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  1. Last week
  2. jetsetdanny

    Jet Set II

    A few weeks ago Richard Hallas brought to my attention a JSW remake that was missing from the lists of games on JSW Central. It is called "Jet Set II" and it was created by Stewart Fordyce (Wizard Software) back in 1985. I believe this remake remained obscure until October 2022, when it was added to ZXDB and posted on Spectrum Computing by R-Tape. In fact, Richard had spotted it on SC before he let me know about it. "Jet Set II" has the same layout as the original JSW. Several rooms are completely modified - most notably, "THE FURNACE" (10) replaces "The Front Door", "JUMP IN THE MOTOR" (40) substitutes for "Dr Jones will never believe this", "Space Invaders" (55) replaces "West Bedroom" and "Above the West Bedroom" (57) bears no resemblance to its original version despite sharing the same name. While most rooms have been altered to varying degrees, some remain unchanged, such as "On the Roof" [18] and "Master Bedroom" [35], the latter now named "GET OUT YOU CREAP". Guardian paths and item locations remain unaltered, although some guardian sprites have been modified. The title-screen and in-game music are the same as in the original JSW, while the scrolling title message has been edited. The player is instructed to "guide Willy around his brand new house", to "collect the objects to get some money in the bank" and then to "get to bed before 12:00 am". I have now fully 'processed' the game (as per my standards). I played it to as near to completion as was possible, identified critical errors, created a bug-fixed version, played it to completion and RZX-recorded it, created a video of my walkthrough for the JSW Central YouTube channel and added the game to the list of games on JSW Central, creating an individual page for it, along with a complete screenshot gallery and download options. The game's JSW Central page is here, and the YouTube video of my walkthrough is here. The game as created by Stewart Fordyce was impossible to complete due to a critical bug in the room "Under the Drive" (45). It was impossible to jump over the magenta guardian after entering the room at the upper right, which resulted in Willy's repeated deaths. Since this is the only way out after passing through "Tree Root" (46), where two items need to be collected, this bug effectively made it impossible to collect these items and continue the gameplay, rendering the game incompletable. An additional problem was that even with this issue corrected, the game would still only be bed-completable, as the wall in the middle of the Bathroom would prevent Willy from finalising the toilet run. I fixed the "Under the Drive" problem by removing one Earth cell, which prevented Willy from making the same kind of jump over the guardian as in the original "Jet Set Willy". I also solved the Bathroom problem by adding some extra code which allows Willy to pass through the wall during the toilet run. The bug-fixed version can be downloaded from the game's JSW Central page. I was able to complete it, with the loss of one life, at 7:56 in-game time (just like in the original JSW, a life has to be sacrificed to collect the leftmost item in "Conservatory Roof" [43]). All in all, I would definitely not call "Jet Set II" a quality release by today's standards. I even wondered whether to include it in the "New games" category or rather the "Advanced modifications of the original JSW" section. Finally, I opted for the former. I do think "Jet Set II" has historical value, going all the way back to the "real hardware" era. And, if someone wants to spend an hour or two roaming around Willy's somewhat modified mansion - it's always a pleasure, and it's free, too 🙂 . If anyone has any more info about Stewart Fordyce or the game itself, please let me know about it (here or by e-mail) and I will be happy to update the information on JSW Central.
  3. Earlier
  4. Yes, both top hats AND mining helmets!!! 😄
  5. I concur - Top hats (or mining helmets) off to Andy!
  6. A big THANKS and hats off to Andy (Spider) for fixing the site! He did it all by himself, both providing the upgraded software and performing the update. It feels good to be back. Thanks again, Andy! 👍 🙏 👏 🍾
  7. Yes you're quite correct sorry. A few external factors slowed things down a few days sorry. It was suggested to change the temporary message however at that stage it was only a day away from being done. I did consider posting in the JSW Facebook group but was not sure if an "external site" would be treated kindly, perhaps I was overthinking. I knew the host was likely to drop legacy php support however (again other reasons) I was not aware exactly when this was to be, as you know they usually give a few weeks notice of "we're dropping xyz at the end next month" , it is quite possible I missed this notice however. I did toy with the idea of adding a temporary forum (as was done once before) but by the time I'd done that I could of done this. However on a positive note, we are now future proofed for quite a considerable time and if it should happen again ( ! ) something suitable will be posted and linked to.
