SOURCES: Missing BBC Games Help Required!

[fuzzel]

I'm not sure I want to see Flasher...

[fuzzel]

I believe I may have tracked down Mr Robert Andrew Lober of The Grange fame. Looking on Companies House I have an address for his two companies at Centaur House, Ancells Road, Fleet, England, GU51 2UJ (his dob of 1969 fits the profile of a teenage software writer perfectly and his unusual surname certainly helps). Unfortunately I haven't been able to find an email address or telephone number (I rang the number quoted against one of his companies but it was for a different company and they'd never heard of him). If anyone cares to do some further digging and perhaps find me contact details I'll try to get in touch with him otherwise it's the snail mail next week unfortunately. I'm determined to track him down - Alice's review of his game was my first experience of an adventure column so the game has stuck with me, I'd love to play it and see for myself whether it lives up to Alice's opinion!

[leenew]

Thanks to Gareth we have another missing game: A Case Of Murder from Softly Softly.
Advertised in Popular Computing Weekly 16th May 1985.

softly-pcweekly-1985-05-16.PNG (169.2 KiB) Viewed 3984 times

[fuzzel]

Another company I have never heard of...
ORCHESTRATED COMPUTING
from PERSONAL COMPUTING TODAY NOVEMBER 1982

SPACE TREK (with INVADERS, BLITZ, PINBALL)
ADVENTURE (with INVADERS, PONTOON, LUNAR LANDER)
SCRAMBLE (with INVADERS, BREAKOUT, BATTLESHIP)
Personal Computing Today November 1982 Orchestrated Computing.jpg

Looks like they changed their name (Your Computer, Dec-82, p6). No doubt with creditors in hot pursuit...

[fizgog]

Creating Adventures On Your BBC Micro by Peter Shaw and Stuart McCrae.
Published by Interface Publications.
Creating Adventures.jpg
This book is missing.
It contains the following text adventures:

THE HOUSE THAT JAMES BUILT
FANTASY MANSION
LOVES SWEET GARDEN
ELSIE THE AARDVARK GOES LUNAR SURVEYING
IN MY LIVERPOOL HOME
SHODDY IN FUNLAND
KINGDOM OF THROLL
LOST IN SPACE

contents.jpg

CASA have some of these taken from the SPECTRUM version of the book.
I would like to see the beeb version and type all these in.

Lee.

Apparently according to the following its available from the following libraries if anyone is close to them

https://www.worldcat.org/title/creating ... c/60049841

[fuzzel]

Creating Adventures On Your BBC Micro by Peter Shaw and Stuart McCrae.
Published by Interface Publications.
Creating Adventures.jpg
This book is missing.
It contains the following text adventures:

THE HOUSE THAT JAMES BUILT
FANTASY MANSION
LOVES SWEET GARDEN
ELSIE THE AARDVARK GOES LUNAR SURVEYING
IN MY LIVERPOOL HOME
SHODDY IN FUNLAND
KINGDOM OF THROLL
LOST IN SPACE

contents.jpg

CASA have some of these taken from the SPECTRUM version of the book.
I would like to see the beeb version and type all these in.

Lee.

Apparently according to the following its available from the following libraries if anyone is close to them

https://www.worldcat.org/title/creating ... c/60049841

Count me in for the last one if someone pays my travel expenses. Lee, Huddersfield's not far from you?

[8bitAG]

Looks like they changed their name (Your Computer, Dec-82, p6). No doubt with creditors in hot pursuit...

That's one well used address... companies residing there have included...

* Interlock Services Ltd... selling Amstrad CPC stuff such as "Amskey"...
* Iconio Systems Limited... seller of two C64 program tapes
* Goods Direct Mail Order... "No tricks - these are genuine prices"... selling anything from Levi 501s to video recorders...
* Searchlight Educational Trust... the publishers of Searchlight Magazine - the international anti-fascist monthly...
* Direct Perception Superspects Ltd... selling reading glasses...
* DHI... selling hairloss prevention products
* Hamilton Publishing... sellers of the "biggest fruit & quiz machine guide ever"...
* Flegon Press... publishers of the "Buyers Directory of the Former Soviet Union"...
* Castle Publishing... "Work from home and earn $1.83 for each envelope you re-direct to the UK"...

[leenew]

Thanks Gareth,
I have incorporated the new info into the 'missing' lists, and added Program Direct as a publisher on bbcmicro.co.uk

Lee.

