Metalmickey

I put this code into my AMI version and playtested to completion, i can confirm that there is no (visible) red flickering what i noticed and indeed there is a very big improvement in Willy's animation, particularly in very bright rooms like The Front Door and Entrance to Hades. 

Just to report that there is an error in the files that I uploaded earlier in this thread to demonstrate the patch in action; at #8A30 I put '7E' LD A, (HL) when I should have put '77' LD (HL), A.
 
However, this only affects the code which causes Willy to run at double speed during the toilet dash (the error means that he just automatically proceeds leftwards at the normal speed after reaching the bed). It doesn't diminish the ability to use the files to compare the 'before vs after' effect of the patch on the Jagged Finger and Delayed Attribute Effects.

The lower memory area (below 32767) is used during the game for various variables and storage such as the screen buffer and various counters.
 
You can save a complete JSW by doing 33088,65536-33088 as the needed code for starting afresh starts at 33088***
 
*** It will go higher but there is a much needed 255 byte at 33088 in JSW. Alternatives are to insert that after but you only really 'gain' a few bytes shaved off the loader block. The issue with this is JSWED can be confused by a block shorter than 32768 bytes however. 'Released' games I do tend to just save "what is in use" though rather than the whole lot.
 
You can easily gain space however, if you exclude the last few 'dead' rooms and the ] room, you have the following easy to use spaces, depending on preferences. I realise there are more :) but these are easy to use (you may of seen these recently mentioned elsewhere)
 
1. If willing to completely remove the keypad entry (and edit the startup routine to just those three instructions posted a few pages back) then the entire code from 34463 to 34761 is 'available' , these are the three keypad routines themselves
 
2. Same as (1) if willing to do that then you can also release 39680 to 39999, this contained the keypad graphics and the attributes for that screen.
 
3. Again (sorry) if doing 1+2 you can then release 40448 to 40959 as this contains the codes and finally the keypad messages which free's up 34187 to 34250
 
 
Other spaces:
 
38622 to 38911
 
39936 to 39999
 
40627 to 40959
 
42624 to 43775
 
:)

just something a little off-topic here, correct me if i am wrong but from what i can make out the original JSW occupies precisely 32K of system memory. Could other areas of RAM be used for routines for the purpose of say for example additional rooms or routines that might somehow further optomise the game somehow?

Norman Sword,
 
In reply to your recent spate of messages, please note the following:
 
- The people active on this forum do what they enjoy. If we enjoy discussing the spelling of room names, finding little efficiencies in the code or speculating on what Matthew Smith may have meant to do, who are you to tell us we should not be doing this?
 
- We quote things because we react and refer to each other's posts. If everyone just posted things without referring to anything other people have written, this forum would be a collection of monologues. This is not what it is about.
 
- Your efficiency as a programmer - from what you claim, at least - is apparently very high. You deserve respect for this, and you can be a very valuable contributor here. There are many threads on this forum, and new ones can be started easily. You do not have to follow those threads which do not interest you. You are most welcome to follow those which do, or start new ones that you consider pertinent, and your technical contribution is and will certainly continue to be highly appreciated.
 
- The version you have running - 102 rooms, multiple tunes, walls that move, etc. - will you upload it here? Will you release it? Will you publish a disassembly, so that other people - we, who are only beginners at Z80 coding - can profit from your, perhaps professional, expertise?
 
- There is no need to be rude to people who have not done anything to you. This is a friendly forum. People try to be supportive and to appreciate each other's contributions and efforts. As mentioned above, your technical knowledge is and will be appreciated and welcome. However, if it comes accompanied with insults towards other members here or the forum itself, it will be hard to enjoy.

I think he's saying that the opcodes aren't compressed, but the data bytes are?
 
But yes, he did come across a bit like a Brit abroad asking the Spaniards why they can't speak English as well as he can!

You seem to be contradicting yourself here, on the one hand you are saying that JSW2 doesn't run with compressed code and in the very next sentence you're saying that it does so i am not entirely sure what you're trying to say here .. guess it doesn't really matter .. evidently you're experienced in Z80 machine language so i bow to your superior knowledge but just bear in mind before you berate others that you were not born with the knowledge, you had to learn it just like everybody else  

Just to let you know i have put in the code, it's quite a striking difference with the alternative coding in place, quite impressive, in spite of his rather arrogant attitude i have, out of courtesy asked him permission, since he wrote some of the code, if it would be OK to use it. My only concern here is that i will not receive a particularly pleasant reply, seems to have a chip on his shoulder, not sure what his problem is if i'm honest... :blink:

ok no worries, i will of course credit yourself and Norman, i'll send him a quick message once it's ready just out of courtesy

Check your PMs in about five minutes...

ok no worries, i will of course credit yourself and Norman, i'll send him a quick message once it's ready just out of courtesy

ok no worries, i will of course credit yourself and Norman, i'll send him a quick message once it's ready just out of courtesy

It's not actually a lot of work, please bear with me as I really think it would be worth adding to the project.

If my memory serves me rightly i believe i did indeed use this area, i think i put your guardian halo fix here but most of my new code resides from #A690 onwards as there is over a kilobyte of unused code here. I've not been particularly byte efficient with the coding, i've just been copying existing routines and making modified versions of them but hey it gets the job done :D   

If my memory serves me rightly i believe i did indeed use this area, i think i put your guardian halo fix here but most of my new code resides from #A690 onwards as there is over a kilobyte of unused code here. I've not been particularly byte efficient with the coding, i've just been copying existing routines and making modified versions of them but hey it gets the job done :D   

If my memory serves me rightly i believe i did indeed use this area, i think i put your guardian halo fix here but most of my new code resides from #A690 onwards as there is over a kilobyte of unused code here. I've not been particularly byte efficient with the coding, i've just been copying existing routines and making modified versions of them but hey it gets the job done :D   

Thanks for this Danny, i'll include some of this in the readme file if that's ok with you

Sure, it's OK with me :) . I've only pointed to some articles on the Web which deal with the subject, so they should be credited, I guess.