  8. Maybe we should have some side channel to contact for the case something happens with the website? I was curious what's going on, and searching for posts in facebook/twitter/etc didn't reveal anything.
  9. If you notice anything amiss please do a hard refresh in your browser (typically CTRL+F5 or CTRL+R) or hold down the shift key and click the refresh button.
  10. We have updated the software here to future proof the site for newer server requirements. Sorry for the downtime however it was immediately necessary without prior notice, otherwise an announcement would of been shown for a few days. You'll find things almost just as they were, we decided to remove the redundant 'articles' system as no one ever used it. The topics are best placed if needed with a new area for guides and tutorials. Note that there are still some small adjustments to make over the following week however the site is ready to be opened again. Of course if you should spot anything amiss please either post here into this topic or message me or jetsetdanny. Thank you.
  11. Platforms - yes. These are the so-called "Forbidden Hallowed Grounds". Please see this thread for more info. Items - no. If items were put in really inaccessible areas in a regular JSW game, the game would be incompletable, because you couldn't collect these items if you couldn't reach them. Hence you couldn't make Maria disappear or reach the bed to trigger the toilet run. This basic problem does not occur in "Terry The Turtle", because this game is not Maria-, bed- or toilet-completable - there is no Maria, no bed and no toilet run, so the fact that not all items can be collected does not matter. As defined by the author, "flashing Terry Tokens (...) do not have to be collected to complete the game, you just have to get Terry to deep water".
  12. But only if the spare lives are on the first frame of animation. I like how the colour cycling of the screen is still taking place (part of the 'extra life awarded' effect) after the bonus life has already expired!
  13. Just for fun: if you collect the bottom item in Skylab Landing Bay while you're on 33 lives and *99xx points, you're killed by the extra life you're awarded for collecting the item. MM-extralife_VP8.webm
  14. By comparing Willy's sprite data with the attribute byte values assigned to the various block types in the cavern data, I've discovered a few effects that I think will arise within the Manic Miner game engine. If you have more than 34 remaining lives and if the spare lives on the status bar are set to their rightmost frame of animation. Willy's back foot in that frame has a byte value of #03, which matches a couple of magenta INK on black PAPER blocks in the game: - In 'Abandoned Uranium Workings', some of the errant blocks (in 'even' columns) across the middle of the cavern will act as conveyor cells (no animation, but they will drag Willy rightwards). This effect could be quite erratic if the in-game music is left on, meaning that the spare lives pass through that animation frame and the conveyor effect periodically stops and starts. This should affect the new platform directly underneath the cavern's sole crumbly platform - that is in fact the very same new platform which led @DigitalDuck to improve his score here, which gave rise to this discussion! N.B. No POKE is needed to observe this effect - just set the remaining lives to the appropriate frame; - In 'Return of the Alien Kong Beast', the mid-height Water cell platform patrolled by the right-most 'rolling rock' guardian will, in theory, become crumbly. Unfortunately, Willy can't access that part of the cavern to stand on that platform and cause its pixels to crumble away, because of the aforementioned blockage on the left-hand side of the cavern (as pointed out by DigitalDuck). There is a single-cell platform occupying the same character row towards the left of the cavern (just below/to the right of the leftmost banana item), which is reachable during game play, but unfortunately that block sits in an 'odd' column, so the overwritten attribute (corresponding to a different part of Willy's sprite) doesn't match the crumbly cell attribute, and so no crumbling of pixels will occur if Willy stands on it even if it has been corrupted by a rogue attribute. However, if that platform were extended by one more block (either left or right will do the trick), then the new extension to that platform would crumble when stood upon: POKE #DD02,#43 or POKE #DD04,#43 (in decimal: POKE 56578,67 or POKE 56580,67) - apply before entering the cavern. Meanwhile, if you have 36 or more remaining lives and if the spare lives on the status bar are set to either their second or third frame of animation, then I believe the attribute value #06 (corresponding to the next pixel-row up in Willy's sprite) will be written across alternate cells of the top character row of the caverns. This could also have gameplay consequences: - The value #06 is assigned in 'The Menagerie' to an (unused) Fire cell type (the yellow bush that is encountered in other caverns), so as the number of extra lives continue to tally up, the top three items will be either embedded in or sandwiched between Fire cells, making them uncollectable without being killed (unless you move the animation of the remaining lives on to the first or last frame); - Similarly, 'Processing Plant' would be incompletable once the errant Fire blocks reach across to the portal (and probably before that - I don't think it's safe to drop down from the starting point in the cavern without first making a jump that means Willy's head passes through the top character row); - And the route options in 'The Warehouse' would be more restricted (for instance, you couldn't jump over the first Fire cell to Willy's right upon entering the cavern, without hitting one of the newly-created overhead Fire cells). P.S. Whilst researching this post, I discovered for the first time that Matthew's original design for 'The Sixteenth Cavern' may have incorporated a switch!? (The switch graphic from the Kong caverns is present, unused, in the 16th cavern data.)
