Metalmickey

You wouldn't need to tell the player how many items there are in advance, but I think it wouldn't do any harm to have a little visual clue that Willy has finished his mission and it's time for beddibyes!

Its possible to tweak the code to make it count the items remaining down instead, although the actual 'counter' does not really bear that much relation to the 'remaining items' counter if that makes sense. :)
 
As an alternative you could simply tweak the scrolling message to say x items/objects instead.

I think we might have changed it to him/his bed in The Nightmare Edition, although I haven't checked. It's an easy thing to change though.
 
Edit: Thinking back, I think the main reason for the change was to free up one character, because we had replaced the word "midnight" with "high noon", which is one character longer.
 
But thinking about the subtext, it does perhaps make more sense as his/him. The last character of the scrolling message (the final +) doesn't get used anyway (try replacing it with something daft and you'll see what I mean).

excellent, worth having i think, particularly as it just makes use of existing code

excellent, worth having i think, particularly as it just makes use of existing code

Oh, I also meant to say: if you take up the idea of activating the 'Screen Flash' routine at the point when Willy has collected all the items, you could make an intervention at #9429 (just after the LD A, #01) with a CALL to another spare space in the code, then at that new location, insert:
 
LD (#85DF), A   [this is the existing command relocated from #9429 to make way for the CALL]
LD A, #08          [or #10, which in decimal is 16; I recommend a value that is a multiple of 8]
LD (#85CD), A   [set the Screen Flash Counter to that value]
RET
 
The Screen Flash Counter will then be decremented once for each pass through the Main Loop, as the screen PAPER cycles through the colours, until it reaches a value of zero and the flashing stops.  :)

oh by the way i am pleased to report that i have completed my completion routine which i have briefly tested and i have also added the anti-flash pause coding, many thanks for that (and to skoolkid) .. before i give further details about all the other changes and release it for playtesting i will re-write the read-me doc including all the enhancements and of course more detailed credits and references whilst eagerly awaiting your solution to the jagged finger effect

another little thing i want to have a look into .. during the garish psychedelic flashy bit that follows the Moonlight Sonata at the title screen the end of scrolly message reads "...so that Maria will let you get to your bed..."
 
does anybody think that this was deliberate? perhaps a cheeky nod to the frustrated teenager playing away at some un-godly hour trying to get the job done before his / her well overdue bed time?
 
i read somewhere (probably in this forum) that someone perhaps thought it should say " ...so that Maria will let him get to his bed..."
 
personally I like the first idea, i'm not really that inclined to change it if i'm honest .. but then i'm probably just being lazy
 
thoughts?

oh by the way i am pleased to report that i have completed my completion routine which i have briefly tested and i have also added the anti-flash pause coding, many thanks for that (and to skoolkid) .. before i give further details about all the other changes and release it for playtesting i will re-write the read-me doc including all the enhancements and of course more detailed credits and references whilst eagerly awaiting your solution to the jagged finger effect

Well in fact it does work even with the clock running at double speed ;)  it might not work for some depending on where the extra routines have been added, i have found a large chunk of seemingly redundant code which i have been using to add various little enhancements including the 'out of time' routine .. i've no idea what it might have been used for originally but if you have a look at one of my files that i previously uploaded you might be able to see what i have overwritten

Thanks for the latest code, Norman.  I've tweaked and replaced the 'Norman' file attached to my post from last night (the one with three files attached for 'compare and contrast' purposes: unfixed, Ian's fix and Norman's fix).
 
EDIT: In implementing your latest tweak, this time I have left the two additional spare bytes at the end of the screen-drawing code (instead of bothering to consolidate it with the six spare bytes at the start).  They might be useful for some other purpose (such as adding an AND #80 prior to the nearby check of the internal 'ticker' [see #8A50], which has the effect of doubling the speed of the digital clock on the status bar).

If you try POKING 34253 to a value such as 8 or 16 whilst the game is running, you'll see the Screen Flash effect working.  :)
 
Either that, or play Manic Miner until you've collected 10,000 points.

