| Posted By
NPI
on 2023-06-20
14:02:15
|  Additional search feature
Hello,
Can a search feature be implemented so that you can browse either original software only or derived software only? Or to tag the titles as original or derived?
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2023-06-20
14:44:18
| Re: Additional search feature
Hi there,
Could you clarify this a bit? In my mind, "search" and "browse" are quite distinct  Are you trying to search for something specific?
We do make this distinction; e.g. Xenon Wars is "derived". You can see that it's marked with "Original version: Arean 3000" on the page. The only place where this is used is the Hall Of Fame currently; we only list the originals.
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Posted By
NPI
on 2023-06-20
14:55:00
| Re: Additional search feature
First of all thanks for your reply
To clarify what I meant:
If I generate i.e. this list: https://plus4world.powweb.com/sl/1 can I see which games are originals and which ones are derives so that I don't have to click on each game's link? As a separate column or search feature. If that's possible to implement.
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2023-06-21
21:50:54
| Re: Additional search feature
Okay, for that specific list (and that one only), there's now an additional column. It's not great, but it's a start. I thought about it for a bit, and I have tons of ideas on how this could be better (e.g. customizable list of columns, etc); but those things take effort and time
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Posted By
NPI
on 2023-06-22
10:44:36
| Re: Additional search feature
Thanks for adding this new feature
I don't want to spam the forums, but I need to know what is the difference between Commercial/TA and Commercial/PD?
Also I have seen some things that I think are mistakes, like Blackjack (it said it appears on a compilation but It's a standalone game in the scans)
https://plus4world.powweb.com/software/Blackjack
One other thing, Courbois is notorious for releasing hacks as their own games like Airplane Lander (which is Flight Simulator C16), but it is not marked as derived.
Also some of the titles marked "As Compilation" are either PD or Coverdisks. Maybe this should be noted too.
Well that's all from me for now. Anyway, this website is impressive with all this content for an old computer.
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Posted By
JamesC
on 2023-06-22
23:53:44
| Re: Additional search feature
The difference between Commercial/TA and Commercial/PD is a bit fuzzy. Please refer to this post.
Many games have been published several times, in several forms, in different countries and in different languages. Since we have discovered these variations over time, we sometimes have multiple entries for the same game -- and other times, one entry for a game that lists multiple distributions.
In your first example, Blackjack was originally released by Melbourne House as a standalone game. Melbourne House republished it as part of a compilation, and licensed it to Graphic Game SA for republication as a standalone game in Argentina. Along the way, some Italian companies stole this game (Italian law did not respect software copyrights at the time) and republished it in their own compilations, which is why we list the Italian publications as derivatives of the original.
In your second example, Air Plane Lander is noted to be the same as Flight Simulator C16. However, if we look at the Language field, Air Plane Lander is in Dutch where Flight Simulator C16 is in English. When the same software is released in different languages, seperate entries in our database make it easier for people to find it in the language they prefer.
What may have been published for sale in one country as a compilation, may have later been given away in another country as public domain. Again, this is a reflection of different countries' copyright laws at the time.
Please understand that this site has been collecting and archiving software for over two decades, and all of what you see here has been done by volunteers. Many of us have copied our software collections to electronic TAP, PRG, and D64 files so that others can download it, dozens of us have purchased software from eBay or other websites so that this site can host a copy of it. We have contributed photos of our packaging, tapes, and disks; we have scoured magazines for reviews, type-in programs, and advertisements.
*No single person has correlated or supervised our individual contributions to this site for over 20 years -- and no single person is responsible for correcting any errors, omissions, or duplications.* If you believe you have found an error, post on the forum (as you have done) ... but please offer something to document why you believe it is in error. If you have a tape or disk showing a different publisher than we list here, please link us to a photo of your tape or disk. If you have a package or manual showing an earlier publication year, please link us to a photo of that package or manual. If you have an advertisement showing a different language than we are aware of, please link us to a photo of that advertisement. Help us understand why you believe this site is in error.
It may also be helpful to search this forum for discussions of any titles, authors, or distributions you believe to be listed here in error. Over the years, we have discussed (and occasionally debated!) different ways to present the information we have collected, and reading those forum threads may help you understand why our data may be presented inconsistently. [Spoiler: sometimes these differences are due to the preferences of the person entering that information.]
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Posted By
Csabo
on 2023-06-23
08:42:10
| Re: Additional search feature
Thank you for that detailed answer James, I completely forgot that I talked about the TA/PD thing before.
Just a few minor things to add:
NPI, you're not spamming the forum There isn't that much activity around here nowadays, but even if there was, talking about the site in general, or editing is not only "allowed", I think it's necessary (so that things are clear, and the site can improve).
Those old BASIC games, oh boy, we spent so much time trying to sort them out. Since they are so easy to copy and modify, there are tons of versions. Specifically for Courbois, a lot of times we can't tell if they A) took a type-in game and just translated it to Dutch or B) took a C64 program a "ported" it to Plus/4 (and then of course that C64 original can also be a copy of a copy).
Let me just give you one example: take a look at the notes about the versions for Paratrooper (Compute!). That note kept changing as we found more and more versions of this game (we couldn't be sure which was a derivative of the other). The checksum in the original finally gave away that the type-in was the original (as there are vestiges of this in all other versions). That comment (as of this writing) still says that the Dutch version is from an unknown source, apparently, that was before we received all those Courbois cassettes.
My point: collecting all this information is a never-ending job, there's some things that we can probably never get right, and we can rarely say "everything is now 100% correct" (for some individual games, maybe, but not about the entire collection )
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Posted By
NPI
on 2023-06-23
17:30:06
| Re: Additional search feature
Ok, thanks for the explanations.
And I agree, the "grey area" of computer games is huge. Nobody has a clear definition for it. IMO they are mostly bootlegs. And oh boy, does the C64 and C16 have them!!!
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