  15. Is there a precendent set any in any other mods of JSW whereby just for decorative purposes for example items or platforms have been put in inaccessible areas, tempting players to think 'How do I get to there?' when really it has been impossible?
  16. Thank you for your thoughts. I believe the answer is 'no' to both questions. I've checked the rooms in question in JSWED, changing the attributes of all cells to certain default colours I always use for these occasions (blue on blue for Earth, green on green for Water, etc.), which rules out any hidden platforms. I also checked the guardians. I believe there are no switches in the game. I am pretty sure there aren't any custom code modifications, either - my understanding is that the game was designed using JSWED's GUI without any 'fancy' stuff.
  17. Ah yes, because the right-hand half of that pair of sprite graphic bytes is pixel-less, so the attribute value #00 is written there (which happens to mean it remains an air cell).
  18. With the life sprite in its first position, you can also get through the corner of the new platform and land on the small platform underneath it. This jump stops being possible at 37 lives.
  19. I just tried the above experiment. (The idea behind it being to match the crumbly attribute in Eugene's Lair to one of the bit maps for a part of Willy's sprite.) When Willy stands on the corrupted conveyor, the conveyor's pixels start to crumble downwards whilst they're also animating rightwards! It's more interesting if you proceed along the conveyor from right to left, rather than vice versa. (So the pixels keep on coming from the left, otherwise they all disappear quite quickly.) Also, try leaving the music on with the spare lives dancing - the errant blocks change colour in time with the music, and if Willy is standing on the right hand end of the conveyor, then the downwards crumbly-conveyor animation keeps stopping and starting depending on the animation frame of the spare lives! (A couple of other observations: the conveyor no longer drags Willy along, even though it is still animated to look like it should. And the ever head stalactite is no longer lethal to Willy.)
  20. The POKES for that experiment: POKE #C232, #03 POKE #8457, #30 In decimal, that's: POKE 49714, 20 POKE 33879, 48 Then start up the game, wait until the extra lives are showing in the their rightmost animation frame before pressing ENTER to stop their dancing, type 6032769 and then the cavern teleport code: 36. EDIT: Ooh, it's just occurred to me that the Cheat Mode Boot will also be printed somewhere rogue if you have too many lives and Cheat Mode is activated...
  21. At 34 to 38 lives for Eugene, it looks like you would have to take a different route to access the bottom left of the cavern, because you can jump over the black toilet without ending up back on top of the new platform? So you would have to drop down to walk along underneath the black toilet? I have another interesting experiment for you - try resetting the crumbly attribute in Eugene's Lair to non-bright magenta ink on black paper, set the dancing lives to the right-most frame of animation (by starting and stopping the in-game music), POKE the number of remaining lives to 48 and then try playing that cavern to see what happens when Willy stands on those newly created blocks? (Both the pixel-less ones on the left, and the ones on the right which should have pixels because they coincide with where the conveyor is!) Return of Kong - it looks to me like 36 lives will also create a platform on the left which Willy can't descend past? Because that tricky leftwards jump through the corner of a short floor platform, which you normally have to do from the longish platform just left of centre halfway down the cavern, won't work (you'll pass through the corner of the short platform but then land on the new platform just beneath it?) Mutant Telephones - you could escape it you could stand on the spider threads without being killed. It always struck me as odd that you can do that in The Menagerie, but not in here (or The Bank).
