JianYang

Not really a JSW game by any purist's standards, but it's fun.
https://sloanysoft.itch.io/willie
Review (not mine): 
 

Ah yes I saw this on Spectrum Computing the other day, its AGD based if I recall.
I did have a quick go at the first two screens. 🙂 

Not really a JSW game by any purist's standards, but it's fun.
https://sloanysoft.itch.io/willie
Review (not mine): 
 

Probably more in the "loosely based on"-category. Based on a quick image search.

Probably more in the "loosely based on"-category. Based on a quick image search.

Probably more in the "loosely based on"-category. Based on a quick image search.

Excuse the resurrection of an old thread but @CPL has posted a full playthrough of this on their Youtube channel.
 

Thanks for the welcome and the tip about the JSW64 game engines I will definitely check this out as I have tried to get the 128K version working in the editor and it seems to garble the music and text?
As for the "The Deeper Caverns" here are the working drafts for the first 3 levels only 17 to go !!

Thanks to everyone for there support and interest 🕹️😎

Hi Spider, 
Many thanks I have found the videos.
Do you know if it still OK to convert the game for the Spectrum?
I have already started on the first level.

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

A very enthusiastic review.

A very enthusiastic review.

These work all fine on original settings. There is one weird behaviour though: When moving against a wall in The Maze Willy will get stuck at the bottom until you release the direction key. Hard to explain. I hope the screenshot helps.
This could be completely consistent with Speccy physics though. I don't think I've ever encountered an arrangement like this in a Spectrum MM game.
I don't see why these couldn't be levels 81-88 in Redux Long. But that's no complaint. I'm fine with it either way.
Tried it, played it, finished it, works fine. Of the three versions I tried, this actually was the easiest but I guess it's just because I tried it last and had a lot of training with the others before.
 

If you're asking what sprite in the game it's supposed to be: it's that weird red thing in The Freezer. Four balls at the ends of a cross rotating around each other.
If you're asking what real life item it represents: I have no idea. Could be a molecule or a space ship or some kind of toy...?
Your Jell-o (or whatever the British equivalent is) seems to fit better in a freezer.
I did not really understand what your fix was supposed to be, but I was pretty sure that my solution made it easier than yours would.
I'll try your fix next.
And your text based level format: easiest level editing I've ever experienced. Big thumbs up!
Edit: I played through all 79 other levels in Redux Long. I could finish them all.

There are already a few cases where it doesn't behave identically to the original game - you can no longer clip into wall tiles by entering them from the corner; you can now jump into narrow hallways from the right as well as from the left; and Willy's head is solid while walking left. I don't plan on porting the original behaviours for these, even as options.
I'm happy to implement an option to turn off the wall jump, but as you say it's low on the priority list - there's nowhere in the original game where the level design would even have that effect, and only a couple of levels in the whole of MMR so far.

Could this be an option then? I would really love a setting that has all the original behaviour. Not that it's a big deal, but out of principle I like my Manic Miner to behave exactly like 1983 Bug Byte Manic Miner. Maybe at the very bottom of your todo list? I would be even more grateful than I am now.

If you're asking what sprite in the game it's supposed to be: it's that weird red thing in The Freezer. Four balls at the ends of a cross rotating around each other.
If you're asking what real life item it represents: I have no idea. Could be a molecule or a space ship or some kind of toy...?
Your Jell-o (or whatever the British equivalent is) seems to fit better in a freezer.
I did not really understand what your fix was supposed to be, but I was pretty sure that my solution made it easier than yours would.
I'll try your fix next.
And your text based level format: easiest level editing I've ever experienced. Big thumbs up!
Edit: I played through all 79 other levels in Redux Long. I could finish them all.

About the level: IMO the point of that level is that it has two items that are really hard to collect. If you now make both items easy to collect, I'm not sure if there is a point in keeping that level. There seem to be several good levels that are not yet used in the level set. Just my thoughts. Feel free to ignore them.
 
