CV & ADAM Collector's Rarity List v2.08

[ColecoDan]

You don't have to improve the excel, when somone opens the excel and they don't like the font the can click in the corner of the excel sheet which is the cell in front of both the first row and first column.

right click on it and choose format cells. Go to font tab and change it to whatever you want.

 

Every user is going to have their own preferences so it would be crazy to do it on your end. The end user can change it to anything they wish to look at.

[Ikrananka]

You don't have to improve the excel, when somone opens the excel and they don't like the font the can click in the corner of the excel sheet which is the cell in front of both the first row and first column.

right click on it and choose format cells. Go to font tab and change it to whatever you want.

 

Every user is going to have their own preferences so it would be crazy to do it on your end. The end user can change it to anything they wish to look at.

That is true for the Excel version but not for the PDF. Personally I'm reasonably happy with the way it looks right now and am not overly inclined to change it unless I get an avalanche of complaints. Zooming in gives flexibility to the reader to choose the size that suits their eyes. I chose a fixed space font (Courier New), the same as used by NIAD in his RTF document, to give it that retro look plus I think databases look better like that with each character lining up beneath each other.

[ColecoDan]

That is true for the Excel version but not for the PDF. Personally I'm reasonably happy with the way it looks right now and am not overly inclined to change it unless I get an avalanche of complaints. Zooming in gives flexibility to the reader to choose the size that suits their eyes. I chose a fixed space font (Courier New), the same as used by NIAD in his RTF document, to give it that retro look plus I think databases look better like that with each character lining up beneath each other.

 

but I myself am no formatting guru when it comes to Excel.

 

The above part of phattyboombatty reply made me think he was talking about excel which is why I told him how to change it himself so he can see the wonderful information you guys worked on.

[phattyboombatty]

Are you talking about the Excel or the PDF version? You can easily zoom in on both of these documents which makes them very readable at my end. I formatted the Excel version so that the database width would fit on Landscape Letter sheets. However, due to the large number of columns this does mean that when printed the text is rather small. If anyone has suggestions on how to improve this then I am very willing to implement any improvements.

 

Thanks Ikrananka. I was actually referring to the PDF, but I'd assumed that it was just a "print screen" of the Excel file. You're right about zooming-in. That does work wonderfully, and thank you for using the right PS fonts that will zoom with accurate compression! I guess my beef is that, being published in portrait view, the text must remain rather small to squeeze in all of the data from the header categories. Perhaps landscape view would give more "breathing room"? EDIT: DOH! Dal gorn it! It already is in landscape!! Silly me!

 

Another suggestion might be to separate some of this data into "reports", putting rarity data in one document and notes/manufacturer data/controller info in another? I think too much data across the documents becomes difficult to discern in a printed page.

 

I'm hoping for a web-based database at some point, just like the AtariAge ones dedicated to Atari products. Wonder how we could rally support for that?

Edited October 9, 2012 by phattyboombatty

[Ikrananka]

Thanks Ikrananka. I was actually referring to the PDF, but I'd assumed that it was just a "print screen" of the Excel file. You're right about zooming-in. That does work wonderfully, and thank you for using the right PS fonts that will zoom with accurate compression!

I have Adobe Acrobat Writer and so use the Adobe Printer driver to "print" the Excel file to a PDF. As you say, this ensure the correct PS fonts get used and means that zooming in and out the text remains sharp.

 

Another suggestion might be to separate some of this data into "reports", putting rarity data in one document and notes/manufacturer data/controller info in another? I think too much data across the documents becomes difficult to discern in a printed page.

 

I'm hoping for a web-based database at some point, just like the AtariAge ones dedicated to Atari products. Wonder how we could rally support for that?

Separating the data into reports is more work than I'm willing to take on right now. Excel is far from the best place to build a database and as such I don't want to work it too hard. MS Access is an appropriate tool and would allow flexible creation of a range of different reports, however the vast majority of people don't have MS Access (including myself) which is why I chose Excel.

 

Perhaps when Retroillucid has his Coleco museum website fully populated that could be an appropriate place for the database.

[tripletopper]

I noticed 2 mistakes in the Colecovision List. The Activision Decathlon and QBert's Qubes don't work well with the super action controller.

 

On the Activision Decathlon, the action button is either always held or is rapid pressing, I can't tell which, but in jumping and throwing events, the joystick always has you jumping and throwing at the earliest possible time, and at either the minimum or maximum angle, with no way to alter it. Regular Programs don't have that problem.

 

And in QBert's Qubes, if you don't release the level select button at the instant the intro screen is shown, the screen glitches out with the Super Action Controllers. Regular controllers don';t have that problem.

 

With these two finding I always notice happens, I suggest people try it, report, and do one of 2 things. If enough of you find that on your real Colecovisions and real Super Action Controllers, if these glitches happen consistently, (I've had multiple Colecovisions, and they all had those problems with those 2 games.), then whoever made the list should delist these 2 games as Super Action Compatible. If too many don't find these problems, maybe someone can diagnose what's wrong with the Colecovision.

 

Also does anyone else know of any other regular controller games that don't work with Super Action Controllers?