Spider

A post on Facebook earlier reminded me of this preview, although I had seen others elsewhere. I've used the pics from my archive collection rather than the ones on FB. Sorry the quality of them is not great. Better ones might be on archive org... The cover: The article itself: Finally, further on in the magazine an advert for the game itself:

Yes and no. Its I think R.T created (or inspired) but it has other artwork in too which I think is the FB creators work. I will look to find the notification if I can as they said I could use it in (something I'm doing) if I gave them attribution for it. 🙂 Sorry that's a bit vague.

The softricks editor has this change where the "lost a life!" routine lives (35841) 35841: LD A, 201 35843: LD (34965), A 35846: CALL 34835 ^ Clear the screen and display the title screen picture with triangle etc 35849: LD A, 1 35851: LD (34965), A 35854: LD B, 50 35856: PUSH BC 35857: LD A, B 35858: CALL 38622 35861: POP BC 35862: DJNZ 35856 ^ Call the routine to play a sound. Default use of this is for playing the title screen tune but its used here for a repeating loop. Alter the value of 50 , try 25 or 75. 35864: JP 35891 ^ Finished so carry on "as normal" with the code to check if any lives remain The second (and third) part could be applied easily to an existing game without using the SoftTricks editor or if the game uses it remove the first three instuctions. I'd recommend trying the effects of altering the value of B at 35865 with the default ST game after removing the first three instructions simply as its easier. Then when happy with the delay/effect, apply those to the existing/new game minus the other ST 'extras'

Yes that's one issue with safe restarting points, you can cheat and for instance get to say the other side of a difficult room.

Yes I'm not sure either on that being the inlay, I did think for other platforms (no pun) but they used the Software Projects label (or Tynesoft for the Acorn machines) Pretty sure there was a misprint label too, I need to check. 🙂

From FB. Notice the difference in Manic Miner, between August and December. My original tape is the first version the "lantern" one , despite being purchased well after JSW, possibly mid 85. I do not think I own the 'ladder' one: I do have a Manic Miner 'custom' artwork however I cannot recall the author offhand (I'll have to look through FB) as I promised attribution to them for its use, so for now I'll not post that one.

I concur with the above posts.

I did modify the softtricks effect a bit in two ways a couple of years ago, I may have the results still in a text file. Basically I: 1 > Removed the flash of the title screen because it annoyed 2 > Experimented with different speeds of the border effect, although it looks and sounds bad if its too slow. 3 > Put the code somewhere else, a more sane place if I recall, just before or just after where a charset would (have to) live If you just want a quick/dirty fix for the original JSW then: POKE 35858 , 14 (or 50) Could be improved on a lot I know.

May have to split these posts off into their own topic at some point. There's also the unlikely issue (does not effect MM or JSW) of issue 2 vs issue 3 keyboards, although this relates slightly to how the ULA responds. Issue 2 is quite rare now keyboard wise as its the ULA iirc.

I think it can vary. It might be emulator specific or vary if Kempston is enabled or not. The potential issue and I've not looked into this is a .z80 contains most of the joystick information whereas a .sna may not as its more 'memory' not much more. Then factor in the .szx format too. EDIT... I did look into it! Freezing emulation in 48K mode in Spectaculator at the copyright line, then taking a z80, a sna and finally an szx results in this, you can see the differences. 🙂 For reference, the joystick type was set to Cursor/Sinclair so it would not emulate Kempston.

Ah I was half right. The issue with emulated Kempston is without the interface selected in the emulator options, the results of a read of port 31 can vary. I've not retested this but I think it varies between Spin and Spectaculator, also may vary depending on what model of Spectrum has been chosen. Best way to test it if its enabled is to map it to 'dead' keys, try to avoid cursor because its likely to emulate these as Interface2 inputs. Perhaps set Kempston fire as right CTRL , that way little doubt.

Please send me the file in question. I'll see if I can turn it into a 48 sna. Likely cause is Kempston emulation, in that its reading from port 31 and detects a 'fire' , causing the game to start. Similar things can occasionally be seen when reloading a snapshot in a different emulator and if it is a game in progress it either resets the machine (not common) or Willy constantly jumps until you press Break and restart the game,. You're on the right track I think.

Welcome here Erix1, glad to have you "on board" , or should I say "inside the mansion" 🙂

An addition to this topic. The 'C64 Longplays' video of the game being played through to completion. Closely resembles the ZX version, including Final Barrier, although oddly minus the scenery, but that is displayed on the title screen. The video got slightly corrupted (minor (Miner? 😄 ) issue on the title screen but the size reduction made it worthwhile to put up with this.

Surprised no one has commented on the "extra" bits 😉

Yes. In theory with some changes to a few of their behaviours (special platforms) it would likely be possible to 'port' those caverns over to two new MM games, it is on my eventual list of things to do.

Oh well 😞 It was worth a look. Sorry if I told you something you already knew about! 🙂 I wonder if its worth contacting the zx art site itself, assuming he's not on SC or WOS, they probably (and shouldnt) pass his contact details on if they have them however they might be willing to contact him on your behalf to ask to get in contact. Not sure what else to say. I assume if you're on FB you've checked the two 'appropriate' groups aka Final Frontier and Central Cavern ?

I have heard of that but not been able to test it yet, but I've edited my post above as I forgot F3 has a function too.

Regarding room design, maybe take a look at my video's for the Sam version of MM , (yes MM) as the extra two sets of caverns may give rise to some ideas for JSW rooms.

The screen: Don't forget to check the zx art site, there might be something there already. There are two neat new Manic Miner screens for instance, worth a look for this new game anyway!

The MSX Palette is a bit that way in its hues. 🙂

Not a poke as such but a cheat mode for the MSX version: Start the game as normal. Press 'W' to pause it. Now carefully type in "XRAYTUBEI" to enable infinite lives Or "XRAYTUBEC" to enable teleporting Do not try to enter both codes at once, enter one, unpause the game, pause it again and enter the other if needed. You'll see which is enabled by text on the lower left and right of the screen stating "Infinite Lives" and/or "Choose Cavern" Similar to the Software Projects Spectrum version of MM, the caverns are accessed with a combination of 0 (not 9 on the SP, or 6 on the BB variant) and 1,2,3,4,5

Not a poke as such but the cheat modes for the MSX versions: JSW1 Start the game then press 'W' to pause it. Now type (carefully) "CUBICNATUREI" to enable infinite lives Teleporter can be enabled with the same method, simply type "CUBICNATUREC" Un-pause the game once you've entered a code (do not enter them both at the same time!) The teleporter works the same way as the ZX "writetyper" except you hold the number key 0 instead of 9 and then use a combination of 1,2,3,4,5,6 For random reference the 'hidden' "How did I get here" room code is 0 + 1,2,3,4,6 JSW2 Start the game then hold down all four direction/cursor keys and space at the same time. Note: In some cases this might not work depending on how your emulator reads multiple key presses (see the 'Emulator Key Scanning' topic, although for the ZX the principle is not far off) Assuming you've managed it: F1 will allow you to move to another room F2 enables single step mode for debugging F3 enables infinite lives

MSX JSW1: Notice the 'extra' room , inaccessible normally.

Sometimes accidents with other cell types (water or air) set to ramp or vice versa can have interesting effects. Talking of square stairs... Further details 'elsewhere' although it was 2018 the last time I did anything to them. They are not finished.