MtM

Is no. 4 the Crypt by any chance? 😉

Top work Andy!

They will give you nightmares these pictures!

Some these pictures are quite disturbing

1 hour ago, SymbolShift said:

After implementing my rope, I am still somewhat bewildered as to why Matthew Smith used the control system he used for climbing up/down the rope. The climbing logic used in JSW is...

Rope swinging left:
left key = climb down / right key = climb up

Rope swinging right:
left key = climb up / right key = climb down

Anyone I know who jumps on a rope for the first time is totally baffled on how to control Willy, as the climbing direction reverses when the swing direction changes. That said, after a while, you do eventually get used to it. I have coded the above method in my game (since it's true to JSW), but I did try a simplified version (left = up, right = down, no matter what swinging direction) and it seemed way more logical.

I wonder if there was a valid reason that Matthew Smith programmed it this way. Maybe there IS a reason? or maybe it's just a side-effect of lazy coding?

Would love to hear any thoughts on this.

It always seemed fairly intuitive to me for some reason, I don't know why. Maybe that was the same reason for MS?

This is a good and interesting post! Not something I had thought of really before about MM / JSW. I suppose it seemed like a logical progression, JSW is a more complex game than MM, and ropes and arrows fit in and are part of that complexity. Not sure I would agree with an afterthought by MS, only personal opinion of course, but Hunchback was what, 1980 in the arcades, 81 at the latest? So it predates MM by several years and was a really popular arcade game of its time, I put enough 10ps in to last a lifetime, I loved it, and finished it actually once or twice, well, got to round 15 and then it all changed as I remember.

Anyway, ropes and arrows seemed to be coherent to me in JSW, due to their complexity and MS's improving coding skills maybe too.

I love ropes! I don't know if you have ever played Turmoil on the Spectrum by David Turner, it is a spell blinding game, full of short ropes, very very difficult but not quite as hard as Technical Ted I would say. Ropes seem to be the ultimate mode of transport in a platform, especially a flick screen platformer. If you think of conveyors, moving platforms such as in Chuckie Egg / elevators etc., nothing quite matches a rope. The chutes in Bounty Bob are pretty good too, but not so controllable, perhaps the fact you remain in control of Willy the same on a rope as elsewhere makes it a positive experience.

So I would love to see them in a new JSW game. Perhaps JSWDanny can name a few mods etc. that feature ropes, I cannot think of any but that is not surprising!

I would definitely aim for ropes and arrows in your game SymbolShift. How about a diagonal arrow as a challenge? Or one with an arc, where you had to run under the arc?

Good topic though. Maybe Norman has some ideas if it is possible or how hard it is to do?

AI is cheating 😉

On 4/10/2022 at 12:26 PM, Spider said:

Talking of Ted, I made this a while ago...

ChipFactory.tap 47.8 kB · 4 downloads

 

Please read:

 

Awesome that Andy! Infinite lives still probably needed though!

You're dedication is commendable Danny! One day you will have your reward in JSW heaven 😉

That makes me think Danny, and I am too lazy to look!, I wonder if there is a site somewhere that is dedicated to

at least listing every known version of MM&JSW, say at least 2 categories, official versions, which would

probably be fairly easy(!) and mods or unofficial versions (much harder as you know.)

Did you definitely click on submit reply?

For a Chuckle Egg man he is pretty good 😉

are they original Andy?

Yes, this rings a _very_ distant bell Andy, I think I had a copy of this too. In fairness, SymbolShift is right, the Amiga versions of Willy

were all misguided really, because they tried to use the superior hardware which spoiled the gameplay mechanics / flip screen elements.

Just my opinion anyway. I had the McMaster's version of JSWII on the Amiga, which had the full screen scrolling as you mention, really

not a good game, but perhaps they were told to do it like that.

I am curious SymbolShift, what version were you involved with on the Amiga?

