Spider

Excellent work. :) :) :)

I'll have to have a good think. Here's a couple: Which JSW game featured "The Object Shop" ? Which MM game was not in English ?

This is a very simple 'loader' I sometimes use when working with original (with bugs) versions if required to quickly apply patches. It may be more use on a real machine or cases where you want to emulate the tape loader in full rather than apply (via an emulator) a .pok file. It was purposely made quite simple and is played before the main JSW tape as it uses that to still load the game rather than having its own loading routine. This did mean I had to number the lines a little bit oddly to 'fit in' however. :) The following POKES are applied via the patch: The four 'official' Software Projects POKES: 56876,4 = Change the earth cell in The Banyan Tree to water so Willy can climb the tree 59901,82 = Fix the invalid arrow data in The Attic aka "The Attic Bug" that caused game corruption 60231,0 = Remove one fire cell from The Conservatory Roof allowing Willy to collect all the items present there 42183,11 = Remove the invisible (and unreachable) object from The First Landing and move it to The Hall The codes to disable the keypad code entry page (as there seems little use in it these days) 33979,135 33800,202 34483,195 (This one changes it to accept any code so is probably not required) SkoolKid's Pause Mode bug fix (as this one seems to work very well) , this only tend to occur if an Interface 1 is present however on real hardware: 35615,62 35620,219 35621,254 My small contribution / addition towards the Pause Mode bug fix is this single poke which simply prevents the game auto pausing if the in-game tune is off (it does not pause if it is on anyway) 35518,0 Enjoy! :) JSW1_Patch_Loader.zip

:) No problem. I have several B versions, the original 'tape' one (on a .dsk) which is more or less normal. The JSW 2 versions vary a bit, I concluded there are just two actually (even though most are .dsk images now) , in essence a 'tape' version and a 'disk' version. The tape version is massively cut down to fit, the 'In Space' section is about complete but the mansion has had a severe chop. The 'disk' version is about the same as the CPC/Spectrum/C64 version with all screens more or less there. It loads each section from disk as you progress so there's a slight delay. Some of these versions have cheats on but as far as I'm aware I have the only (working) copy of an immunity version of the 'full disk' version of JSW2 for the BBC, as the patched versions elsewhere ie stardot etc seem to be the cut down version. Regarding the 'updated' version you should now have access as I've moved you to the contributor group for your submissions (thank you!) :)

Ah that yes. :) , I've always considered it a bug or something Matt left in by accident to be honest: i.e. more a 'teleporter' feature which does not make logical sense in the way the mansion layout. My custom version of JSW (only available currently to Contrib group until we're happy with it) does not have this 'feature' The other thing you may want to think about is the Watch Tower, the reason Willy ends up in Off Licence after jumping off the top is the room for 'up' is either undefined or set at 1 (Off Licence) again this was fixed in the 'custom' version. The fix was very easy actually, simply shorten the ramp by one block and then move the conveyor down by one block. This way willy cannot jump heigh enough to exit the screen via the top hehe. :D I can list the changes made to this version if you want as I tried very hard to not 'modify' the game in any way that was really noticeable but at the same time fix obvious (and some not so obvious) issues.

The 'loop' effect is usually because room 1 is "The Off Licence" and undefined entries (or missing ones) will cause the player to appear at this screen. :) , if that makes sense.

Excellent thank you! :)

Here's a simple loading screen I've just put together. :) It combines the logo from the title page with a suitable copyright message (very similar to the Software Projects version of Manic Miner) The code is a simple basic loader, with a highly compressed screen (reduced to 1362 bytes from 6912) and a standard LOAD for the game code. The loader does *not* contain the game code. The loader is extremely simple, the Basic is called "Jetset", the screen is called "Jetset1" and it expects the game code to be called "Jetset2" I decided to move the 'beeps' to after the screen was shown, seems somehow better ( ? ) here. A small pause was introduced at the end to allow those using real disk hardware (if it was put onto disk) to allow the drive a couple of seconds to stop. Here is the tape structure: And here is what it looks like: Loader .tap file (Loader only, no game code) NewJetsetPic.zip

Here's an 'alternative' loading screen I put together a while ago. It combines both the Software Projects copyright message (diplayed during loading) as well as part of the title screen and the 'flashing' blocks of the original loading screen. The only slightly tricky part was filling in the 'gaps' where it would be blank along the top third, nothing that a bit of careful use of ZX Paintbrush could not fix. The loader does *not* contain the game code. It expects a headerless block of 32768 bytes to be loaded after the screen has drawn. You can return to basic by doing a POKE 32798,201 before running the loader code if needed. The screen is compressed to save loading time, reduced from 6912 (plus say half a dozen bytes for the loader) to 2278 bytes. A significant saving. :) The loader basic and code is very simple: # Call the screen decompressor (this extracts and moves the screen data to the screen) 32768: CALL 32803 # Move the loader code (see further on) to 21280 so its out of the game's way: 32771: LD HL, 32785 32774: LD BC, 18 32777: LD DE, 21280 32780: LDIR # Call the loader now we've moved it to 21280: 32782: JP 21280 #LOAD "" CODE 32768,32768: 32785: LD IX, 32768 32789: LD DE, 32768 32792: LD A, 255 32794: SCF 32795: CALL 1366 # RANDOMIZE USR 33792: 32798: JP 33792 The screen looks like this: Tape structure: Loader .tzx (no game code, only loader) Manic_Miner_New_Loader.zip

I was thinking about this earlier. :) 1. Allow easier scrolling when selecting a file to load, as you have to click for each 'movement' I've found. When you're browsing a large directory it can take time. I guess the 'user fix' for this is simply to save into a certain special directory though, so it may be self inflicted in some ways. 2. I was thinking more about the 'Attract Mode' , I think one great improvement here would be to remove Willy from each screen as it is displayed as this way he won't fall or land on a fire cell etc, falling in particular causes room changes and / or it tries to catch the 'life loss' by removing him. I was simply thinking of perhaps how JSW2 has an attract mode, just display objects and nasties etc not Willy himself.

