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Hi Spider, Many thanks, this is the first time that I have tried to do something like this so it's great to get some feedback 👍 If it is OK with you I will have a look for the Sam Coupe version and maybe give that a go at converting it ❗ ❗ All the best, B

Thank you. That's impressive. 🙂 I did look closely at the other two level sets for the Sam Coupe with a thought to porting those over, as in either one "40 cavern" game or perhaps two separate ones but it is still very much on the back-burner.

After watching Manic Miner Ports by RetroGamerDiaries I wondered if it would be possible to convert these levels back into the original Spectrum format. The levels are from the Oric-1, Dragon 32, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro and the Gameboy Advance releases and tries to replicate them as close as the original 48K game mechanic allows. Here is the screen from the Dragon 32 against the Spectrum conversion, one of the limitations is that the level Guards all need to be the same sprite, so they are all Penguins. Here is the screen from the Gameboy Advance against the Spectrum conversion, the level Guards can’t move over other objects, so the Seal is above the conveyor. The Space Shuttle level from the Oric-1 uses the lever to remove a section of wall and The Meteor Storm level from the BBC Micro has a beam effect that I wasn't able to replicate. As with the original version there are only 20 levels, but apart from that all the gameplay is identical to the original. As far as I have tested the usual pokes and the 6031769 boot will work. This is the gameplay order and where all the levels came from. Level Title System Level 01 Not Central Cavern Oric-1 Level 28 02 The Dragon Users Bonus Dragon 32 Level 21 03 The End Of The World Oric-1 Level 22 04 Flunky Punky Munkie Gameboy Advance Level 1 05 The Catacombs Gameboy Advance Level 4 06 Mummy Daddy Gameboy Advance Level 7 07 Nightmare Before Last Night Gameboy Advance Level 10 08 Helium House on the Highlands Gameboy Advance Level 13 09 Metropolis Bingo Gameboy Advance Level 16 10 Eugene’s Other Lair Gameboy Advance Level 19 11 Tokyo Uh Oh Gameboy Advance Level 22 12 Jester Under the Bed Gameboy Advance Level 25 13 Clockwork Satsuma Gameboy Advance Level 28 14 The Space Shuttle Oric-1 Level 23 15 The End Dragon 32 Level 22 16 The Meteor Storm BBC Micro Level 19 17 The Channel Tunnel Oric-1 Level 27 18 At The Centre Of The Earth Oric-1 Level 21 19 The Final BBC Barrier BBC Micro Level 20 20 This, folks, is the Last Cavern Amstrad CPC Level 20 While making The Lost Levels I found out that there was a port for the Nintendo DS that includes all the Oric-1 levels that I hadn’t converted along with some of the ones that I have already done (typical) but missing most of the Gameboy Advance versions. So there are 2 versions, it’s a compromise. This follows the DS level order the levels that are missing from my first attempt are highlighted. Level Title System Level 01 Home at Last? Oric-1 Level 17 02 The Airlock Oric-1 Level 24 03 The End of the World Oric-1 Level 22 04 The Hall of the Mountain Kong Oric-1 Level 20 05 Back to Work Oric-1 Level 18 06 The Dragon Users Bonus Dragon 32 Level 21 07 Not Central Cavern Oric-1 Level 28 08 Down the Pit Oric-1 Level 19 09 Metropolis Bingo Gameboy Advance Level 16 10 At The Centre Of The Earth Oric-1 Level 21 11 Eddie’s Forest Nintendo DS Level 11 12 In a Deep Dark Hole Oric-1 Level 26 13 The Channel Tunnel Oric-1 Level 27 14 Tokyo Uh Oh Gameboy Advance Level 22 15 The Space Shuttle Oric-1 Level 23 16 Where's the Hyperspace Button? Oric-1 Level 25 17 The Meteor Storm BBC Micro Level 19 18 The End Dragon 32 Level 22 19 The Final BBC Barrier BBC Micro Level 20 20 This, folks, is the Last Cavern Amstrad CPC Level 20 Both versions are intended to give the experience of what these versions could have been like if they had been coded for the spectrum and try to follow the originals as closely as possible. This is my first attempt at something like this and there are some things and people to mention. This version was made using the JSWED v2.3.7 by John Elliott, and a big thanks to John for his support with some of the questions that I had when first using the editor. The loading Screen was created in Multipaint by Tero Heikkinen. All the levels were tested on original hardware from Cassette and 3” Disk as well as the ZX Spin v 0.666 and ZXBaremulator version 3.2 emulators. The .tap and .tzx files were assembled in BASin release 14b. Labels for Cassette and Disk were created in LibreOffice Impress. One Final Credit: A big thanks to Daniel Gromann at JSW Central for testing all the levels, all the advice about the gameplay. It would not be possible without his support. For me this was just a bit of tinkering to just see if it was possible and It was a great learning experience putting these levels together. I’m thrilled to see it made available to anyone that wants to give it a go. All the best, Byron Lost Levels DS.zip Lost Levels.zip

That's good news for me playing wise - though it may impact my creating time haha 😄 I'm looking forward to playing these Great to see some of the old crew is active, and as you say many more besides! As a side note, you have probably already noticed, Erix1's old Manic Miner Tech site was saved in the JSW remakes site. Vidar gave full permission for that so I'm sure he won't have an objection if you use it or link to it on JSW central. There's some good stuff in there.

