Denial

I've never seen anything like Duello before. Is it an original? Looks fun.

Jeff-20 wrote:I've never seen anything like Duello before. Is it an original?

I don't think so because PaperSoft reports that the author is "G. Webbs" not an italian name and "F. Sarcina" is the guy who translated and adapted this game.

Btw the game is graphically good but not really playable.

It looks a lot like Xonox's Robin Hood.
http://www.mobygames.com/game/vic-20/ro ... tId,94672/

I've just added Il tesoro perduto that is a clone/translation of Treasure Hunt that was published from COMPUTE!'s Gazette September 1984 - Issue 15, Vol. 2, No. 9.
See pages A, B, disk here.

It has a slightly different charset.

I've just discovered that Mister Mind typed by Orion70 is a clone/translation of Mind Boggle that was published from COMPUTE!'s Gazette May 1984 - Issue 11, Vol. 2, No. 5.
See pages A, B, disk here.

There is a typo on PaperSoft, it says that the autor is J. E. Rykee while CG says that the author is James E. Rylee.

I've just added "BARRIER BATTLE", "FASTADD" and GESTIONE DEGLI ERRORI all clones/translations of original programs published from COMPUTE!'s Gazette.
First 2 programs have the same CG name while "Error trap" is the original name of the last program.

Il giardiniere added by Orion70 is a clone/translation of Pest published from COMPUTE!.

Did Paper Soft only publish listings, or articles as well? In that case, perhaps you have some Jim Butterfields in Italian as well.

Babelfish suggests Giacimento del Burro.. could work.

carlsson wrote:Did Paper Soft only publish listings, or articles as well?

Just listings and some brief explanations of the game (the link Istruzioni of each game retyped)

carlsson wrote:Did Paper Soft only publish listings, or articles as well? In that case, perhaps you have some Jim Butterfields in Italian as well.

All joking aside:

1) This publication was most probably legal, having published more than 50 issues in three consecutive years, without legal consequences. I don't know (or care) if they paid legal rights to the authors of the software, but I think so, otherwise Compute! or the single authors would have sued them immediately.

2) Most of the italian VIC and C64 users didn't have access to foreign magazines, nor they knew English, so I think Paper Soft deserves our thankful acknowledgement for having introduced us to the world of writing BASIC.

3) Commodore computers sold much more after Paper Soft died, and by that time there was a huge amount of both BASIC and ML progs written by Italian authors. See for example HERE for C64 software (464 titles). By that time, unfortunately, the VIC-20 heyday was already gone.

4) There's only software on PS- no articles. Some titles were written by Italian authors, such as Inseguimento, Guitar, La Corona di Pietra, and Rescue. Interestingly enough, we were so xenophile to name some of them with an English word.

carlsson wrote:Babelfish suggests Giacimento del Burro.. could work.

Or "campo del burro". Cheers Figlio di Carlo (Carlsson)

What is Torneo?

Compute! Issue 49: Olympiad, also available in Zimmers. Torneo = Tournament.

Seriously, I don't know if COMPUTE! (and other magazines) had representatives all over the world to check whether their listings were reprinted or not. The individual authors, mostly private persons living somewhere in the USA would have no clue whatsoever if their listings were reprinted in an Italian magazine 6-12 months afterwards. I'm not even sure if COMPUTE! paid any honorary in the first place?

But yes, my comment was supposed to be taken as a joke. If there had been one or three listings taken from a particular other magazine it would not be worth much mention, but in this case it appears at least 50% of them are translated reprints.

I don't think people really thought about copy rights in the early days of computer programing. Users were encouraged to take apart programs, use routines to enhance their own work. There didn't seem to be great money in ideas, the greater goal was attracting more users (so expanding the Italian hobby scene would be more important than protecting an individuals ideas).

carlsson wrote:Seriously, I don't know if COMPUTE! (and other magazines) had representatives all over the world to check whether their listings were reprinted or not. The individual authors, mostly private persons living somewhere in the USA would have no clue whatsoever if their listings were reprinted in an Italian magazine 6-12 months afterwards. I'm not even sure if COMPUTE! paid any honorary in the first place?

Jeff-20 wrote:I don't think people really thought about copy rights in the early days of computer programing. Users were encouraged to take apart programs, use routines to enhance their own work. There didn't seem to be great money in ideas, the greater goal was attracting more users (so expanding the Italian hobby scene would be more important than protecting an individuals ideas).

I found more information about this issue. In a written interview to an Italian adventure games programmer, recently published online, the introduction states the following:

Molti appassionati di informatica di antica data, non solo tra gli utenti del Commodore 64, ricorderanno il piccolo settimanale Papersoft con i suoi amati/odiati listati. Inizialmente la mini-rivista presentava programmi acquistati in licenza dall'americana Compute! Publications ma in seguito, con il diffondersi dell'informatica in Italia e la conseguente nascita di programmatori di casa nostra, cominciò timidamente a pubblicare anche software originale.

Which roughly translated is:

Many people who were fond of computers - not only of C64 - from the old days, surely remember the small weekly magazine Papersoft and its love-it-or-hate-it listings. Initially, the mini-mag presented with programs bought by license from the american Compute! Publications, but later, with the spread of informatics in Italy and after the birth of Italian programmers, it slowly began to publish original software.

BTW, at the end of our work on Paper Soft - which is not too far away - we'll post a summary of all programs and their Compute! counterparts.