Listen, if you release a game for free and anonymously, how is anyone going to sue you and for what? They would need to know who you were and where you were first, and as long as you took a few basic precautions there would be no chance of that. Say they put a message up on here threatening folk - big deal. Talk is incredibly cheap, especially on the internet, friends. I would simply carry on with your plans. No one is going to sue anyone. They may threaten it, like my dad is bigger than your dad, but how many times did you ever hear of the two dads actually meeting and fighting it out? No, me neither. So relax, release your game for free, and without any contact details for yourself in it if you are paranoid, that way no one can get in touch and make any idle threats. If you aren't making any money out of someone else's work you are in a strong position. Look at how many authors on here have used MS's work to release free games. Have any of them been sued? Not that I am aware of anyway. It will be fine. There are lots of mods for games that you can still buy that fit into this category that are out there.

I think the idea to raise money for MS is a good one though and would happily contribute, he does deserve something.

thanks for that Andy, one day I will make time to watch it. The man the myth the legend!

In truth, is anyone really going to try and sue anyone these days over such an old game? No one is going to make any money really. How much would you make from a new official jsw game? Very difficult to see more than a few thousand pounds to me, not really life changing sums, not in the long term. I would just publish and see what happens, worst case scenario make a donation to a charity to offset any legal challenges.

On 2/11/2022 at 4:33 PM, Pixel Stonk said:

Sadly I've hit a brick wall with regard to who actually owns the IP for Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner, as it appears both Matt Smith and Steve Wilcox of Elite Systems claim they own it. It's a very messy area, and I'm not sure how, if ever, it will be resolved.

In the meantime, if you are on Steam you can play a demo for another game that I'm working on at the moment, very similar to but much more in-depth than Jet Set Willy, called Whim. Here's a link to the website if you fancy checking it out:

http://whimgame.com

As fans of JSW and Manic Miner, feedback on this game would be appreciated!

Of course, I'm still keen to get JSW3 off the ground so I would be grateful for any further advice they may have on this.

Thanks all!

It looks good does Whim, I really hope it happens. Any chance of a macOS port do you think? I don't really use a pc anymore, so a mac version would be great.

It has occured to me if this game or others on this forum too are eligible to go on things like Spectrum Computing, to appear on the update there. I don't suppose it matters in a way but then again if they were seen by a larger audience then there is no harm in that is there? Andy I know you post there too, do things like this appear over there in the end do you know?

>So the count is a staggering 6/18.

Unacceptable! 🤣

The rest is pretty good though Danny. You are the King! 🤴 

You see we are not alone in our love of JSW&MM 😉

Good find there Andy!

Don't know if any of you use Norton, but if so this might be of interest...

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/new-version-of-norton-360-installs-a-crypto-miner-on-your-pc-by-default.html

I got the impression this was a bot, or at least half a bot.

On 12/31/2021 at 6:06 PM, Spider said:

In regard to this post containing the Music and Carols .tzx files, what is not that obvious is that there are two pages of music. Pressing space will switch between each screen. The point here being, it does include "if I Were A Rich Man" in AY, of which an audio file is attached here, converted from a large 24mb .wav produced via Spectaculator's audio output to a sanely sized 2.5mb .mp3:

rm.mp3 2.23 MB · 9 downloads

I never got the carols working, but I did hear the 'If I were a rich man' which I always like to hear.

I got the second hand Dell monitor 4:3 ratio as a Christmas present, but there seems to be a timing issue, as a line or lines are out of sync etc. The monitor is running

at 640 x 480 vga via a vga to vga cable to my ZX Next, and the osd of the monitor says that it is 640 x 480 at 50hz, perfect,  but tried two  different vga cables

but no joy. I will take a picture so you can see what I mean. I realise that no one may have a Next on here, but just thought I would share.

There are options in the monitor's osd for 'phase' and 'pixel clock' but having altered them both form the max 100 to the min 0 they do

not remove the line issue. Odd. Any ideas from anyone greatly appreciated! Standby for picture ...