured on my site.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Regards,
Jacob Gunness
solutionarchive.com
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2010-05-26
10:23:13
| Re: Plus/4 original adventures
Hey there,
If you're a player, and want to find a solution for a Plus/4 game, you're in luck! All adventure games with their solutions are listed in a single place (I'm sure you found it in the main nav).
That is the list of published games for the Plus/4. Sure, some of them were not published by a software company, but rather an individual. If you were looking for commercial games vs. amateur games, we do have that piece of info. Just click any game, and you get all the details about it, the "Distribution" field is what you'd need. However, games like Mélyûr (for which I have just created the first solution, took a week  ) are also freeware - though not a conversion. Then you have further gray areas with games like Church Of Death, which is an original work, but got published by a software company, but-but it's based on another game - so you might call it an unofficial conversion.
My point is, your criteria seems arbitrary to me. We only have 300 odd games, not that much. I guess the list is there, you can just go through it and decide what you want to include and what you don't. Perhaps if you could clarify exactly what you need, I could write a query for you and give you the results.
Although I'm not sure how it serves the players not to list some games. Maybe you're not maintaining your site for players? (We've had similar issues with the database in general, but the conclusion always was - if it exists, include it. Heck, even if it doesn't exists we include it )
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Posted By
Gunness
on 2010-05-27
03:51:52
| Re: Plus/4 original adventures
Hi, and thanks for the reply and the suggestions!
>My point is, your criteria seems arbitrary to me. We only have 300 odd games, not that
>much. I guess the list is there, you can just go through it and decide what you want to
>include and what you don't. Perhaps if you could clarify exactly what you need, I could
>write a query for you and give you the results.
I'd rather not come off as lazy here, but as my aim is to cover all 8-bit and 16-bit platforms, there's an awful lot of ground to cover (Spectrum and C64 give me around 3,500 games, and that just two platforms). Hence I'm just looking for some shortcuts once in a while 
>Although I'm not sure how it serves the players not to list some games. Maybe you're >not maintaining your site for players?
My aim is twofold - first and foremost to cater for players, but also to catalogue the history of the adventure genre. That's why I try to include games in any language, however obscure - but only original releases, whether they're commercial or freeware. Homegrown games are just as welcome as the professional titles, as long as they were intended to be released on a given platform.
Back in the 80's, various games were "hacked" to make them work on different platforms than they were initially released on. Some oldies have been remade in various modern systems (Inform, TADS etc.). That's great for users of those systems, but I feel that it would clutter the accuracy of the information if I were to include it.
But I do realise that some players might find this annoying.
If people need a solution or whatever, they can still look it up, whether it's listed for they platform or not.
I know there are grey areas, even when it comes to what types of games to include (do Choose Your Own Adventure qualify? What about joystick controlled games with text commands. It's complicated ) So I'm just trying the best I can.
All the best,
Jacob
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Posted By
Lavina
on 2010-05-27
07:49:55
 | Re: Plus/4 original adventures
Anyone who have finished my adventure game Csabo just mentioned above (Mélyűr, or its's translated version Deep Space) please raise your hands.
Commodore Világ (Hungarian mag) covered my previous games but not this one, AFAICR.
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Posted By
Gunness
on 2010-05-27
14:19:56
| Re: Plus/4 original adventures
Hi Csabo,
I didn't write this very clearly, but in response to:
>Perhaps if you could clarify exactly what you need, I could write a query for you and
>give you the results.
I would be very grateful for your assistance, if I've defined my needs suitably well.
Regards,
Jacob
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2010-05-27
21:02:27
| Re: Plus/4 original adventures
(Raises hand!)
I got that (about the query part). Tonight I wrote a query and emailed it to you, hopefully it should be easy to sort through and add to your database.
Two things to note: on your site, Arrow of Death 2 is listed for our platform. We only know of Pigmy's conversion (Arrow of Death 2), oddly there's no sign of an original commercial release, so as far as we know this does not exist. Second is The Wizard Of Akyrz (listed without "The" on your site): it seems like only the tapes exist, but they contain another game (see the our details page).
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Posted By
Gunness
on 2010-05-28
03:44:23
| Re: Plus/4 original adventures
Thanks, this it just what I needed. Greatly appreciated! For instance, I wasn't aware of the fact that the early Infocom titles were released on the Plus/4.
Also thanks for the corrections regarding the Mysterious Adventures. As for the good Wizard, he seems to circulate under various names. If you look at the cassette cover in your archive, they can't even decide on a single format whether to call the game The Wizard of Akyrz or The Wizard Akyrz.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2010-05-28
14:01:38
| Re: Plus/4 original adventures
Yes, that naming problem is present on the C16 tape as well. On the side flap it's "The Wizard Of Akyrz", on the front there's no "of". But that's nothing compared to putting the wrong game on the tape... It boggles my mind! How could something like that happen?
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Posted By
Gunness
on 2010-05-30
10:58:02
| Re: Plus/4 original adventures
Yeah, that's definitely quality assurance of the highest order  I don't think I've come across a similar slip-up before.
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