SymbolShift

View File JSW - 2024
2024 marked the 40th anniversary of Jet Set Willy. 🏆
Initially I had planned on something a lot more elaborate to celebrate this however for various reasons I decided a standard game with a few simple changes would fit nicely.
 
There is a time limit of two hours game playing time enforced. If Willy runs out of time (at 12:00AM), the game is over! This is indicated with the game freezing and the word 'time' flashing for a few seconds, leaving the player in no doubt what has happened.
There are 150 items to collect. Care was taken to place these mostly sensibly without detracting from the original game feeling. Also, some item shapes per room have changed, the main reason being at least one item shape looks like two bottles, so if and when Willy collects one of these it will count as two in his collection.
The main loop was modified (thanks N.S for your guidance) giving a reasonable speed boost during play.
Other changes and small fixes include:
The four original bug fixes were applied with the change of not having an invisible item in The Hall.
The rope top height was altered to prevent Willy leaving via the top of the room when he is not intended to.
Aborting the game displays the Game Over page before returning to the title screen.
The pause bug was remedied by preventing the game auto-pausing
By default on starting a new game, the in-game tune is switched off. Enabling it will be respected so that starting a new game will remember the players choice.
The status area was altered slightly, namely the room descriptor was moved down one row, room names were centred and the lives remaining were moved along one block.
The usual text flicker back to 000 objects / time on losing a life or entering a room was altered to prevent this being so visible.
Some internal changes to sprite location, mainly concatenating them hence no gaps between.
Title screen tune changed a little bit (in-game music used) and in-game music from re-release version (MM in game tune)
There is one additional room that is accessible but its not necessary to visit it. This was done as a way of avoiding a 'teleport' effect , the alternative as seen in the 2015 bug fixed version required some earth tiles adding which I wanted to avoid.
 
Lastly, it is quite possible within the time limit to complete the game. I have played a few times and averaged around 10 to 15 minutes game time remaining without really rushing around.
 
I hope my small celebratory 2024 JSW version is welcomed!
Submitter Spider Submitted 12/12/2024 Category JSWMM Releases  

Here is what I have so far. Almost there... Might be able to finish it next weekend. All the screens are done. Just got to tidy things up a bit and make the title screen etc.

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...

Works great for me! Very playable. Considering this is your first game AND it's done with a drag-and-drop language, this is a fantastic achievement. Give yourself a pat on the back 🙂

Works great for me! Very playable. Considering this is your first game AND it's done with a drag-and-drop language, this is a fantastic achievement. Give yourself a pat on the back 🙂

Works great for me! Very playable. Considering this is your first game AND it's done with a drag-and-drop language, this is a fantastic achievement. Give yourself a pat on the back 🙂

Yes, I was referring to "lives left" area at the bottom, I apologize for not being more specific. I have seen that area become corrupt before (finishing MM multiple times is a good example). Since it's intentional then I'm all for adding a splash of colour to the sprites which are often monochromatic 👍 I look forward to exploring more, since I only survived several screens on my first few attempts 😂 By the way, great job on the game!!

Thank you SymbolShift. 🙂
I didn´t know that about Manic Miner bottom area as I haven´t played to that far (survived...😄).
As I had to make last minute fixes and Danny kindly made a last minute fix I was asking for, I had to play the game through once again and I had to keep trying in some rooms to pass through them even it´s my game! 😂 I have intentionally made the rooms a bit "hard" as this JSW game is not meant for kids anymore, as we aren´t kids anymore. And as many players here are JSW and MM experts, their skills are probably far above mine 😆 so I had to add a bit "hardness" to my game to prevent dullness. 🙂
That´s the reason I added infinite lives Poke from Richard Hallas´ game Join the Jet-Set! to bring anyone a chance to finish my game if they want to. 🙂 Thank you again, Richard!
But please try without that Poke first,
 

Yes, I was referring to "lives left" area at the bottom, I apologize for not being more specific. I have seen that area become corrupt before (finishing MM multiple times is a good example). Since it's intentional then I'm all for adding a splash of colour to the sprites which are often monochromatic 👍 I look forward to exploring more, since I only survived several screens on my first few attempts 😂 By the way, great job on the game!!

Can confirm it loads and looks like your picture. The title screen looks strange as well - (But with artistic licence - perhaps that is how it is meant to look)

SymbolShift, I have experienced the same sprite corruption, if you are talking about the white guardian in the first room. :) It disappears for a fraction of a second, because there are two white guardians (both using the same sprites), to make that alcoholist not walk in a straight line. That effect was better originally, but it made the game hard, as first I was making this game just for me and I knew what to expect so it had to be hard. But after I decided to eventually publish this one day, I had to change it, as it would have made the game too hard for others.
But perhaps you mean those "lives left" sprites, as Norman also points to title screen. :) Those colour blocks on the bottom are for making lives left sprites more colourful. :)
I would like to hear more feedback, I don´t mind if you like my game or not. :) But of course it would be nice, if there are something what you like, as that means I have succeeded to bring some nice moments for you. :)
I didn´t aim to make an usual Willy game, more like a little unusual instead. About some things what I have added to my game, I don´t know if others have used the similar ideas (effects) previously, as I have mainly played Willy homebrews around 20 years ago or so. I have given just a quick look for the ones made in the last 10 years, it´s not that I don´t want to, but I am not in a good shape to concentrate to them better. That´s why I don´t know about the effects what others have made, except that one or few new games seem to have bi-colour guardians. As I haven´t read well or at all those topics, I had just thought that some coding was needed for those bi-colour guardians. There are few other things I have noticed, but I don´t remember them right now. It´s possible that I have invented the wheel few times during making my game. :D But that made the game making just more fun, as I had to try to think by myself different ways how to make something. :) I hope that at least some of you will play far enough to find them.
For some reason I can´t add any emoji graphics now, the emoji menu stays just empty.

