MtM

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 😉

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.

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.

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 ...

I used to have a couple of cm8833's, an original and a mk ii I think, ran an original psx on one when they first came out in 95/6. My goodness, and to think that connecting via scart was considered so good then. I had used them previously on my Amigas. They were good monitors the 8833's, it isn't that long since I threw an original box out of the loft for one on the tip, all the packaging etc. for it in there too. I would rather that than have someone scalp someone else on eBay for it what is a cardboard box. I have seen people run Speccies on cub monitors and they looked great. No bright mode though I think, they couldn't display it. I had a microvitec for my last Amiga before I sold up that would sync down to pal but then do vga + too, quite a decent monitor that, quite a rounded screen, cost me about 300 quid back then I think. Either way, I am beyond paying silly money on eBay for any old tech I have owned previously, so the old Dell 4:3 vga spesh will do! It's lcd but very cheap. Think I remember the Archimedes monitors, but were they not rebadged Phillips?

Thanks to Norman and Spider for their efforts! Good to see IRF back briefly for Christmas! Remember, JSW & MM are for life, not just for Christmas 😉 I have a threadripper Norman, 12 core / 24 threads, in truth, you are right, I have little need at all for all that cpu grunt, but when I built it last year it was with the idea that it might be the last pc I ever really need to build. I enjoy building pcs and tinkering with them, but the truth is that my previous build, from 2014, is still going strong, an overclocked 4970k cpu, 16gb ram, m.2 drive etc., decent gtx card in it, there is nothing it can't do, will be 8 years old shortly but hard to see when it won't still be working. It is possibly one of the reasons why M$ have made W11, simply to force people to upgrade to run w11, but it is easily worked around. So they enforce obsolescence on w10 too in 4 years time. Ubuntu is an excellent version of Linux and completely free and maintained and updates itself really. Sorry, a bit off topic here ... 🙂

It was 1970 I think, so not that long after. Makes me think of The Prisoner.

Lovely and colourful that Andy, thank you very much!

Hello All, Just a little Christmas thread, inspired by JSDanny's comments in another thread wishing everyone a Happy Holidays etc. So, briefly, this thread is to wish every one from every one who reads it a very Happy Holidays / Christmas etc for 2021 from every one on the forum - I hope that is okay with every one! Is it possible to use the phrase 'every one' more in a sentence? 😉 Second, I thought it might be fun to say what we have asked Father Christmas for Christmas if you want to, potentially Spectrum/JSW/MM related, but possibly not. I am happy to lead off - I have asked Father Christmas for an old 4 3 ratio vga monitor to link my Spectrum Next to so I might use it a bit more at last 😉 Fortunately, they are only 20 to 30 uk pounds, so I am hopeful that Father Christmas will indeed bring such a thing!