Spider

Higher resolution of the JSW2 Amstrad map:

A few weeks ago Richard Hallas brought to my attention a JSW remake that was missing from the lists of games on JSW Central. It is called "Jet Set II" and it was created by Stewart Fordyce (Wizard Software) back in 1985.
I believe this remake remained obscure until October 2022, when it was added to ZXDB and posted on Spectrum Computing by R-Tape. In fact, Richard had spotted it on SC before he let me know about it.
"Jet Set II" has the same layout as the original JSW. Several rooms are completely modified - most notably, "THE FURNACE" (10) replaces "The Front Door", "JUMP IN THE MOTOR" (40) substitutes for "Dr Jones will never believe this", "Space   Invaders" (55) replaces "West Bedroom" and "Above the West Bedroom" (57) bears no resemblance to its original version despite sharing the same name. While most rooms have been altered to varying degrees, some remain unchanged, such as "On the Roof" [18] and "Master Bedroom" [35], the latter now named "GET OUT YOU CREAP".
Guardian paths and item locations remain unaltered, although some guardian sprites have been modified. The title-screen and in-game music are the same as in the original JSW, while the scrolling title message has been edited.
The player is instructed to "guide Willy around his brand new house", to "collect the objects to get some money in the bank" and then to "get to bed before 12:00 am".
I have now fully 'processed' the game (as per my standards). I played it to as near to completion as was possible, identified critical errors, created a bug-fixed version, played it to completion and RZX-recorded it, created a video of my walkthrough for the JSW Central YouTube channel and added the game to the list of games on JSW Central, creating an individual page for it, along with a complete screenshot gallery and download options.
The game's JSW Central page is here, and the YouTube video of my walkthrough is here.
The game as created by Stewart Fordyce was impossible to complete due to a critical bug in the room "Under the Drive" (45). It was impossible to jump over the magenta guardian after entering the room at the upper right, which resulted in Willy's repeated deaths. Since this is the only way out after passing through "Tree Root" (46), where two items need to be collected, this bug effectively made it impossible to collect these items and continue the gameplay, rendering the game incompletable.
An additional problem was that even with this issue corrected, the game would still only be bed-completable, as the wall in the middle of the Bathroom would prevent Willy from finalising the toilet run.
I fixed the "Under the Drive" problem by removing one Earth cell, which prevented Willy from making the same kind of jump over the guardian as in the original "Jet Set Willy". I also solved the Bathroom problem by adding some extra code which allows Willy to pass through the wall during the toilet run. The bug-fixed version can be downloaded from the game's JSW Central page. I was able to complete it, with the loss of one life, at 7:56 in-game time (just like in the original JSW, a life has to be sacrificed to collect the leftmost item in "Conservatory Roof" [43]).
All in all, I would definitely not call "Jet Set II" a quality release by today's standards. I even wondered whether to include it in the "New games" category or rather the "Advanced modifications of the original JSW" section. Finally, I opted for the former. I do think "Jet Set II" has historical value, going all the way back to the "real hardware" era. And, if someone wants to spend an hour or two roaming around Willy's somewhat modified mansion - it's always a pleasure, and it's free, too 🙂 .
If anyone has any more info about Stewart Fordyce or the game itself, please let me know about it (here or by e-mail) and I will be happy to update the information on JSW Central.

A big THANKS and hats off to Andy (Spider) for fixing the site! He did it all by himself, both providing the upgraded software and performing the update. It feels good to be back. Thanks again, Andy! 👍 🙏  👏 🍾

Yes, both top hats AND mining helmets!!! 😄

I concur - Top hats (or mining helmets) off to Andy!

Yes you're quite correct sorry.
A few external factors slowed things down a few days sorry. It was suggested to change the temporary message however at that stage it was only a day away from being done.
I did consider posting in the JSW Facebook group but was not sure if an "external site" would be treated kindly, perhaps I was overthinking.
I knew the host was likely to drop legacy php support however (again other reasons) I was not aware exactly when this was to be, as you know they usually give a few weeks notice of "we're dropping xyz at the end next month" , it is quite possible I missed this notice however.
I did toy with the idea of adding a temporary forum (as was done once before) but by the time I'd done that I could of done this.
 
However on a positive note, we are now future proofed for quite a considerable time and if it should happen again ( ! ) something suitable will be posted and linked to.

Maybe we should have some side channel to contact for the case something happens with the website?
I was curious what's going on, and searching for posts in facebook/twitter/etc didn't reveal anything.