[iamaran]

Creating Adventures On Your BBC Micro by Peter Shaw and Stuart McCrae.
Published by Interface Publications.
Creating Adventures.jpg
This book is missing.
It contains the following text adventures:

THE HOUSE THAT JAMES BUILT
FANTASY MANSION
LOVES SWEET GARDEN
ELSIE THE AARDVARK GOES LUNAR SURVEYING
IN MY LIVERPOOL HOME
SHODDY IN FUNLAND
KINGDOM OF THROLL
LOST IN SPACE

contents.jpg

CASA have some of these taken from the SPECTRUM version of the book.
I would like to see the beeb version and type all these in.

Lee.

Apparently according to the following its available from the following libraries if anyone is close to them

https://www.worldcat.org/title/creating ... c/60049841

Count me in for the last one if someone pays my travel expenses. Lee, Huddersfield's not far from you?

It's not actually in the catalogue at Kirklees libraries though. I encountered this the last time I used WorldCat too.

[fizgog]

There’s a lot of pdf books at the following url, which contain basic listings for all different computers, some are for the beeb

https://colorcomputerarchive.com/repo/Documents/Books/

[leenew]

I think you are right Gareth, although in this instance I don't think there is any doubt the product exists
I will change the "missing" entry to include "Knights of Camelot".

Ah, I wasn't sure if you were just collecting adverts. Yeah, no doubt that Quest Adventure Creator exists as it's in various collections, such as the Computing History one...
http://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/ ... dventures/

(as you've already got logged in your thread viewtopic.php?t=14458 )

This game has now been located.
The full package can be found on flaxcottage.com in the AUCBE publisher section.
The actual demo game is now on bbcmicro.co.uk http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=4172

It needs the accompanying bumph to play properly.

[leenew]

The Times and The Sun crosswords from AKOM, advertised in Acorn User Feb. 1991
The advert mentions 13 volumes. Is that 13 Times Crossword discs plus 13 Sun Crossword discs?

All we have archived is Times Crosswords volume 1: http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=2958

We also have Times Jubilee puzzles: http://bbcmicro.co.uk/game.php?id=2957

[fizgog]

If the following book is being dificult to find

Interface Publications (Creating Adventures On Your BBC Micro) (Missing Book)

Then someone who likes coding in Basic and has spare time, could in theory convert some of the missing adventure games from the ZX Spectrum into the Beeb

https://worldofspectrum.net/publisher/6341/

[leenew]

All Rounder by G.L. Brown. The ultimate limited-over cricket simulation.
From Acorn User July 1985

This advert was only found AFTER the game had been kindly sent to us at bbcmicro.co.uk!
It will be uploaded shortly.

[colinhoad]

If the following book is being dificult to find

Interface Publications (Creating Adventures On Your BBC Micro) (Missing Book)

Then someone who likes coding in Basic and has spare time, could in theory convert some of the missing adventure games from the ZX Spectrum into the Beeb

https://worldofspectrum.net/publisher/6341/

This is a great suggestion, and I'd be up for giving it a try. I've never coded in Sinclair BASIC before, but I'm sure it can't be too hard to convert.

[nicolagiacobbe]

Hello, probably I lost all the conversation as I just overheard (overread?) the last comment and it hit me as the book could be found at 8bs:
http://8bs.com/othrdnld/manuals/publications.shtml
Surely I am putting the leg (as they say around here) so forgive me in case my intervention is on the dumb side of obvious.

[colinhoad]

Hello, probably I lost all the conversation as I just overheard (overread?) the last comment and it hit me as the book could be found at 8bs:
http://8bs.com/othrdnld/manuals/publications.shtml
Surely I am putting the leg (as they say around here) so forgive me in case my intervention is on the dumb side of obvious.

I think the problem is that the BBC Micro edition of the book doesn't have the games that are available in the Spectrum version. In the BBC Micro book, the games are: Captive, Dracula, and Journey. However, the Spectrum listings include: Caverns of Jupiter, Draculax, Elsie the Aardvark goes Lunar Surveying, Fantasy Mansion, Love's Sweet Garden, and Shoddy in Funland. Unless I'm mistaken, those game listings don't appear on 8bs...

[fizgog]

Hello, probably I lost all the conversation as I just overheard (overread?) the last comment and it hit me as the book could be found at 8bs:
http://8bs.com/othrdnld/manuals/publications.shtml
Surely I am putting the leg (as they say around here) so forgive me in case my intervention is on the dumb side of obvious.

I think the problem is that the BBC Micro edition of the book doesn't have the games that are available in the Spectrum version. In the BBC Micro book, the games are: Captive, Dracula, and Journey. However, the Spectrum listings include: Caverns of Jupiter, Draculax, Elsie the Aardvark goes Lunar Surveying, Fantasy Mansion, Love's Sweet Garden, and Shoddy in Funland. Unless I'm mistaken, those game listings don't appear on 8bs...