Edit: Forget the idiocy above. I just moved the item up and removed the rightmost spike and still died 29(!) times before getting through the level. That's far from trivial.
On another note. I finally read this thread. You mentioned somewhere something about wanting speccyfied versions of the SAM sprites. I tried my hands at two of them (The Office, The Freezer)
If you're interested I might make a few more. If not, I don't see myself as artist or designer, so you can just say no without hurting my feelings.

About the level: IMO the point of that level is that it has two items that are really hard to collect. If you now make both items easy to collect, I'm not sure if there is a point in keeping that level. There seem to be several good levels that are not yet used in the level set. Just my thoughts. Feel free to ignore them.
 
Edit: Forget the idiocy above. I just moved the item up and removed the rightmost spike and still died 29(!) times before getting through the level. That's far from trivial.
On another note. I finally read this thread. You mentioned somewhere something about wanting speccyfied versions of the SAM sprites. I tried my hands at two of them (The Office, The Freezer)
If you're interested I might make a few more. If not, I don't see myself as artist or designer, so you can just say no without hurting my feelings.

About the level: IMO the point of that level is that it has two items that are really hard to collect. If you now make both items easy to collect, I'm not sure if there is a point in keeping that level. There seem to be several good levels that are not yet used in the level set. Just my thoughts. Feel free to ignore them.
 
Edit: Forget the idiocy above. I just moved the item up and removed the rightmost spike and still died 29(!) times before getting through the level. That's far from trivial.
On another note. I finally read this thread. You mentioned somewhere something about wanting speccyfied versions of the SAM sprites. I tried my hands at two of them (The Office, The Freezer)
If you're interested I might make a few more. If not, I don't see myself as artist or designer, so you can just say no without hurting my feelings.

The bottom right item in the same level with the same settings is also not collectible.

The bottom right item in the same level with the same settings is also not collectible.

Well there's definitely going to be another version, especially considering one of the things you've mentioned... 
I tried to get a good balance - when the delay is too long it becomes frustrating waiting for it to start again. Redux mode adds a short invincibility period at the start of every level to help.
I can add both of these as options.
Having checked myself, this appears to be true. I don't have any issue with tiny modifications to levels to make this happen (I've moved an item up a cell in one of the other levels for the same reason, as well as reversing a conveyor direction), so I'll probably just move the item up one cell to make it work.
Unfortunately I can't reproduce this myself. I'll keep a lookout for it though.
I'm still experimenting with the way the modes are laid out, it's likely to be very different next time. I wanted "original" to be the first impression because I know a lot of people interested in this are going to be coming from the original and want to make sure that it plays authentically. I personally think the Redux settings improve the feel of the game, but as you've said it doesn't feel as authentic.
Thanks for playing!

You have another one now.
 
Great work!
 
Except for the graphical differences and the extra levels (which both are great) so far I cannot say that this feels at all different from the originals with all settings on Smith/Original.
 
Despite me starting to nitpick on some minor things that keep this from being my perfect version of Manic Miner a few words from now, even if you never release another version this is going to keep me entertained for the rest of my life.
 
I love the short delay at the beginning of the levels that give me enough time to get my fingers off the keyboard and prevent the usual MM-multi-death, but it could be a little longer (2x-3x) to give me time to put the right fingers back on the keys.
 
I also love the option of giving Willy an outline, but I have 2 issues with the implementation:
- The outline shouldn't go below Willy's feet. That just looks odd on the ground and rarely helps. A compromise could be a partial outline when standing/walking and a full outline when jumping/falling.
- I would love a colour option "background." A black outline looks great in levels with black background, but way too heavy against other background colours.
 
I don't think it's possible to collect the first item in "The Pink People Eaters" with all settings on Smith/Original. I had no problem with the level on defaults. Checking if Item Collect is set to Smith and either skipping the level or moving the item up one character (one pixel might be enough, but that would probably feel wrong) could maybe fix that.
 