I thought about bypassing the pause routine but then i thought maybe that's not as AMI .. he went to the trouble of creating an enhanced routine compared to the MM pause routine so maybe we should allow it to be used .. besides, i like a challenge!  :D

I thought about bypassing the pause routine but then i thought maybe that's not as AMI .. he went to the trouble of creating an enhanced routine compared to the MM pause routine so maybe we should allow it to be used .. besides, i like a challenge!  :D

Interesting thoughts there guys, i've almost perfected the game completion routine, with my still very limited although much improved knowledge of assembly language i have managed to put in a routine that follows after Willy has been inspecting his fine porcelain for a while. i've not yet tried running the 'redundant' code where the screen flashes and i don't really know what to expect but perhaps i might try implementing it into my new routine 

Interesting thoughts there guys, i've almost perfected the game completion routine, with my still very limited although much improved knowledge of assembly language i have managed to put in a routine that follows after Willy has been inspecting his fine porcelain for a while. i've not yet tried running the 'redundant' code where the screen flashes and i don't really know what to expect but perhaps i might try implementing it into my new routine 

Or perhaps extra lives were originally meant to be added to the game engine, but finally the idea was never implemented?  :unsure:

Hey Mickey(!)
 
I'll shortly be working on another bug fix (building upon Norman's - see the 'Jagged Finger Effect' thread), which could benefit your 'As Manufacturer Intended' project.  Over on that other thread I've given some examples, as has Norman, of the two interlinked 'bugs' that the fix should be able to address. :)
 
EDIT: I think I've made some progress on the above, although I've not yet tested it out to see if it improves the way the screen is rendered to the extent that I hope.
 
******
 
I also had something else in mind, for which I've left a contingency plan in place...
 
I was thinking about the unused 'Screen Flash routine'.  It was left in the JSW code as a relic from Manic Miner, where it takes place whenever Willy gains an extra life.  But there is no mechanism for gaining lives in JSW.
 
However, thinking about the concept of 'as manufacturer intended' - perhaps the routine was left in place for a reason?
 
I'm speculating, but maybe it was originally intended that the screen would flash to signify that all of the items have been collected?  Only, that would have given the game away, for the competition that was held at the time of the game's original release...
 
Just a thought!

I had noticed the one in the To the Kitchen/Main Stairway way back in the day when i first played it, i thought it was just a conveyor thing then realised that it was only that one that flashed, never spotted the Nomen Luni one though...

There's a bug in the 'Cycle the colours' routine (#8AEB):

- If you pause the game in 'To the Kitchens...Main Stairway', the non-flashing Conveyor starts flashing once the screen colour cycling effect starts to take place;

- Conversely, the normally flashing room elements in 'Nomen Luni'/'Under the Roof' (i.e. Earth blocks in the former, and Fire cells in the latter) stop flashing whilst the screen colour cycling effect occurs when you pause the game.

Richard (SkoolKid) has come up with a simple fix: insert an AND #B8 command prior to the ADD A, #18 at #8AFA.  For it to work properly, that needs to be followed by the existing AND #B8 at #8AFC, and so two additional bytes need to be squeezed into the routine.

The easiest way that I can see is to insert a CALL at #8AF9-FB to elsewhere (somewhere with six spare bytes). Then at the new location, have:

LD A, (HL)
AND #B8
ADD A, #18
C9

Just a heads up by the way, figured out how to speed up the clock, got the end-game routine sorted (almost) and made a minor change to the Master Bedroom
 
Before i decide on what to do about the Monk in the Chapel I just need to work out how to put in a delay so that on completion Willy gets to have his head down the toilet for a minute or so before my additional routine...
 
oh and i've made some changes to the Key entry as well...

Just a heads up by the way, figured out how to speed up the clock, got the end-game routine sorted (almost) and made a minor change to the Master Bedroom
 
Before i decide on what to do about the Monk in the Chapel I just need to work out how to put in a delay so that on completion Willy gets to have his head down the toilet for a minute or so before my additional routine...
 
oh and i've made some changes to the Key entry as well...

Well #9590 resets the minute counter to zero, so you could put some code after that which gets the thing you want to happen to occur when the minute counter to #FF. That make it recur EVERY minute though, depending on what it is?

Just a heads up by the way, figured out how to speed up the clock, got the end-game routine sorted (almost) and made a minor change to the Master Bedroom
 
Before i decide on what to do about the Monk in the Chapel I just need to work out how to put in a delay so that on completion Willy gets to have his head down the toilet for a minute or so before my additional routine...
 
oh and i've made some changes to the Key entry as well...

i think it's worth putting it in, after all a bug's a bug and that's what my project's all about. .. though some might question as to whether it's worth it since it's only going to be seen once throughout the whole game .. i guess that's why so few people spotted it before