MtM

I suppose the scrolling messages just make me scratch my head a bit, they seem inconsistent for me with the rest of the game. Why have scrolling messages on a couple of early screens, then no more throughout the game? I think it makes sense more on the first screen if there is a single person in the world left who does not realise to pick up the flashing objects and make for the flashing level portal, so the explanation message works then, but to counterbalance that, this is what the beautiful, precise precis of an inlay card did, brief scenario and explanation of what to do, so a modern .txt file could likewise do this job. Who can forget the immortal write up on the JSW inlay - a more beguiling description is hard to imagine. 36 years later it still inspires people to play. I digress. Just thinking about the scrolling messages, perhaps if the screen sizes changed again throughout the game and more messages were there to be read that make me get over the consistency idea? Or does that happen on normal mode? Presumably not. Just my opinion anyway, I hope it is taken in the spirit it is offered. Your comments about diagonals and stairs makes me think - have I seen stairs in any other MM mod? I can't think of any, but I am sure there are people here who will correct me if I am wrong about it. Anyway, now I would like to see stairs and short swings in MM! It's okay though, as once Dr Broad has written his H* engine these will be standard features of any further MM / JSW game ;-) As for the Next keypresses, the Next is a quirky machine, it's great for sure and hats off to the team, but not without a few, well, quirks. I think it could be more of a physical keyboard thing with the Next than an electronic / specification issue. What the Next really needs is a Next specific version of any of either JSW / MM or preferably a game that rolled them both into one somehow on the Next. That would be a killer app. Worth crowdfunding.

Just a bit of feedback about Manic Panic for you Norman. 1) there is a spelling mistake in the scrolling message - 'cessation'. 2) Completed it last night on trainer mode which is reasonably easy as you would expect. The penultimate screen I think based on tennis is a tricky one until you work out which way you need to approach collecting the objects! 3) I love the fact there is no flicker on any of the sprites, and as you have said before that they a) pass through objects and b) are masked - it looks fantastic I think. Likewise the odd diagonal. 4) An in game tune would be nice, but I have enjoyed the greater speed too, though occasionally it did not feel like my keypresses had been read, but that might be a Next thing. Overall, it is excellent, but I still think the scrolling messages in the early screens feel a bit odd. I would say they break immersion, but I won't ;-)

Ah, right, in that case, starting back in Eugene's Lair, for the first time, my score is 36281.

Yes, it is a very good feature. The game is _still_ too hard though ;-) Just on screen 23 on Manic Panic, hoping to maybe complete it tonight. A few times on the Next making snapshots corrupted the screen at the top, only a couple of times, it was unusual. Sorry, the short swing is as you assume, i.e. a rope as in JSW, but not as big, more along the lines of the swings in Turmoil if you have ever seen them. It would be a unique feature to any MM mod.

Okay, here is my current score:- 65043 That was after completing it once and from the Wacky Amoebatrons screen for the second time. I have used snapshots as I have said so no worries if I am disqualified ;-)

It is certainly different feeling, especially if you have familiarity with the original. I am glad that this is what you were trying to achieve though. It has a different feel to it now, and is certainly harder. I thought that this was a good feature and gave the game an improved feel and increased its playability. If you are an experienced player of MM then to have things be similar but different when playing is a positive experience and means you learn something new too. I liked it. Now, how about a short swing being implemented in MP? Is it even possible? I like being able to play in trainer mode with a good chance of success to complete a level reasonably easy, but still with consideration given to what now feels like 'health' over 'air'. I know it is not the right place, but briefly, I have played your JSW128vm recently Norman - my goodness, what a piece of work! Awesome! Will never complete it it's far too hard, but even so ;-)

I had that same issue. The trick is to keep walking onto the white boxes from off the right most conveyor. Not the most intuitive thing to do but it does work. Just part of the dastardly design! In truth I found this screen a little too cluttered aesthetically.

Yes, that explains it perfectly, thank you! Here I was thinking I had found a bug and all ... ;-)

Thanks for that. At the moment there is no need for more air in Solar Power, as I say, when it reaches 0 you don't die anyway, it just continues. I will see if it does the same on other screens tonight. I am guessing it is a bug though?