Thank you all - I'll look into the options. Appreciate the pointers 🙂

Hi Daniel (or do you prefer Danny?), Excellent digging there - I did find the files, but can't see them yet until I either get the Emu/Editor for mac // my old windows laptop working. (It feels like getting the Windows laptop working will be easier). You're quite right - my memory was fuzzy! (it is is 20+ years) - for The MC Utility Cubicles, and I had added quite a lot to it. I can't recall exactly how much was added since to Phantasmagoria separately, but I will check. If you manage to get the MC going again at some point I'm happy to contribute what I done already. I'll confirm what I have used for Phantasmagoria, and if that's still worth working on. I'll be trying to finish Voyager first, so I'm happy to go with the flow on the mass collab. Either way I'll let you know when I get the files working. And I'll definitely be up for you play testing Voyager 🙂 So to summarise: Get laptop, make it work... Voyager - Top priority - I will finish this! Phantasmagoria - I will see how much extra was done, and decide to either carry on or leave it for the MassCollab. UC Mass Collaboration - either keep what I did, or give something new if Phantasmagoria is a go-er. Ants Invasion - I remember planning it and starting some rooms, so will evaluate when I see it. King Willy - was just an idea, nothing created. I'll finish the other stuff first and see if I still fancy it. I've never done a Manic Miner game, so... 😉 - Gary

MM_SP_Faster.tap The above 'test file' ( while I learned, thank you N.S! 🙂 ) has the following changes (excluding cosmetics like loading picture and slightly altered piano on title screen) The main change is to the four main copy routines which originally used LDIR in the main loop are now replaced with a routine using a number of LDI's resulting in an increase in speed. These copy routines being: Copy master attributes to attribute buffer , 512 bytes Copy master screen pixels to screen buffer , 4096 bytes Copy pixels from screen buffer to real screen , 4096 bytes Copy attributes from attribute buffer to real screen , 512 bytes The relative increase in speed is quite noticeable. 🙂 The only other changes were three small insignificant ones: Willy faces the correct way upon entry on each cavern The highscore is preset to 010000 instead of 000000 Amoebatron's Revenge conveyor is alive. These are something I'd automatically do anyway, probably.

Could you provide the code you are referring to? I mean what exactly needs to be modified and how.

I think @Richard Hallas uses a Mac, so he may have some experience in this regard?

Must say even with one small change to how the four main copy routines are done in the main loop, the relative speed increase is quite impressive all in all. JSW did not quite seem "as fast" doing the same however it did make a large difference still.

(in no particular order) Sendy is back and her long-lost "Jet Set Willy: Role Reversal" and "Manic Person" have been finally gamma-released (with some input from yours truly). Furthermore, she has created "Strangel 2"! It's in a beta stage, I would say. I had the privilege of playtesting it, it's an amazing game. It still needs some finishing touches before the official release, but it's really another demonstration of Sendy's genius as a JSW author 🙂 . Adban de Corcy (Fabián Álvarez López) was active on the forum a couple of years ago. He worked on "Jet Set Jason: In Roddënwald" and developed it much further, but it's not ready for release yet and I don't think he has worked on it recently. I do hope he will complete the project one day, though. Geoff Eddy is a member. He released a very nice new game "Willy does the Great Pyramid!" back in 2021. Richard Hallas posts on the forum from time to time as well as on the "Central Cavern - The Wonderful World of Willy" Facebook group. Andrew Broad was active here in the past, but hasn't been seen for some time now. John Elliott is a member and, hopefully, reads the posts from time to time. He hasn't posted for a while though. Igor Makovsky is a "double member", but hasn't posted here yet. Vidar Eriksen (Erix1) has joined the forum, but unfortunately his presence was only momentary (he contributed 4 posts). The Drunken Master!!! is active on WoS, not here. I don't believe Stuart Hill has joined this forum, but he has commented on "Monstrum" on the JSW Central YouTube channel (revealing interesting info about the ending). That's a quick overview. I may have missed some people (sorry about this!), this "old-timers" list is not necessarily exhaustive. And there are some wonderful people here who were not active in the Yahoo! Group days but have done A LOT for JSW and MM in the last decade - I'm sure you will be pleased to e-meet them 🙂 .