Another possible idea here Mickey:
 
http://jswmm.co.uk/topic/293-keypad-graphics-bright-bug

I like it just as 'Special Branch', which isn't just a geographical descriptor but has an alternative meaning in its own right (which might not immediately be obvious to a non native English speaker?)
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Branch

Thanks for this Danny, i'll include some of this in the readme file if that's ok with you

Okay, it's time for the answers  :) .
 
Before I give them, it must be stated that the basic question concerned the original "Jet Set Willy II", and the bonus question concerned the revision of "Jet Set Willy II+" hosted (since November 2016 and still at the time of this message being written on 11th March 2017) on Julian D. A. Wiseman's website, which is, in fact, "Version +e.2" (as stated in the scrolling message on the title screen). It has since transpired that newer revisions of "JSWII+" have been created and "the last update" is "Version +e.22" hosted on this forum.
 
So the correct answer to both questions is A :P . Both the original "JSWII" and "JSWII+" Ver. +e.2 can be completed (in the sense of reaching "Oh $#!+!The Central Cavern!" after the toilet run) in less than 45 minutes of in-game time :D .
 
I have been able to complete the original "JSWII", with the minimum necessary number of 150 items collected and some lives lost in order to gain time, at 00:42:42. Additionally (beyond the quiz question), I have been able to complete the game with all 175 items collected and no loss of life at 01:08:11 in-game time.The RZX recordings of both of these walkthroughs have now been added to the original recording of "JSWII" done by AndyC and hosted on RZX Archive since August 2004, and can be downloaded from here.
 
As far as "JSWII+" Ver. +e.2 is concerned, I have been able to complete it, with the minimum necessary number of 180 items collected and some lives lost in order to gain time, at 00:44:42 in-game time. I really had to push this one to the limit to go below 45 minutes, re-recording the walkthrough for efficiency and looking for a more optimal route. Completing this version with all 207 items collected and no loss of life has taken me, in turn, 01:12:56 of in-game time. The RZX recordings of both of these walkthroughs have now been included (as a historical curiosity) in an updated set of recordings of "JSWII+" hosted on RZX Archive and can be downloaded from here.
 
Now, as far as "the last update" of "JSWII+" is concerned, i.e. "Version +e.22", I have been been able to complete it, with the minimum necessary number of 298 items collected and some lives lost in order to gain time, at 00:52:59 (to be precise, I collected 299 items, because the bathroom tap was collected inadvertently during the toilet run), and with all 325 items collected and two lives lost (which is necessary to collect some of the items) at 01:16:30 in-game time. The RZX recordings of both of these walkthroughs are in the ZIP file which was mentioned above, hosted on RZX Archive, which can be downloaded from here.
 
All of these completion times are only possible thanks to an extensive use of the Rollback feature in ZX Spin, which is the ultimate game changer (pun intended)  ;).

According to the information on J. G. Harston's website:
 
Who won the JSW competition?
The JSW competition was won by Ross Holman and Cameron Else. Ross then became a writer for the illustrious Your Spectrum, before it became crap. (In a funky skillo sort of way.) I don't know if they got the chopper ride, or met Matthew Smith, but they *did* get the champagne.
 
Ross & Cam hacked JSW, realized that it couldn't be completed as it stood, so produced the necessary fixes - which then became the official Software Projects Pokes - and then completed the game, phoned up Software Projects, told them that Willy went to commune with the Great White Telephone, and that there were 83 objects.
 
 
According to the information posted here:
  Software Projects announced a competition with the original release of Jet Set Willy, stating that the first person to complete the game would win a case of champagne and a helicopter ride over London, to be piloted by Tommy Barton, a director of Software Projects. The competition was won by two Londoners; Ross Holman and Cameron Else. The pair opted for cash in place of the chopper ride, but they did get the champagne. (Ross & Cam hacked Jet Set Willy when they realized that it couldn't be completed as it stood because of 4 major bugs, they produced the necessary fixes which then became the official Software Projects pokes. On completing the game they phoned up Software Projects, told them that "Willy went to commune with the Great White Telephone", and that there were a total of 83 objects.)

It's not been tried before, TTBOMK, and I doubt there could be much saving, because the repetition is limited. I mean, you may have five notes (values) which are the same as a little bit later on, and then one note (value) which is different. Even though the five are repeated, say, four times, the one different note following them is always different. So making the sequence of five notes repeat but with the one note at the end different each time would be quite tricky, I think.
 
Please note I'm just writing it off the top of my head to illustrate (what I think is) the problem. The info about five notes and then one note is most probably inaccurate, I'm just using approximate numbers to illustrate the pattern.
 
I'm not sure how much spare space you need, but there is quite a lot of it in the original "JSW". SkoolKid shows most (although not all) of it. In the Special Edition of "Willy's New Mansion" we (meaning Ian and myself) have pushed its use to the limit, I believe, trying to use up every single byte of spare space plus introducing various space-saving optimisations to the original code. "WNM SE" Readme documents it thoroughly, so probably you might find some ideas there if you really need some more free space in your project  :ph34r: .

Correct indeed Ian. In my original copy there is even a competition where you are encouraged to write in to Software Projects and guess the number of items to be collected .. i never did find out what the prize was...