The Software Archive is unwieldy. Between SUPERZAP and BASIC, so many files were modified by the various users resulting a slightly different versions of otherwise identical files.
In attempting to weed through all these, I realized that I needed to be more descriptive in each filename, so that duplicates could be sussed out.
This entails running every piece of software in the archive, figuring out something that would quickly distinguish one version of, let’s say, Star Trek or Othello or Poker, from another, and re-labeling the ZIP with that note. Then, seeing which files have the same label and running them again to see if they are identical and, if so, merging them into a single ZIP file instead of having multiple ZIP files. Then running them all again to get screen shots.
This exercise also allows for discovery of previously missing information, like an embedded author’s name in one copy that was removed from another.
So that’s what’s going on. It is a drastic renaming and recommenting of the archive, but with a reduction in ‘Author Unknown’ and duplicate entries.
… and it also lets me program, something I don’t otherwise do, in developing all the tools and batch files I need to make this jobs somewhat easier. VB6 still works fine under Windows 11, thank goodness!