Excellent. :) I think it (might) be difficult to do it in less though. It is a small change but worthwhile I think as its how they should be as you say. The attributes on the one in The Nightmare Room make it difficult to see though, I had to look closely. :D Talking of conveyors I was thinking of doing "something" with the one in the Conservatory Roof as plain white does not inspire. I think perhaps just some black ink pixels to give it 'life' might do the trick. :unsure: , I had a quick look again to remind myself, see here and only the Amstrad CPC version has animation. The BBC/C64 etc follow the 'plain white block' affair for JSW1.

I recall reading the Megatree was (apparently) supposed to be bigger too, it may be those unused screens were intended for that. I also recall very vaguely that the ending was not what was planned something about Willy dancing with Maria for an 'ending' hmm.

Just realised new posts (rather than just new topics) were being held for queue too, fixed. :) Sorry for the minor inconvenience. It only effected this area anyway "Site Links"

If you do the official 'Move' poke for it aka POKE 42183,11 it goes to The Hall (but as noted its still invisible) :) Here is where it 'appears' if you apply that poke, I gave it a temporary shape simply so you can see it. Its X/Y position has not altered though that I note, only its screen appearance. I would (guess) that perhaps it should of gone into Ballroom East instead simply as there is an item graphic already designed, then again there are several screens without objects that have item graphics already present.

I wonder when the WOS forum will be 'back' as such. I have seen a 'in progress' preview of it however.

It does not actually fit many screens, as either its "in the air", in an earth cell or in the path of a nasty. Disregarding screens where it is "in the air" really it only leaves two: Ballroom East and The Hall, so I placed it there: Its effectively "AT 13,22" so to speak. Interestingly the item graphic for Ballroom East was already defined, I quickly defined one for The Hall just to show its place.

Very interesting, thank you. :) I do seem to recall one version (Possibly the C16 version, I'd have to check) does have an item in the First Landing just to the right of the ramp. I don't have much free time left this week (I'm not likely to be here tbh) however I will try each screen with an object at The Beach object co-ordinates to just see what it looks like and if it seems sensible or otherwise.

@Zub, I was thinking about The Beach screen earlier. Where do you think the 'extra' object should go ? :) , Given that it should not be a single located double object. I thought about further down the beach but that did not seem quite right. I also thought about moving it to The Bow but again that did not seem correct.

I was thinking about this earlier (the Spectrum Software Projects 'official' fix) and decided to compare a few versions to see. As a random off topic note, I also noted that the BBC version is the only one that appears to retain the 'auto collect' object in Swimming Pool too. Anyway, the Spectrum original, as you can see its got the four 'Fire' cells still: Here is the fixed version of the same, I actually just used the 'They Sold A Million' re-release (the one that's curiously Speedlocked) as the 'fix' is the same, one Fire cell gone: Now lets take a quick look at the Spectrum version of JSW2, this follows the Amstrad CPC version as expected as it was based on that from what I understand. There's just two Fire cells: Taking a look at the Amstrad CPC version of JSW1, we can see they changed it a little bit (possibly for the better?) with the four objects and only two Fire cells: The Amstrad CPC version of JSW2 follows the same pattern too: The C64 version of JSW1 follows the Spectrum 'fix' in this with just one Fire cell removed: The C64 version of JSW2 is rather more curious with an extended platform: The BBC version of JSW1. This again follows the Spectrum in just removing one Fire cell: Finally, the BBC version of JSW2. This breaks slightly with convention as its identical to the JSW1 version (I used the 'full' expanded disk version of this which contains nearly all the rooms including the full mansion)

They are an excellent read. :)

Thanks. :) Yes the Swimming Pool, I did toy with other screen colours but just chaning the rope 'ink' colour seemed the easy and safe method. That's a good point about the object on The Beach aka "waves" but I did not want to remove an object from the game. If you place it on the edge of the Beach, Willy can reach it without being 'forced' onto the conveyor, I did try it there. The First Landing object, I was in two minds what to do with it :lol: , I guess a quick + graphic and dropping it down a few blocks seemed the logical answer, some pokes floating around to add a platform and make it visible at the top seem a bit odd, I was not keen on those (pic of said attached) With a default Spectrum game the following pokes add the 'Platform': POKE 56347,0 POKE 56350,0 POKE 56357,170 POKE56358,170 Which results in this (note the object is still invisible as its not got any cells set) I'm not keen on that somehow. :unsure: :D

Great. :) Thanks for the kind comment in the other topic about the site too, appreciated. I did have as you can see three pokes for the time (and some other stuff to blank out the time display itself that I've lost) but shorter is much better. One thing I did notice although it might not be related it could be something else I'd done, sometimes (just to make it more fun to track down) with out any time display the 'collected xyz' part of the text can turn yellow upon a loss of life.

All correct. :)

Correct. :) This challenge was taken to the FB group though but its still fun for those here who have not seen the 'answers' there.