Would this be a patch to fix what appears to be a bug on the Solar Power screen, whereby you do not die when your air runs out? I found this out last night. In truth, not tried it on other screens, that will be tonight when I get chance. I am not quite sure what you mean about using .tap files though? There is less flexibility with the Next for .tap and .tzx, you cannot stop/start the tape like you can with emulators, one advantage emulators have. I daresay the Next men will update this at some point. I could get my snapshot from the Next and load it into a pc emulator and manipulate it that way if necessary?

The Menagerie? Really? It has always seemed one of the easiest screens of all to me. Oh well. Solar Power is always hard. I agree that the air level is very generous on the screens though. Right, I better go and try and make some progress on it ...

Right-o. I am playing it on my Next so no roll-back possible anyway, just snapshots. Bloody Ore Refinery at the moment. Is there a prize for top score? ;-) That makes me think - don't know if it has been done, is there a 'least favourite and why' MM screen thread anywhere? Probably not needed, but Ore Refinery might be in it, don't like that long conveyor belt!

Don't wait until then, start it now! It could be a real boost - you have all this expertise available on this forum, these must be amongst the most specialised programmers in the world here, think of what could be achieved in such a short space a time? Particularly if everyone put away their own projects to a degree and contributed to this one if you needed the help. Out of interest, do you have criteria that your putative H* engine has to meet, such as run in 48k, etc, and if so could you share them? Apologies for my ignorance, I am sure it is obvious, why 'H*' as a name? I guess I did in all the excitement! Excellent, what is the tune or is it a surprise?

This makes me think of playing the excellent re-master of The Bards Tale series last year and this. The dungeons in that game are unforgiving, like MM & JSW. Things that damage you always do, and you are forced to learn that you have to avoid them, there is no way to beat them or stop them from damaging you. Perhaps you can read into this a higher level of reality, as there are things just like in it real life, and there is no way to avoid the damage except to avoid the thing itself (falling off a high building) etc. If you think of say the original Tomb Raider, which is almost 25 years old now, there was so much forgiving scope in that game, you fell down high places and did not die, that players didn't really have to be as nervous as maybe we were playing games in the 80s, when it was a one shot deal, no saves, nothing. I am not saying that was better then, being able to save your game is a very useful feature, and easily the thing that improved the re-master of the Bards Tale, to the point where it was a lot easier to complete. That and automap.

Thanks for clearing the 48 k issue up Norman, I appreciate your expertise on this. I will have to go back and finish JSWII+ at some point. It is very interesting to hear your thoughts on the coding process. Has anyone ever just written a new engine for making MM & JSW games from the start, so that in theory it would benefit from all the refinements that have been made over the years, rather than keep patching or altering the original code? Or is the JSW128 engine that? Are you saying Normal that you cannot prepare the music in the format you say above? Have you got a tune in mind? That is a very good point, and reminds me of the frustration of playing JSWII to completion earlier this year! Ah, so maybe no-one has written a complete engine from the beginning then? Yet it seems to me like there are several people on here who are more than capable of doing that, though I guess real life gets in the way some times. Would copyright these days not have reverted back to the original author in absence of a liquid concern holding the copyrights? Didn't Elite plan to release a new version in some way, I know they had a modded version from 1985 they were on about releasing, but it all seemed to go very quiet and has been since. Sorry if the size of this post breaks the forum rules :-0

I have a score coming up, so please keep it open. Mind you, it will involve me using snapshots, or is that not allowed?

Thanks for this, that is interesting, I did check your site but when I saw no entries for JSWII never thought of looking elsewhere. I stand corrected! Is the JSWII engine more difficult to work with than the original MM & JSW engines? I have read that the room data is not compressed/ encrypted in JSW so it is easy to edit etc., but from what I have read about JSWII, particularly on http://www.jdawiseman.com/papers/games/jsw2/jsw2_updated.html it looks like the author of JSWII is still an active and very able programmer, and maybe JSWII reflects this, making it harder to edit or use the engine? Are there possible copyright issues? Just wondered, mainly because so far as I can tell JSWII is the biggest of all the JSW games room wise, or am I wrong about that too? I would love to see something on that scale again anyway, with mainly easy screens (!) Or skill levels like Manic Panic.