If you notice anything amiss please do a hard refresh in your browser (typically CTRL+F5 or CTRL+R) or hold down the shift key and click the refresh button.

We have updated the software here to future proof the site for newer server requirements.
Sorry for the downtime however it was immediately necessary without prior notice, otherwise an announcement would of been shown for a few days.
 
You'll find things almost just as they were, we decided to remove the redundant 'articles' system as no one ever used it. The topics are best placed if needed with a new area for guides and tutorials.
 
Note that there are still some small adjustments to make over the following week however the site is ready to be opened again.
 
Of course if you should spot anything amiss please either post here into this topic or message me or jetsetdanny.
 
Thank you.

We have updated the software here to future proof the site for newer server requirements.
Sorry for the downtime however it was immediately necessary without prior notice, otherwise an announcement would of been shown for a few days.
 
You'll find things almost just as they were, we decided to remove the redundant 'articles' system as no one ever used it. The topics are best placed if needed with a new area for guides and tutorials.
 
Note that there are still some small adjustments to make over the following week however the site is ready to be opened again.
 
Of course if you should spot anything amiss please either post here into this topic or message me or jetsetdanny.
 
Thank you.

Will hold off updating a couple of days (unless you want to update the file descriptor @IRF ? ) until @DigitalDuck finishes the experiment. 🙂

I've managed to complete Abandoned Uranium Workings with 1856 points, but it's in a very non-standard way and probably shouldn't count in the rankings... I'll reveal more when I'm done exploring other levels.

If the above statement is correct (quoted from the first post of this thread), then I can't think how you managed to achieve a higher score in that (or any other) cavern of the BB* version than you can in the High Score Challenge version!?
(*The HSC is based on BB, so it is possible to achieve one extra point in the SP version's 'The Warehouse', because the different sprites there means that Willy can sneak past the last one, one time-frame sooner. But that doesn't apply to 'Abandoned Uranium Workings'.)

Dynamite Dan II
Dynamite Jet Set 😉 Ideally with an ending this time 😮

I'll check and if necessary update the rankings in the download over the weekend.
Thank you! 🙂

Maybe he's a fisherman, and in the spirit of Matthew's double entendres, it's called 'Willy's Big Tackle'. 😜

I'll check and if necessary update the rankings in the download over the weekend.
Thank you! 🙂

Dynamite Dan II
Dynamite Jet Set 😉 Ideally with an ending this time 😮

But then if Willy's first adventure was set on a chain of islands, it wouldn't have been called 'Manic Miner'! It would have been 'Willy the Island Hopper' or something, and he would be wearing a sunhat or visor instead of a miner's helmet.

Sounds like a great idea for another game...

Sorry a bit late to this party. Thanks for the round up Danny and a belated Happy New Year to everyone on the
forums. I am for some reason listening to Christmas music as I type if that helps? 😉
 
For me personally there is so little free time that even downloading and playing a game to any kind of degree
is something of a luxury. Also, a lot of games as I have 'moaned' about before are so hard for me anyway I don't
get too far into them, and just have the time to spend getting good enough to progress on them. The originals
weren't like that and that is a big reason why I liked them, difficult to finish maybe, but not to play and make
progress. Just my thoughts.
 
However I can only marvel at the efforts of the above, they are brilliant all of them, I have seen them if not
played them for any great period of time. Perhaps that is just modern life, easy come easy go ... pity if you
have sweat blood over something. Hopefully when I retire I can live out my old age finally playing all these
games ...

This is one of the main reasons I *always* play using Rollback. It allows me to progress efficiently through games while solving them "relatively honestly", i.e. without using an Infinite Lives- or any other POKEs. If I were to try completing a game with only seven lives (or even 20, or 50), I probably wouldn't be able to do it at all, and if I really had to do it, I would have to spend weeks and possibly months training to achieve it. I would consider that an utter waste of time - and that's referring to my otherwise beloved JSW and MM games.

Hear! Hear!

Evening! I posted here a couple of times about ten years ago but was more active on WoS forums. Anyway I've been trying to complete MM without saves and ended up downloading this to practice some of the trickier levels. Here's some (mostly third place) scores for the leaderboard:
Cold Room 1972

 
Eugene 1547

 
Vat 1809

 
Kong Beast 3964

 
Amoebatrons 1340

 
These were all on Spectaculator for Android so there may be room for further improvement on an emulator with a proper keyboard.
Cheers!

Yes, I've experienced it too. It is an additional difficulty, and it is frustrating 😵.