Spider

Random pixels. Bit different for me, you'll see why if you look closely at it 😉 Press space bar/key to change background colour and perform a CLS. Its quite fast! , relatively anyway 😉 random_pixels.tap

Thank you Paolo 🙂🙂

Thanks all for the information. 🙂 The BBC Micro and the MSX (at least) have the KeyPad protection, although most variants floating about now either accept any code or have it bypassed completely. There is a slight thought here that both of those were Software Projects versions, rather than Bug Byte. Some other titles from S.P do have similar KeyPad protection on the Spectrum, its layout does not exactly match JSW but its the same thing more or less. As a random sidenote the ZX version of JSW2, the original release, the keycode area of code is not compressed much (if at all) and a one-byte change directly to the tape file along with the CRC being tweaked means it will accept any code. I have such a version saved for my own use.

I'm not going to do any 'rankings' for this as such, although anyone who wishes to post 'their best' , please provide the score / cavern or better still a screenshot of the game over screen. 🙂

I was thinking about this the other day. JSW as we know has the infamous keycode/keypad protection on nearly all variants. If I recall actually the AMS version is harder to read too. Anyway some releases of MM for other platforms also have the keycode present, these are usually Software Projects or Tynesoft. From memory the MSX and BBC Micro version both had it, although it is just like the ZX version very easily defeated as you can change a simple test for zero or not zero to always pass everything (except the right code) Question here is, why was the original MM not protected ? I did think that it was because Software Projects used the system on various titles they had and it was not in any way limited on the Spectrum to JSW. There's certainly enough space for it on the Spectrum version of MM. Unless it was decided when Software Projects released it, there was "little point" in adding it as the Bug-Byte version was already well out and about. Any thoughts ? My leanings are towards the paragraph just above this, as although its a sort of re-release in a way its not in others and if you look at other games that had protection similar, their re-releases (typically to be fair budget prices though) did not have this.

I understand. 🙂 There's a bit of info / pics here on the Spectrum Computing forums. I could not immediately see anything on WOS (I did not login) but their search does not show recent stuff sometimes, it showed ones from 2014 iirc. It is highly likely there is a topic there.

View File Manic Miner - Two Chance Challenge A small variation on the original. Two lives are provided per cavern. How far can you honestly get without rollbacks or any cheating ? 🙂 Note 1 : Although there is a small piece of patch code in the loader to try to ensure the main loader works in later Spectrum models, it may be best to load in 48K mode on these machines. Note 2 : There is a very simple 'anti tamper' check present but rather than punish the player, it will simply remove the detected cheat. Otherwise, enjoy. Submitter Spider Submitted 10/25/2021 Category JSWMM Releases  

I understand 🙂 If you do go, enjoy! 😄 I'm pretty sure there will be a topic or two on both S.C and W.O.S anyway with a fair selection of interesting pics and reading.

This is tomorrow and Sunday 🙂

I fully concur 🙂

There was something similar I read a few years back , I think they actually called it "console syndrome" or something. Basically someone who was not used to 'older games' would be alarmed a bit at no save points and for instance would walk into a fire cell, lose a life and then repeat that action ( ! ) , not expecting such an erm 'harsh' output from it. This could well be perhaps why junior players are not always that great at older games, but I don't really know anyone that can verify this for me. My gaming experiences started where collision detection meant a loss of life or worse still end of game! There is much merit in removal of the air supply for contact with nasties/fire cells etc, as its then in one way perhaps seen more as an energy bar, although for those without much coding experience it may be not that simple. Having said that, there's a bagfull of freespace in MM to use I guess and modern emulators with breakpoints make the job a bit easier as you can step through it to see what went wrong right

The air bar upon contact I actually thought about for a project a long time ago, but (as it was easier) I found it simpler in my case to merely add more air to it, and set black/black for the 'next row down' so you'd not actually see the extra air. A small additional tweak to the ending point also helped. It gave the seemingly valid impression that you'd get 30 to 60 seconds 'air grace' period, whereas in reality the visible part of the air bar which was still the whole row would simply not get touched as it was busy depleting it from the hidden row below. I found 30 to 45 about best as any more and a very fast player on an easy quick cavern (Cold Room) would mean they could finish the cavern before the visible was decremented, resulting in a slightly unusual initial 'air bonus' sound. 😄

Have to say I was aware of some of the things mentioned on Twitter, although (as above) how much is fact vs fiction , I'd rather not say in public 😄

I don't think I can add anything (sensible at least) to @jetsetdanny's excellent post. Apart from perhaps if you look at the trademark images themselves, the player sprite does not look quite right, the wrong hat. It actually reminds me of the player sprite hat from RollerCoaster... Over the years (going well back before 2019) I've heard that much hearsay that I can no longer differentiate between fact and fiction, this is worse when its combined with what as someone with no legal training I'd just call 'legalspeak' too from various parties. 🙂

Yes I've been following it a bit and when I've been able to providing a bit of feedback to the author. 🙂 Its a great game! 🙂

Welcome 🙂 Sorry the sound was out of sync! Emulation choice maybe but the other emulator I use for this does not record video. There's also an MM one of the same if you've not seen it 😉

Restart in same cavern: Software Projects > POKE 34260 , 088 Bug-Byte > POKE 34254 , 088

That's excellent. 🙂 I don't know if you've seen 'SkoolDaze' 'Contact Sam Cruise' or 'Bak2Skool' as they also have a scrolling playing area but it moves by eight columns at at time, I did with those try at one point to make it move one column but it just made a mess, was a long time ago mind you. What you have looks really good. Before I saw the video I thought immediately of the CBM Amiga version of this (there's a video of it here) which does something similar however a serious problem with that version is there is not enough "look ahead" room so its very easy to have an accident unless you're 100% familiar with the guardians and even then its perilous! I really like what I see. 🙂

Attached is a short video of me exploring the mansion. As per the MM video, I did not play very well! A few minor (miner?) accidents and I'd run out of lives. Unfortunately, the sound dropped out of sync when I converted it from raw .avi to a more saner sized mp4. The actual download page can be found here and the (auto-generated by the file submission) discussion topic can be found here I did enjoy revisiting this excellent conversion again though after a few months. 🙂

Attached is a short video of me playing this afresh. I did not play very well sorry! However it does demonstrate some of the caverns at least. Unfortunately, the sound dropped out of sync when I converted it from raw .avi to a more saner sized mp4. The actual download page can be found here and the (auto-generated by the file submission) discussion topic can be found here I did enjoy my short play with this again though. 🙂

Ben Versteeg (byte-delight) post from Facebook

No its not been mentioned on here yet. Thanks. I was a bit caught up in other things although I did post or 'react' to various groups on FB about the loss. 😞

I think I've seen a few 'patched fixed' versions of this in the past. From memory I'm aware (or was) the item in Forgotten Abbey cannot be got at, although other erm 'faults' don't spring to mind. It was quite a while ago I fired up the CBM version of it!

Thought: Are you on Facebook ? 🙂 It may be worthwhile posting about it there in the 'Central Cavern' group perhaps. I could 'tweet' about it, with a link to this topic too if you want. I generally only use Twitter to announce new releases and news from here anyway.