Manic Miner "maximum score" TAS has just been published to TASVideos. I originally submitted it as "maximum score, no deaths" as it's possible to score infinitely high otherwise, but I'm not in charge of the final naming. Total gameplay time is 2:17:43.

Welcome manic986!
Using a visual (drag and drop) language like Scratch for a MM remake is not ideal, but it looks like you have managed to navigate around any limitations very well. Fantastic job! Looking forward to seeing the final project, and what comes next... 😀

Welcome manic986!
Using a visual (drag and drop) language like Scratch for a MM remake is not ideal, but it looks like you have managed to navigate around any limitations very well. Fantastic job! Looking forward to seeing the final project, and what comes next... 😀

Red-zed! that's a good one. I used to spend hours on end typing in those magazine listings, only to come across a printing smudge near the end and attempt to decipher it.

I thought some folks might like to see this. My cavern format for the Scratch project lightly mimics the original MM room format. There is a bit less freedom in scratch but I'm trying to make all my levels self described and thus end up with something I can edit in vim before pasting it in to scratch as a list of characters. Here is what the first Kong level looks like without spaces and newlines removed. Currently the only special level is the last level (whatever that is)
Miner.Willy.meets.the.Kong.Beast W.V.......V......W..W..........W W................W..W..........W W............I.FFW...........FFW W................W.............W W................W.............W WFFF.....FFFFFF..WFF...........W W.............I..W...FFFF.....FW W.FFF............W.........F...W W.I.....FFF......W.............W W................WFFFFF........W WF..........FFF..W.........FFFFW W........FF......W.............W W...FF...........W....FFFFF....W W..........RRRWPPWFF.........I.W W.............WPPW.....X.......W WFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFW ................weedy........1.2 ................brick........162 dotty........1.4................ plant........0.4stalictite...0.5 banana.......................... level8..........02.14.0.128..... switch..1.06.00.0.17.11.1.02.0.6 switch..2.18.00.0.15.02.0.02.0.6 Hbarrel.......0.01.09.09.14.7................1.4 Hbarrel.......1.11.15.11.12.0.11.18..........1.3 Hbarrel.......0.18.21.18.08.0................0.5 Vkong.........3.0.032.232.15.032.4.2.2.0.6...1.4  

Thanks @SymbolShift. Yeah. It is not ideal by more than a long short especially anything data related. Actually your name just reminded me of myself and my cousin typing in basic games out of the INPUT magazine... Neither of us knew what the ':' character was called and we used to call it "red-zed" because of the keys your pressed. He used to call out the code and I would type it in. Good times.

Welcome manic986!
Using a visual (drag and drop) language like Scratch for a MM remake is not ideal, but it looks like you have managed to navigate around any limitations very well. Fantastic job! Looking forward to seeing the final project, and what comes next... 😀

We have gone over 16,000 posts on the forum today, 25th April 2024! 😁
You can't see it on the main page with this new version of the software (because it only shows a rounded-up number), but we have been tracking it on the admins' side and it's just happened. A big thank you to everyone who keeps the forum going! 🙂 

and welcome Dickie! It's good to see another Amiga JSW author on here. I also wrote my version between Uni and Job, just like you. I was very young at the time so it's certainly not my finest work 😁

Hi there - original author here 🙂 This was my one and only 'published' game.  I wrote it between finishing uni and getting a job (which was about a year!).  I find it nice that it's still talked about and played.  Wish I had the time to write a sequel 😉

A big THANKS and hats off to Andy (Spider) for fixing the site! He did it all by himself, both providing the upgraded software and performing the update. It feels good to be back. Thanks again, Andy! 👍 🙏  👏 🍾

We have updated the software here to future proof the site for newer server requirements.
Sorry for the downtime however it was immediately necessary without prior notice, otherwise an announcement would of been shown for a few days.
 
You'll find things almost just as they were, we decided to remove the redundant 'articles' system as no one ever used it. The topics are best placed if needed with a new area for guides and tutorials.
 
Note that there are still some small adjustments to make over the following week however the site is ready to be opened again.
 
Of course if you should spot anything amiss please either post here into this topic or message me or jetsetdanny.
 
Thank you.

I've noticed many users of this forum talk "Z80" assembly. What is the best resource out there for learning Z80 in 2024?
It could be a series of modern YT tutorials, or a gem of a book that was written in the 70's/80's.
I'm curious if these was a single resource that made it "click" for anyone.
Thanks.

Thanks DD. I would say my experience falls into your #2 category. I'm no stranger to coding, but assembly has very specific knowledge (such as bit-shifting and CPU architecture) that I rarely use. I'm sure assembly shares many similar principles as modern languages, but it always seemed so different that many people (me included) have avoided learning it in the past.