  22. So I have a couple of corrections to this, namely that I'd missed some things that reduce the life count before some levels become incompletable: Eugene's Lair - at 39 lives, the platform with the black toilet is completely overshadowed by the garbage platform. Unfortunately it's now one cell too high to safely drop down from, and there's no other way down without falling too far. Return of the Alien Kong Beast - at 37 lives, all ways back down are blocked, and again the only way to get down is to fall too far. Attack of the Mutant Telephones - while it's possible to go from top to bottom by jumping through the top of the screen, the platform in the middle becomes an island once you reach 42 lives and there's no way to get up or down from it. Interesting. I'll post about it in that thread if I decide to experiment with that, but it's definitely unique for JSW-style games.
  23. Or is there some way to activate a Superjump?
  24. Just a guess Danny, are there any hidden platforms / invisible platforms that might be present?
  25. I suppose there is an ecological analogy to be drawn - overpopulation of some species (not generally turtles though!) can be damaging to the ecosystem once natural predators of those species are eliminated from a habitat.
  26. "Terry The Turtle" is the game to try it "the natural way", i.e. without any POKEs. You start out with 7 lives which are visible on the screen. As you gain extra lives, 4 more become visible as little turtles on the screen, just like the original 7. The next 3 extra lives are not marked in any visible way, and then with the 15th life the leftmost little turtle at the bottom of the screen, symbolising a life, starts to flicker. Then, with the following extra lives, the next turtles at the bottom of the screen start to flicker. When the number of lives exceeds 28, it affects the display of the room names (the letters disappear starting with the leftmost one; the effect is irreversible - even if the number of your lives goes down below 28 again, the affected letters in room names in new rooms you enter are not visible). With even more lives the game is slowed down or it can crash or become unplayable in some other way (e.g. because of 'rogue' cells blocking your way). As the author of the game, Steve Dixon (Jammajup), explains, "if you are good at these types of games and constantly use the emulator save state you can collect so many lives you can slow down or even crash the game!" Indeed, this is a serious problem and in order to eliminate it, while recording the RZX walkthroughs of the four versions of the game (three of which still need to be improved - please see this thread for details), I deliberately killed Terry many times during each walkthrough, so as not to have more than 28 lives at any point in the game. The elimination of the excessive number of lives had to take place, much as I dislike serial suicides 😉 . However, if someone is interested, you could experiment with the extra lives and the effects their excess produces.
  27. “Terry The Turtle” (henceforth: “TTT”) is a JSW64 game by Steve Dixon (Jammajup, Purple Unicorn Software). It was released in 2013 in four versions: Yellow (Normal), Cyan (Intermediate), Red (Hard) and Vector (Special Edition). The game showcases lots of beautiful, atmospheric rooms (divided into 8 thematic zones plus tribute screens to other video games). If features a lovely little turtle, Terry, as protagonist. After a major hurricane the turtles hatch to find the run across the beach to the ocean even more difficult as the whole island has been transformed by the bad weather. You have to help Terry on his way to deep sea. I am currently preparing videos of the walkthroughs of all four versions of the game for the JSW Central YouTube channel, and I have run into the problem of whether or not it is possible to collect all items in each version. I would like to ask for your assistance to 'peer-review' my findings – if you’re interested and have some time to investigate, please read on. According to the game's author, "flashing Terry Tokens award lives but do not have to be collected to complete the game, you just have get Terry to deep water". With the game's completion defined in this way, all four versions of the game are completable. None of them is either Maria- or toilet-completable, though. The Red version is item-completable (I have been able to collect them all). The question remains if the Yellow, Cyan and Vektor versions are item-completable, i.e. if all items can be collected in each variant. I don’t think this is the case. The reason I’m posting this message is to ask for help in either determining how the items I cannot collect can be collected (if that’s indeed the case) or else in confirming that it is impossible to collect some of the items in these versions. I RZX-recorded my walkthroughs of the four versions of “TTT” back in 2015. The recordings have been hosted on the RZX Archive ever since and can be downloaded from there, together with a Readme where I list the items I don’t think are collectable in each version. That description is flawed – I already know that some of the items it mentions as impossible to collect can indeed be collected. So please disregard it – an updated list is presented below. I got in touch with Steve (Jammajup) back in 2015. He let me know how to solve some of the problems I had with collecting the items. He also said (in an e-mail), “I recall getting all possible items during play testing on all versions which had to be done but was a chore”. Steve has posted videos of the completion of each version – you can watch them on his YouTube channel. However, in these videos he “simply showed shortest route to game end and