There was one weird issue I had a few times, but I cannot reproduce it intentionally and it only happened randomly when playing. When right ("p") is pressed while dying and I keep it it pressed and press jump ("m") after death the game would sometimes forget that right is pressed and just jump up. This happened most often in "Tokyo Uh Oh." This might just be the one issue with godot on Linux. Everything else feels rock solid.
 
I feel you could improve on the first impression. The "If in doubt, just press ENTER now" message made me go to presets, where I played the original preset. "This is great. It feels just like the original."
 
Then I wanted to see some different levels, so I thought redux long is probably a mix of classic and alternative levels and I just played the classics. So I decided to play redux short hoping it would be only the alt levels. "Why did I think this feels authentic? This feels like JSW2."
 
So I finally played redux long and 30 levels in (70 total) I felt completely exhausted and decided to take a break. And then I looked through all the menu options and found everything I could have hoped for. At that point I would have loved the option to change the settings and continue my game.
 
I think most people who will try this game are enthusiastic about the original, but after 40 years hope for a little change. So I think if you nudge the first time user towards a certain preset, original physics (I guess the slight speed up to 15fps would be fine) + graphic enhancements (outline) + redux long level set would give the best impression with most users. But don't take my word for it, ask around this forum.
 
Anyway thank you so much for making my new favorite game.
 

You have another one now.
 
Great work!
 
Except for the graphical differences and the extra levels (which both are great) so far I cannot say that this feels at all different from the originals with all settings on Smith/Original.
 
Despite me starting to nitpick on some minor things that keep this from being my perfect version of Manic Miner a few words from now, even if you never release another version this is going to keep me entertained for the rest of my life.
 
I love the short delay at the beginning of the levels that give me enough time to get my fingers off the keyboard and prevent the usual MM-multi-death, but it could be a little longer (2x-3x) to give me time to put the right fingers back on the keys.
 
I also love the option of giving Willy an outline, but I have 2 issues with the implementation:
- The outline shouldn't go below Willy's feet. That just looks odd on the ground and rarely helps. A compromise could be a partial outline when standing/walking and a full outline when jumping/falling.
- I would love a colour option "background." A black outline looks great in levels with black background, but way too heavy against other background colours.
 
I don't think it's possible to collect the first item in "The Pink People Eaters" with all settings on Smith/Original. I had no problem with the level on defaults. Checking if Item Collect is set to Smith and either skipping the level or moving the item up one character (one pixel might be enough, but that would probably feel wrong) could maybe fix that.
 
There was one weird issue I had a few times, but I cannot reproduce it intentionally and it only happened randomly when playing. When right ("p") is pressed while dying and I keep it it pressed and press jump ("m") after death the game would sometimes forget that right is pressed and just jump up. This happened most often in "Tokyo Uh Oh." This might just be the one issue with godot on Linux. Everything else feels rock solid.
 
I feel you could improve on the first impression. The "If in doubt, just press ENTER now" message made me go to presets, where I played the original preset. "This is great. It feels just like the original."
 
Then I wanted to see some different levels, so I thought redux long is probably a mix of classic and alternative levels and I just played the classics. So I decided to play redux short hoping it would be only the alt levels. "Why did I think this feels authentic? This feels like JSW2."
 
So I finally played redux long and 30 levels in (70 total) I felt completely exhausted and decided to take a break. And then I looked through all the menu options and found everything I could have hoped for. At that point I would have loved the option to change the settings and continue my game.
 
I think most people who will try this game are enthusiastic about the original, but after 40 years hope for a little change. So I think if you nudge the first time user towards a certain preset, original physics (I guess the slight speed up to 15fps would be fine) + graphic enhancements (outline) + redux long level set would give the best impression with most users. But don't take my word for it, ask around this forum.
 
Anyway thank you so much for making my new favorite game.