Spider

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

Totally agree. I had a very quick look today (got the old laptop working for now) and seems I added quite a lot to Phantasmagoria form the original MC version I have. 
It would be a shame to waste both so I’m happy to work it out depending on MC interest down the line. 
I will prioritise Voyager though. 

Yeh I totally understand about “real life” as it’s all busy here too. For me a bit of JSW-MM editing is good downtime I can jump in and out of quickly. 
I’m happily surprised that the scene is so vibrant 😊

Either is fine. Outside of the MM/JSW world I usually use "Daniel". Here many people refer to me as "Danny", probably because of the nickname "jetsetdanny", which I created as a username for e-mail and forums, but I've never been particularly attached to (never used it as a nickname to sign my games or other projects I've been involved in). But I kind of like "Danny" and I've grown quite used to it 🙂 .
  
It'll be a pleasure 🙂 . I'm looking forward to it already!
  
A great list! 😁
It's your call, of course, but I would definitely second finishing "Voyager" first, given how much work you have put into it already. It just seems such a waste when advanced projects don't get finished...
Later on, let's see about the Mass Collab. I did mention that 'outside-life' circumstances (not to say 'real-life', since MM and JSW are as real to me! 😉) may not allow me to attend to it for quite a while, but we'll see. Perhaps your active involvement (in one way or another, taking "Phantasmagoria" into account) could help me prioritise it over some other projects/activities. After all, it's a very advanced project, too, so it must not go to waste. I definitely won't let it go to waste, it's beyond any doubt for me that it should be finished (with some involvement from the new generation of JSW authors, if they wish to contribute), it's just a question of proper timing and harmonising the time and effort it will require with 'outside' pressures...

Great news! 😁
Indeed it is! And you've come back at just the right time, because 2023 was an exceptional year for the MM and JSW games for the ZX Spectrum with a record number (compared to the previous decade and a half, at least) of releases of brand-new games, as I tried to summarise here. So now you've got a chance to contribute to this positive dynamic! 😉

I used zx32 back in those days, but it's definitely out of date now.
I believe this list of emulators may be useful, and also this one (the latter featuring direct download links).

Yes that is the correct link - there are many sub pages, and certainly at the time Carl was confident he had it all, and I uploaded everything he saved. Obviously some of the external links may not still work. Sadly I don’t think I have it saved anywhere now - I will double check though. 

Thanks, Gary!

The patch vector feature of the JSW64 game engine could maybe help you to achieve the special effects in some caverns referred to above (trampolines, vacuum descents)?

That makes perfect sense. I think people who have tweaked the code usually did it to make the game run *faster*, though - or at least that's what they usually referred to or seemed to be aiming at. Hence my observation (paired with the often-heard complaints or comments about the difficulty level of various games).

Making something run more efficiently doesn't have to mean speeding it up - it can be used to make the game run at a smooth speed (syncing to display refresh and counting frames) instead of speeding up when there are less enemies and slowing down when there are more, or add other more complex elements to the game.
Personally I think somewhere between original Manic Miner's Central Cavern with music off (about 12fps) and the GBA version (20fps) is a good speed, which is why I set the default speed to 15fps in Redux.

There are videos here of those caverns too.
The 'full' game itself is denied (afaik) however there are a few variants, some don't have the extra caverns and some do, plus the freebie 'demo' one that only contains a couple of caverns.
The actual 'layout' is very similar in the code itself.

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.

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.
 
EDIT... Update:
New loading screen (as logo then full) , Andy Green 2018
Item collection sound (not in exactly the same place as other games)
Score status line flicker reduced (not eliminated but reduced)
Demo mode now plays the full ingame tune per cavern instead of half of it
Pressing BREAK during gameplay will update the highscore if its new
MM_SP_Faster V2.tap
No other changes, plenty I want to do but it is a demo/basic building block for others.

Just been playing this, through to Attack of the Mutant Telephones on my first go, very smooth and playable, thanks
Andy!
 

We have gone over 16,000 posts on the forum today, 25th April 2024! 😁
You can't see it on the main page with this new version of the software (because it only shows a rounded-up number), but we have been tracking it on the admins' side and it's just happened. A big thank you to everyone who keeps the forum going! 🙂 

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.
 
EDIT... Update:
New loading screen (as logo then full) , Andy Green 2018
Item collection sound (not in exactly the same place as other games)
Score status line flicker reduced (not eliminated but reduced)
Demo mode now plays the full ingame tune per cavern instead of half of it
Pressing BREAK during gameplay will update the highscore if its new
MM_SP_Faster V2.tap
No other changes, plenty I want to do but it is a demo/basic building block for others.

Hi Spider,
I have found this video "SAM Coupé Longplay - Manic Miner - The Deeper Caverns" it looks very interesting and yes I would need a workaround for the trampolines or vacuum descents.
All the best

Hello Gawp. I have asked about Mac editors previously, I do have a pc, but tend to use my macbook
more these for most things, so a Mac editor would be really good. In truth I have not looked that hard, it
may be that someone has compiled JSWED for Mac and it is currently on github or the like, have you had
a good look for it?
 
EDIT: this looks interesting?
 
https://github.com/muckypaws/Manic-Miner-Engine
 

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

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

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 🙂
 

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

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.

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