Gary, Thank you so much for your official approval for the fixed WCH file - it's greatly appreciated! 👍 I will add this info to the Readme and to the game's page on JSW Central soon (within a couple of days). Thank you also for your permission to use stuff from your website 🙂 (which continues to be a reference point for me from time to time when checking some things related to the games from that period or earlier times). Regarding the JSW128 "Mass Collaboration" (MC) based on Utility Cubicles - I do intend to move this project forward at some point and bring it to completion. Sendy (who was its original coordinator) gave me permission to do it some years back on the Yahoo! Group; she may be involved as well, as the came back to the scene last year. There is also a person here at this forum (Jet Set Willie) who has already contributed some rooms to be included in the final version of MC. However, before the project is relaunched, there are some things that need to be done to get the file ready for a renewed circulation among authors, and in my current real-life circumstances it looks like I may not be able to find enough time to do it for quite a while. So the project is on the backburner as far as I'm concerned, really, but I do want to come back to it one day when circumstances permit (even if it is a few years from now). I do recall you estimated "Voyager" to be around 60-70% done. This is great and it would definitely be fantastic if you completed it, given that so much work has gone into it already 🙂 . I've checked your posts on the (now sadly offline) Yahoo! Group and here are the references you made to your unfinished games (apparently there was also one named "King Willy"): Wed Mar 13, 2002 sendy wrote: > gawp, what happened to your game? is it still going?! If you mean JSW - Voyager, yes. I found (most of) it on an old disc, so I'm on it again. I may put up a pre-beta demo for feedback? I've also started a new JSW game called 'Ants Invasion'. Will gets 'shrunk' to ant-size and has to escape from an ant-hill. It'll be better than it sounds... Wed Sep 4, 2002 (...) Voyager is coming on nicely (about 100 rooms now) and will be released at some point. Ants Invasion is mapped out on paper, with only about 15 rooms done. A lot of work there. King Willy is still in the design stage. I may do that one on the PC editor. Wed Apr 28, 2004 I'll upload more stuff soon. I'll put up a rough guide to areas in Voyager ASAP so people have a rough idea what's out there. I've also been working on 2 other JSW games. "Ants Invasion" and "Phantasmagoria" (the 2nd one uses some of the abandoned rooms from the UC MassCollab). But Voyager is the priority at the moment. I really want to get it done, as it's been too long in the making. Wed May 19, 2004 8:36 pm I've put a few preview pics up for "Voyager" and "Phantasmagoria" in the photos section under the 'gawp' folder. I've done about 40 screens for Phantasmagoria now... So how is "Phantasmagoria" exactly related to the original "MC"? You've mentioned that it uses "some of the abandoned rooms" from it. "Abandoned" meaning ones you designed for "MC" but then decided not to include in that project? I look forward to all and any projects you may choose to continue 🙂 . I've replied here.

I don't ever use Macs, so I don't know. However, I can share some info about running JSWED on a Mac. Igor Makovsky asked about it recently. The conversation is in the comments under the video here, starting with Igor's comment "Game author here. It was a dedication to my lovely SO, btw". As mentioned there, I reached out to John Elliott, JSWED's author, of course, to see if he can help. He got back to me and said that he hadn't tried to build JSWED on a Mac. He said it would be necessary to install the software development tools, download the source for JSWED and the libraries it uses, and compile it. Alternatively, it might be worth trying to run the Windows version under emulation, if the Mac has a suitable Windows virtual machine or emulator installed. John currently doesn't have access to a recent Mac, so he can't really offer detailed advice for this.

Thank you again 😄

Welcome back 😄

I'm not sure having not owned a Mac for a long long long time (PowerPC 6100!) running System7 😮 😄 Do newer versions of the OS not have "Wine" (or similar tool) which lets you run some Windows programs ? Wine is for Linux but I've not really tried it much to see how good it is. I'd not recommend trying a virtual machine inside the Mac as it may run so slowly and be quite annoying.

I figured I should say "hi" properly here. My name is Gary - I was part of the old yahoo group 20 odd years ago, and hosted the JSW Remakes site (as "Gawp" hence the user ID here). It's been a long time, but after I stumbled on the walkthrough video on YouTube for my old "Willy Comes Home" effort, I found my way to JSW Central, and here. Thanks to @jetsetdanny for fixing it, and making the toilet run work (I honestly intended to fix it, but y'know...). It was a blast to see it completed, and see how it could have been better! Also a big hello to @Sendy The Endless - hope you're good, and it's great to see you've been busy with JSW again - I always loved STRANGEL in particular 🙂 Apart from Danny and Sendy is there anyone else around from back then? So many questions!! Anyway, great to be 'back' and I'm looking forward to playing the many new remakes that have spring up in the last 20 years, and hopefully finishing "Voyager" 🙌

Currently I don't have a working windows PC/laptop. I may have an old one I can re-purpose, but if not: I noticed on John Elliott's site he says "Versions of JSWED exist for Win32 ... and for Linux with SDL. The Linux version also compiles and runs on BeOS and MacOS X". Does anyone know if it works on a Mac? Has anyone tried? Similarly is there a decent emulator for Mac these days?