Keep on plodding Norman! Apologies for my ignorance, have you ever used the JSWII engine for any of your games, or just the MM engine? In fact thinking about it I cannot think of too many modded versions of JSWII. I know that the original author Derrick Rowson has released an updated version in 2016, but am struggling to remember playing any modded versions of it - am I wrong? No, actually, just checked on https://jswcentral.org/list.html#ListofJSWIIgames there do not appear to be any JSWII mods, thought that was the case. What is your overall goal for Manic Panic?

Thanks for the response, really appreciated. I am working my way through the game level by level when I get chance, think I am on level 13 at the moment, just with making snapshots etc on the Next. I did note that last night there was no way to get the music back on in game, unless I am imagining it? The masking graphics I like a lot, especially the Willy sprite, it looks so much better and clearer in terms of gameplay. Yes, I meant 'Greek urns' too, instead of flowerpots. For that matter I have Manic 40 too, I must see where I am up to with that as well. I applaud your efforts, sir - long may they continue! You are making a real contribution to a seminal and now legendary game series; it has changed people's lives, which may sound a little grandiose but there is evidence to support it.

I had a good session playing this last night, and I daresay I will again tonight. I really like it, the graphics just seem eye-popping on a 4k monitor that I have my Next connected to, it just looks wonderfully colourful. In terms of what you say above, can the game be completed on 'normal'? I assume so, so apologies if that is a daft question. I note too that the level designs are to be found in some of your other MM based games, the flowerpots etc. The diagonal moving sprites really break things up too aesthetically as well as gameplay wise - unless that is from a different version of MM I have played, there are so many, if so then sorry :-) I re-read what I had written above about the screen design in Perils of Willy earlier in the thread, and realise that it is not applicable here in a way because those screens themselves were designed originally back in the 80s when that game first came out, so have not been too altered in terms of difficulty compared to the modern mods of JSW and MM that can be so hard. Personally I think the system you have employed here is excellent and caters for everyone. I am not sure what the scrolling messages add to the early screens that a static message like a room name wouldn't add? I do like too in later screens where the whole screen apart from the bottom 2 lines are deployed as gaming area, something different from MM but it looks really good visually and gives more room for design. As for the size of the memory used above, is producing a 128k version a possibility? Hope that this is constructive for you.

I have downloaded the 10CC version (I am a huge fan of 10cc!) so will give that a go too. I think that the different versions is a fair compromise for people with Manic Panic, I am looking forward to its next release. Has anyone ever considered the idea of a crowdfunded official Jet Set Willy III? With the ability on this forum, and the very outside chance of getting Matthew Smith's blessing if not contribution too, it might be a goer? Just a pipe dream...

I have downloaded and played Manic Panic on my Next - and for that matter many of the remakes mentioned around here. I really like it. Here is some feedback though, which is applicable to many recent MM / JSW clones. I find them _all_ far too hard, especially at first, to be as enjoyable as they deserve. I realise that I am perhaps not the master MM / JSW player here compared to the rest of you, but their difficultly level puts me off playing. I get enjoyment from exploring in the MM/JSW universe. Please take that in the spirit it is intended. I have finished MM & JSW without pokes, albeit with snapshots on emulators, so I am not completely useless. I appreciate all your efforts with these games, I know you have all slaved over writing them over many years, I do love them and thank you for your efforts. I would just like something with the difficultly level of the original MM or JSW though. Even JSWII gets overly hard in places, and I battled to finish that without pokes and did. How about something a bit more pastoral? I know that you all no doubt relish the challenge of very hard MM / JSW remakes. As a good example, although I have not finished it yet, I thought that the recent Perils of Willy struck a good balance between difficulty and enjoyment so far, I am on level 14 I think. I hope that helps, not criticism at all, please continue with your efforts, I will enjoy seeing how it turns out.