MtM

Merry Christmas all, and to all a good night!

Don't know if anyone else has seen this, apologies if so, saw it on the Spectrum Discord group.

This opinion has been raised before, it is valid, Next games can often look like Amiga games (but not quite as good imo) however it does not mean you have to make them look that way, you can use original Spectrum palettes etc, and could realise a MM / JSW game but just using a few more colours, which would be a real benefit I think, a multicolour Miner Willy, and nasties too. The palette used in Melchior's Mansion is an example of keeping the original Spectrum look but using the new HW. I have backed all 3 KS for the Next, it's a great machine and worth supporting, as are the team behind it, in truth, it does lack some good games I think, there are quite a few games now, but few real quality games imo for it. It is improving though. It would be incredible if a new MM / JSW came out for the Next, and would likely capture the imagination of a lot of people. I have touted the idea of a crowdfunded version of MM / JSW for the Next - imagine if MS could be recruited, and paid, to work on it? Or even NS for that matter! We can but dream ...

Brilliant work!

Only had a few quick goes so far, it is very hard, and you have a distinctive style, both visually, and sound wise, in fact the title music makes me think of That's the Spirit on the Spectrum, don't know if that was an influence to the game? Or maybe Danny if you did the music? I read how it's a series of mini tunes that play one after another. Anyway, bravo for the effort! Thank you very much for doing it!

Just thought I would post this here out of interest and in case anyone had anything to offer about it. https://www.lemon64.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=86938

I use a Macbook pro, I really should get this to work as well and create my masterpiece! 😉

Bravo to everyone involved, real bit of JSW history here, thank you.

I hope your underground cinema club showed plenty of Андрей Арсеньевич Тарковский Tarkovsky's use of colour in particular is superb. I can't think of another director of that era except perhaps Kubrick who made film scenes look like still life due to the colour used. It would be good if MS made a lot of money if MW became some kind of cultural logo, a bit like the Nike tick.

You are a smooth operator Igor for sure!

Those curtains are incredible!

Good luck with that list, it's very impressive, surely you will have done more versions of JSW than anyone if you manage to achieve all of these? I am sure Danny can tell us who holds the record for most versions of JSW at this time Danny, that is the original version?

Thanks for posting that Danny, I knew of Henry's Hoard but never realised it was Martyn Brown who had created it, whose name I have always associated with Team17 since my Amiga owning days. Very sad, 57 is very young by today's typical ages. He seems to be well remembered though.

Yes that is it exactly with what happened to me, but I was playing on a pc through firefox, but perhaps I lost focus on firefox somehow. I will re-visit and try and get to the later screens. Apologies, I wasn't entirely happy with what I typed, it seemed a bit negative which I didn't mean it to be, as I say, your efforts are terrific with what you have created.

I just had a go of this now. No criticism intended, but does not seem in the spirit of the original, which was simple enough, and held your hand enough for you to very soon observe how it all worked, then you could continue playing and learn how to get better at it. Also, there seemed to be a bug, on about the 5th or 6th level, MW kept walking to the right even though I was not pressing anything or on a conveyor etc. Modern games come with tutorials - but hard to see why MM needs one - the paragraph of instructions on the inlay card was enough for most games in those days. However, I envy your ability to create such a thing, and hopefully you can go on to create more MW content with your skills, just my opinion of course, and hopefully a measured one. As I say, not a criticism, I commend your efforts they are really impressive.

Saw this Andy, it's mega, on the SC forums, really impressive. I wonder what NS makes of it as a feat of programming? Can you imagine what we would have made of it if it had been around 40 years ago or so? Just mind blowing!

Ah of course, makes sense, I remember the original game does not use real-time.

Andy, Was playing your 40th version with 2 hour time limit tonight, on my Next, but it's way less than 2 hours in reality to finish the game, you get under an hour in reality, am I missing something, or is it the Next? I am using mode 0 vga on the Next so these are the most accurate timings. Probably me I know!

Andy, Top work as ever, thank you!

Thanks for this Norman, it's fascinating how you have continued to code and work on this over such a long period of time, and continue to refine it - long may it continue. A real pity it may never make it to the general public but understand and respect your decision and it is of course your right to do so... A v4 would be good if you ever came up with the time and reasons for doing it ... public release of course 😉

Ho ho ho! How about a Christmas theme Andy, is it possible to change it to red or something for the Festive season? Some kind of snow theme even? Not trying to make work for you...

I think with modern emulators that is just a good quality of life thing both snapshots and rollback, the kind of things we would have liked back then but didn't have, incredibly few games had a save feature, more on the C64 with a disk drive. Being able to make snapshots, easily poke, and rollback has given a new lease of life to many games. I would never have been good enough to finish JSW II without saves etc.

I knew someone would think of something! Excellent suggestion that Jet Set Willie, and one I ought to have thought of myself. I wonder if there are any others, struggling for any more to come to mind. Thanks for the correction! Makes me think perhaps Lode Runner too on the c64, but that had a built in level designer, not sure if anyone is still actively making levels for it, maybe it counts.

Yes it must happen Andy! Would be great to see it - can never have enough versions of JSW!

Just wondered was there no celebratory thread about JSW being 40 years old this year? I didn't have time to check the forum much a few months ago, just wondered if I missed some kind of celebration about it? 40 years is a long time for any game to have a playable lifetime, I know there are plenty of other classics from 40 years ago, not sure if there are any that are still being developed using the same engine etc, JSW maybe unique in that respect? Sure I will be proven wrong!