The book doesn't currently exist on 8BS or anywhere else online so far.

This is a list of games from the BBC version, some of which are in the Spectrum version which have been uploaded to the Wold of Spectrum

THE HOUSE THAT JAMES BUILT
FANTASY MANSION
LOVES SWEET GARDEN
ELSIE THE AARDVARK GOES LUNAR SURVEYING
IN MY LIVERPOOL HOME
SHODDY IN FUNLAND
KINGDOM OF THROLL
LOST IN SPACE

[8bitAG]

IN MY LIVERPOOL HOME
KINGDOM OF THROLL
LOST IN SPACE

...are the ones that don't have Spectrum equivalents.

[iamaran]

Personally, I don't think converting the Spectrum versions of these games is the best idea. Just an opinion.
If there were never beeb versions, I'd agree, but there were; they're merely missing.
Firstly, other games in similar situations have been a little different in their solving, and secondly, the BBC book will turn up!
(String handling in Spectrum BASIC is quite a bit different to BBC BASIC too).

[iamaran]

Hello, probably I lost all the conversation as I just overheard (overread?) the last comment and it hit me as the book could be found at 8bs:
http://8bs.com/othrdnld/manuals/publications.shtml
Surely I am putting the leg (as they say around here) so forgive me in case my intervention is on the dumb side of obvious.

I think the problem is that the BBC Micro edition of the book doesn't have the games that are available in the Spectrum version. In the BBC Micro book, the games are: Captive, Dracula, and Journey. However, the Spectrum listings include: Caverns of Jupiter, Draculax, Elsie the Aardvark goes Lunar Surveying, Fantasy Mansion, Love's Sweet Garden, and Shoddy in Funland. Unless I'm mistaken, those game listings don't appear on 8bs...

"Captive", "Dracula", and "Journey" are from the very similarly titled Creating Adventure Programs on the BBC Micro by Ian Watt. The missing book is Creating Adventures on the BBC Micro by Peter Shaw and Stuart McCrae.

[nicolagiacobbe]

In: ELSIE THE AARDVARK GOES LUNAR SURVEYING there is an error so it could never have run.
In the line 80 there is a GOSUB 1560 but there is no line 1560, any fancy idea on how to correct it?
A simgle GOSUB 1570 (next line on listing) could suffice to have it running but I'd like to ask if someone has a better idea.

[leenew]

Hmmm...
All the reviews of this book, and tales from people who have attempted to type the games in, are in consensus... that the book is very, very bad

Lee.

[8bitAG]

In: ELSIE THE AARDVARK GOES LUNAR SURVEYING there is an error so it could never have run.

Garry, one of our contributors over at CASA, has got a fix so that the Spectrum version is at least solvable.
http://solutionarchive.com/file/id%2C17656/

Yes, a lot of these Interface Publications listings aren't the best games. In their defence, they were mostly produced by (often very young) teenagers, with a very fast publication turnaround... so it's no surprise there are lots of errors and they're not the greatest games. I'm pretty sure that Nick Hampshire and his team must've inspired plenty of people to take up programming, though.

[colinhoad]

"Captive", "Dracula", and "Journey" are from the very similarly titled Creating Adventure Programs on the BBC Micro by Ian Watt. The missing book is Creating Adventures on the BBC Micro by Peter Shaw and Stuart McCrae.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up!

[leenew]

Advert for Kay-Ess Computer Products from Micro User December 1984.

This shows House of Horrors being specifically available for the Model B and the Electron.

Earlier adverts such as this one from Micro User July 1984 show the BBC Model B version was actually released first, with the Electron version coming along a little later.

[fuzzel]

Adventure by Program Direct (formerly Orchestrated Computing) has been found on one of my old tapes.

Adventure by Program Direct.ssd

(25 KiB) Downloaded 25 times

viewtopic.php?p=361120#p361120
Note that the game may need to be run at &E00 to work properly given its size.

[leenew]

Various games from J&J Software.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=27001
Whether any of these were ever commercially released (even if they sold 4 copies from the corner shop) is debateable.

Arcadian said "In total, eight projects are mentioned for the BBC Micro, as follows: Brick Bill (1983), Obelisk (1984), Chaos & Mayhem (1984), Thunder Dome (1984), Bomb Bill (1985), Power Bandit (1986), Time Zone (1986), Data Pace (1987/88)"

Lee.

[Arcadian]

Hi, no - nothing released by J&J - from the bio on Page 1 of the site:

Most of the games and other programs produced were made for fun. It was a hobby more than anything. But saying that, many companies start this way.

Well...this one never did. Not one title was released.

[leenew]

Ah, thanks.
I will amend bbcmicro.co.uk now.