MtM

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!

Downloaded! Thanks Norman!

Happy Holidays / Christmas and a very wonderful New Year to everyone when it comes! I hope Father Christmas brings you everything you all asked for! That gives me an idea for a thread ...

Well it appears not really Andy when you watch the episodes, I can't remember him paying in any episode, but would need to check. Very mysterious show Mr Benn, no answers ever given or explanations, just left to wonder what it all means.

Anything that manages to combine JSW _and_ Mr Benn, (Mr Benn, not Mr Bean that is) can only be a life-affirming thing!

As Andy said, this looks really interesting, and certainly like it would add something, a lot really, in terms of playability. I hope this comes to fruition too! Knight Lore et al were perhaps very early takes on 3d platform games really, even though they are thought of as arcade adventures. I always thought that the very first Tomb Raider game was how JSW 3d would of looked.

Watched some of the youtube vids of it being played, yes looks like fun, somehow not quite how I imagined it but certainly a _lot_ of potential there I think for sure. I could make a load of things I would like but that would just be me 😉 I do hope that you continue with it all, and thanks for making a Mac version too, I spend the majority of my time on the mac at the moment.

I'd probably disagree with the time limit statement, Unreal Tournament in all its flavours comes to mind, you can only play a level for so long, however, thanks for the reply, and of course it does sound really good what you are doing, I can hardly wait to see it, there will be bots of course so you don't have to play online? 😉 I suppose again I am thinking that if you die too there has to be some kind of forfeit, otherwise there is little motive not to die, again like in Unreal Tournament you lose all your weapons and ammo, seems fair enough. How about pieces you could collect that would boost the time, say put extra time on the clock that appear randomly, it is up to the players if they want to collect them, if you are doing badly you might not want to, but if you are doing well you have a motive to pick them up, they could be time limited in their appearance. Or does that sound a bit much?

Your videos are well put together, but don't get many views which seems a pity.

I agree that the overall game idea is a really interesting one and I hope it all comes to fruition. Personally I disagree with a lot of the suggestions though. I think single screen, all the original screens with whatever modifications necessary, not unlike the original Mario Bros game if ou have seen it, single screen, winner jumps into the flashing square first, square only flashes when players have enough flashing items, player dies they lose all their items back to the original locations (similar to gold bars being dropped in the original Lode Runner when you trap or kill a nasty) players can be competitive but sometimes must collude like in MULE, whereby you might not get chance to get a certain piece because someone else has it and will not die, air level is still present so time limit against all players, if air runs out all pieces return to original locations and free for all begins. Something like that anyway. If that makes sense. I definitely think use original single screens. _Maybe_ speed movement up of Willy a bit, but not much, and keep jump mechanics, precision or skill should always be rewarded, and not just knowing a level, though there is always an element of this. No random winners, that is rubbish.

What excellent feedback Danny, I don't know how you find the time to do it. I will await Norman's response before I try and complete it over Christmas 😉 I agree with the speed comments too, just a bit quick for me. Just watched the rex file all the way through Danny, top work, and I see what you mean about the conveyor / platform in Amoebatrons Revenge.

Norman - you are a _genius!_ Thank you! I have downloaded it and had a quick go. I really like in the demo mode that as the screens show, Willy changes appearance depending on the screen on display. I am considering making this the game I play over Christmas now, it will be a good challenge, but maybe it is time I actually got around to finishing a version of JSW the first original. Thank you again for this Norman, just mega this effort, the Spectrum world is very lucky to have people like you still programming for it.

Just watched the Willy's Holiday video Danny, excellent. I really like the versions of If I were a Rich Man you use to bookend the videos too 🙂

that is showing off Andy 😉

Sad to hear Andy. Not sure if I know the name or not, but hopefully he is in a better place now if he was ill.

Danny, thanks as ever for the wonderful reply, mega. I can contribute a bit more to the lore here - the tune in question is number 4, Wedding Day at Troldhaugen, by Grieg.

Is there much we do not know about the Spectrum? Enough to warrant a 'documentary'? Either way it looks to be well funded at the moment. I watched From Bedrooms to Billions, it was okay. I would like to see a documentary about Matthew Smith and the creation of MM and JSW! And a few tempter screens right at the end of JSW 3 in production 😉 Thanks for the heads up Paolo and as has been said, welcome!

I did search for Adam Britton using duckduckgo Danny, is he something to do with crocodiles now? Either way, it is impressive that in a year or so, 1985, he managed to put out 3 modified versions of JSW. Presumably he developed them directly on the Spectrum itself, though I guess he could of used other computers at the time if he had access. I note the new tune in two of them, was this the first instance of this tune, and can anyone say what the tune is supposed to be, i.e. in the original we all know it is If I were a Rich Man, etc, but I do not think I recognise what this tune is supposed to be? I know others have used it in their JSW games etc, including one of yours Danny, I was playing the other day, I forget which one it was now, the tune changes as you get so far on the first screen?

I got the first three right I did so I figured I am worthy to be here ... 🙂

Excellent work as usual Danny, someday 100 years from now we will all be gone but this will live on!

I don't think I have ever seen a version of MM Andy that needed a colour code like the original JSW. I remember Lode Runner, the Spectrum version I think, needing a colour code, also published by Software Projects (not a bad version either, not as good as the C64 version mainly down to not being able to manipulate the guards like you could in the C64 version) I can't think of any other games that needed colour codes - I daresay there is a forum thread about games that had colour codes somewhere on Spectrum Forums.