Fish Disk #238 (*original release*)

[andreas]

Hi,

I'm desperately searching this Fish disk. It's NOT the one that's on the Fish CDs or the gatekeeper.dec.com archives, but a different one, i. e. the original release.
Fred Fish has withdrawn some Fish Disks (among them 173, 221, 230, 238, 305, 324) due to some possible copyright infringement on the part of Spectrum Holobyte, the copyright holder of TETRIS (tm).
AFAIK Spectrum Holobyte is no more, so there can't be any copyright infringement anymore. ;)

Could anyone look for the original (first) release of this disk?
It contains a game not available anywhere in this version, Peter Handel's brilliant Tetris clone "Steinschlag".
I've got both 1.5 and 1.6 but on this disk there is version 1.8! :)
Thanks in advance.

[Twistin'Ghost]

Actually, the demise of Spectrum Holobyte should not affect the copyright on the game, since the holding could be (or could have already been) transferred to a different owner. Take the case of the first Beatles albums which were released on Swan, VeeJay and Tollie Records (and still others on Atco and Decca). Whilst Swan, VeeJay and Tollie exist no more, the copyrights on those bodies of work were transferred to (I think) Capitol/EMI.

At any rate, I know I had the original Fred Fish disk you speak of. Whether I still have it or not is hard to say, since all of my junk isn't handy at this time. I do remember when Spectrum Holobyte made their ridiculous stink about Tetris clones back then. Even some BBS's were harrassed into removing Tetris clones from their files areas. It was so lame! With or without that disk, I do remember extracting that game from the disk into its own LHA archive for my BBS (and my personal collection). The only niggle there is that I backed up my entire PD/SW collection to DAT using AmiBack, which had this nasty habit of crashing while writing data to tape. When this happened, it failed to set an end marker on the tape. The result of this is that any data written to the tape suddenly becomes unreadable. I still have these tapes in the event that some kind soul will release a tool that will allow me to dump the contents of the tape to a file, search this data file for programs, and extract them somehow, some way. If I am wrong in my idealistic dream, then I will have lost some extremely critical and rare games and exotic mods that may never surface anywhere again (sigh)...including that version of that game.

[andreas]

I do remember when Spectrum Holobyte made their ridiculous stink about Tetris clones back then.

So you know I'm not speaking freely off my imagination.
Yes, and if you find this one (or someone else), please look for another one: Disk 173. It contains the game TETRIX, but this is NOT "Tetrix - The next generation" by Computec.
The game is (c) 1988 David Corbin and available on this first release ONLY.
True rarities these days, both of them.

[Twistin'Ghost]

Yup, I had this disk, too. I remember when Fred Fish pulled those disks right after that SH thing happened. I was downloading the disks from BBS's as they were released, so that's how come I already had them. So it is probable that this game is also on that same ill-fated DAT tape.

It is possible that I still have these games on floppy, as well, but that's all down to whenever I get my floppies (sigh) and even then, the odds are against it.

[RetroMan]

Hmmm, I just found my copy of #238 and STEINSCHLAG 1.8 is also mentioned in the index, but the archive on the disc is missing :(


This is disk 238 of the freely distributable AMIGA software library.
Below is a listing of the significant directories and their contents.


CWDemo Demo version of a pop-up utility to control the color
register assignments of Intuition custom screens.
Version 3.1, binary only.
Author: Kimbersoft

DMouse A versatile screen & mouse blanker, auto window activator,
mouse accelerator, popcli, pop window to front, push
window to back, etc, widget. Includes DLineArt, a screen
blanker replacement program for use with DMouse. This is
DMouse version 1.20, an update to version 1.10 on disk
168/169. Includes source.
Author: Matt Dillon

LabelPrint A program that allows you to easily print labels for
your disks. This is version 2.5, an update to version
1.9 from disk 210. Shareware, binary only (source
available from author).
Author: Andreas Krebs

NGC Yet another virus check program. Checks the bootblock on
all inserted floppy disks and reports nonstandard ones.
Checks the jump tables of all resident libraries and devices
and reports suspicious entries. Version 1, includes source
in assembly.
Author: Ulf Nordquist

Pyth A program to draw the Tree of Pythagoras. Version 1.1,
includes source.
Author: Andreas Krebs

Steinschlag A tetris like game (Steinschlag means "Falling Rock")
submitted by the author. This is version 1.8, an update
to version 1.5 from disk 221. Binary only.
Author: Peter Handel

[andreas]

Hmmm, I just found my copy of #238 and STEINSCHLAG 1.8 is also mentioned in the index, but the archive on the disc is missing

Your copy of disk #238 is a re-release, not the original.
That's like the BODY COUNT album with track 18 missing, collectors should know what I'm talking about :D:D

[RetroMan]

@andreas

I know that I got a re-release, that above was just for info ;) and btw. I HAVE the first Body Count CD release :laughing

[Twistin'Ghost]

This link may be of assistance:
Amiga PD-Disks (http://www.amiga-stuff.com/pd/index.html)

According to that site, this game (v1.6) can be found on the CACTUS series of disks from Germany on CACTUS #32.

There is also The Peter Handel Collection, which is a 6-disk PD collection of his games. That is available on the German collection Nordlicht Spiele #17-01.

Other disks containing Steinschlag are:
Bavarian #74
Faces Of Mars (FOM) #94
Franz #32
KickStart #182
Taifun #108

[andreas]

Got version 1.6.
1.8 came out on Fish Disk #238 ONLY (until it was recalled only a few days later)

[Twistin'Ghost]

OK, through my diligence and PoV, I turned up an original LZH archive of Steinschlag v1.8! I tried to upload it to the Zone, but the LZH was rejected, so I zipped it up and it's there. Have fun!

[Kodoichi]

I only have Steinschlag from the 'Best of PD'-series (I think I posted this a while ago in the Zone), but I dunno what version it is :shocked

[andreas]

Cool. Thanks, Twist!
May I bug you one more time by asking you to look for TETRIX? :rolleyes :rolleyes
Tomorrow will be fine (so the thrill is still hot :evilgrin)

[andreas]

For your pleasure, I just upped a version fixed to ADF to the Zone! It boots right into the game - enjoy! :)

[Twistin'Ghost]

Ah, excellent! I was in such a hurry to post the game, I didn't take the time to check its authenticity, nor to make a bootable adf of the game. So thanks for doing both!

As I was surfing around on some other sites, the idea continued bubbling in the back of my mind that I still hadn't hunted down TETRIX yet, so I will move onto that title next. I hope I can have the same level of success.

[Twistin'Ghost]

Tetrix v1.1 is in the Zone. According to the docs, the only difference between this and 1.0 is some modifications to the .zoo file (remember those? I do!)

If the version ye seek is 1.0, I also have this file as TETRIZ.ARC, so as old as arc files are, it's more than likely 1.0! I'll just have to dig up a copy of PKAX to dearchive it! :)

[andreas]

Thanks again for digging! :) :great

[andreas]

There's one more on my list, withdrawn too.
Whoops. Sorry, I confess I overlooked this one. TETRIS by Andy Hook, Fish 324.
Maybe someone happens to have this one still somewhere...

[Twistin'Ghost]

Yikes! That one will be harder. But I shall try.