Had a quick look and I can confirm the games I had going were: "JSW Voyager" - I will will put effort in to get this done as I remember it being good fun! "Phantasmagoria" - I salvaged this from the original "Mass Collaboration" based on Utility Cubicles (I'd added quite a few rooms to this), and I think started Phantasmagoria with that as the basis when it stalled. I'll need to look into the files to see... "Ants Invasion" - Genuinely can't remember how much I'd done, but I'll see. From memory I think Voyager was somewhere around 60-70% done, and it was a JSW128 game. If they're worth it I might look into converting one or both of the other 2 to a JSW64 variant, as that could be fun, extra gfx etc. I noticed in John Elliott's site he says "Versions of JSWED exist for Win32 ... and for Linux with SDL. The Linux version also compiles and runs on BeOS and MacOS X". Does anyone know if it works on a Mac? Has anyone tried? I may give it a go.

Hi Spider & Daniel! Thanks again for the the welcome, and this excellent forum and site. It’s been great browsing through again. I’m really looking forward to playing the many new games that have been added in my (long) absence. Yes, please my approval to the fixed WCH readme - I’m highly grateful 🙂 Also feel free to add any blurb you see fit from the remakes site which is amazingly still up! I will try to get an editor and emulator working - my main issue is I don’t have a current windows pc / laptop. (Currently just a Mac for music production and photoshop). I may have an old laptop somewhere if I can find it and get it working. I’m feeling inspired to finish Voyager. Fingers crossed. The other I was thinking of was a collaboration (can’t remember the title - maybe based on Utility Cubicles?), and another I started called “Invasion” or similar. I will see what I can find, and will definitely be grateful for play tests. I’ll keep you posted. - Gary

Hi UncleWan, welcome to the forum! 🙂 It's great that you've found this place, been able to overcome all the technical difficulties and can now post here. I find it amazing that you like MM and JSW while you first saw JSW only about 3 years ago. This actually gives me hope that some people in the future, long after our time, will still like the Willy games, which of course will be to them like perhaps us reading ancient literature or something. I've had a look at your Baidu page. Interestingly, when the page is translated automatically from Chinese to English, the game's name becomes "Crazy Miner". That's an interesting twist on the title 😉 . So thanks again for joining the forum and we look forward to the (unexpected, to be honest, while positively exciting) feedback and input from China!

Hi Gary, It's great to see you here! 😁 Thanks for joining the forum and welcome! 🙂 Thank you also for your positive attitude regarding the fixed version of "Willy Comes Home". Could I add your "official" approval to the Readme which accompanies the fixed version? I am aware of only one unfinished game of yours. It's "Voyager". I keep a file of it that you once posted to the Files section of the Yahoo! MM/JSW Group - it's called "Voyager(partdemo).zip", with "Voyager(partdemo)" in TAP and ZXS format inside. It' looks great (when browsed through in JSWED). I can send it back to you via a PM if you should need it (however, perhaps you might have a later version than the one you posted in the Yahoo! Group Files section). Please let me know if you need it 🙂 . John Elliott's JSWED still works like a charm, including on Windows 11, so hopefully it should be easy for you to work on a JSW game or two again. I look forward very much to "Voyager" being finished and released - it really is a very interesting project - and to anything else you might create. And if there is anything I could do to assist (like playtesting), I'll be more than happy to do it 🙂 . - Daniel

Thank you Spider😊, I had a lot to say, but I ended up deleting them. The bottom line is: I think my difficulties are nothing compared to what I found here. It's nice to have like-minded people.

Welcome Gary , thanks for joining and posting about this creation of yours. I'm sure we'd all be interested in the "other projects" you have too. 🙂

Hello and welcome. I did see your message about difficulty registering, I'm sorry about that. We don't have any "geographical / country" restrictions imposed here so I have to assume the issue (you solved yourself) was perhaps your service provider or similar. I can only think the captcha may of caused issues as it does use Google to get the actual image "puzzle" to solve. I checked via a third party tool that the site is or should be visible from there too, testing from "Shanghai" and "Guangzhou" , both got a "OK" 🙂 I was able to view your webpage and then via a translate tool read most of them too. 🙂