not how to get all items”, so they’re not helpful in terms of providing solutions to the problem I’m facing. For the JSW Central YouTube channel I plan to record videos showing the collection of all items that can be collected. So before I re-record the four game versions (or three of them, since the Red version is pretty much ready) I would like to be either able to collect all items in each version or to be sure that some items indeed cannot be collected. [A sidenote: The videos will show the collection of all of the items that can be collected, but not necessarily all of the rooms. My regular “ethos” when recording videos for the channel is to show the game completed as efficiently as possible without any unnecessary loss of life. It this means skipping some rooms that do not have to be visited, they are skipped. The only exception so far have been “Jet Set Willy II” and “Jet Set Willy II+” – since they can be completed without collecting all items, there are two recordings of each of them – one showing a completion with all items collected and no unnecessary loss of life, the other showing a speedrun with only the minimum amount of items collected necessary to trigger the toilet run and lives lost along the way to speed up the process. In case of “TTT”, I could showcase various variants of completion of each version, from the quickest possible completion (without collecting all items and without visiting all rooms – just getting Terry to the deep sea as quickly as possible) to the most comprehensive one (collecting all items and showing all rooms). I have opted for a middle-of-the-road solution – I plan to showcase the collection of all items, but not necessarily all rooms if passing through them would involve a detour. End of sidenote 😉 ]. So here are the items in each version I don’t see that it is possible to collect. Any feedback would be appreciated – both in the form of showing how an item/items in question can be collected after all, and in the form of confirming that you don’t see either how they could be collected. I “TTT” Yellow 1. “Hidden Chamber” (012) Most of the items in this room can be collected after you arrive here via a teleporter from “*SECRET* Ancient Device” (094). However, I don’t see how you can collect the uppermost item marked below: You can’t grab it from below or jump for it. You could only collect it arriving where it is from another room after entering from the room to the left or via teleportation. I believe there is no such teleporter or possibility of entrance from an adjacent room. 2. Room "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124) You can collect the two righmost items after entering from “U-852 Communications Room” (119), which is the room to the right, and you can collect some more items after arriving via teleportation from “U-852 Communications Room” onto the upper central platform, namely: you can grab 8 items without losing a life, and you can grab 4 more while losing one life. Please see the two attached RZX files to see what I mean. There remain 62 items in this room which I believe cannot be collected, including 13 in the enclosure at the upper left and 49 items in the central part of the room, around the stationary guardians. Any idea if there is a way to reach at least some of them? The problem is that “U-852 Communications Room” (119) is the ONLY room in the game which has an exit (left) leading to "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124). So you can only arrive in "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" from “U-852 Communications Room”, in a double way: via the regular left exit or via teleportation. If you enter “U-852 Communications Room” in the regular way, you can collect the two rightmost items and that’s it, you can’t do anything else (as far as I can tell). It *looks* like you should be able to climb through the two walls to reach the right edge of the central part of the room. However, you can’t do even this, because the rightmost yellow 'door handle' (a conveyor cell) is one block too high – you cannot jump up high enough to reach it. If you arrive via teleportation onto the upper central platform, you can collect the 12 items I mentioned above and do nothing else, because you either die smashing against the guardian below or you get teleported back to “U-852 Communications Room”. And then, even IF the player somehow got to the central part of the room, to the right or left of the stationary guardians, they still couldn’t collect all of the items – like the ones that are high up in the air. Or am I missing something??? II “TTT” Cyan I believe 11 items cannot be collected in this version. This number includes: - the uppermost item in the room "Hidden Chamber" (012); - 10 items in the enclosure at the upper left of "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124). Again, am I missing something here? III “TTT” Red The Red version is the only one which is item-completable. This is ironic, given that it’s supposed to be the hardest one. IV Vektor I believe 63 items cannot be collected in this version. This number includes: - 62 items in the room "U-852 SECRET LOAD & KILL SCREEN" (124) – the same ones that cannot be collected in the Yellow version. - 1 item (either one) in the room "STYX - THE RIVER OF HATE" (068): When you are falling down from "DESCENTION" (069), you can collect either one or the other item; you cannot collect them both, because they are two blocks apart. Then there is no way to go back and fall down again in order to collect the remaining item. So for the last time, am I missing anything here? Your feedback will be greatly appreciated 🙂 . TTT U-852 1.rzx TTT U-852 2.rzx
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