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Hi all. Not sure if people are interested, but I'm getting close to the 1.0 release of this. I doubt it will ever be "finished", and I'll keep tinkering with it. As soon as it's ready for 1.0 release, I'll be open sourcing what's there.

I've managed to incorporate most of the features of JSWO, plus a few extras too, including the old java version as a custom tileset. (It looks lovely, but it makes it more difficult to play, I think.)

Here's a couple of videos and screenshots.
 
 
 

Looking good! Thanks for the update.
I did notice on level 18 (Amoebatrons' Revenge) that there is a platform alignment issue compared to the original. Seems like it would be an easy fix.
 

Looking good! Thanks for the update.
I did notice on level 18 (Amoebatrons' Revenge) that there is a platform alignment issue compared to the original. Seems like it would be an easy fix.
 

I must have been living under a rock, as I had never even heard of the Playdate until now. Looks like a nicely done conversion!

I've just tried it out briefly in the Playdate Simulator. It's really very good! It comes with two versions of the (Bug-Byte version) game: one with monochrome versions of the original 8x8 character graphics, which look minute even on the small Playdate screen, and a version with new 12x12 graphics that fill the screen width perfectly. The new graphics are nicely done: they look authentic, but pin-sharp and with obviously more detail than the originals.
You can choose between the default black on white graphics (which I do actually like; they feel appropriate for a mono LCD screen) or the more authentic-looking white on black, which also looks good (much like the monochrome Dragon version, I suppose!). As for the music, the rendition of the title screen music is good (very reminiscent of the Spectrum original, but a little less honky-tonk and more in tune). As for the in-game music, you can choose from a blippy version (very much like the Spectrum original, though marginally less annoying) or a version with more musical-sounding continuous-tone notes. Both are fine; I think I prefer the slightly modernised new version. Unlike some other conversions, there are no wrong notes! The jumping sound is of a similar nature to the original but uses different pitches, so that seems a little incongruous.
As for gameplay: very faithful, but not quite perfect. Collecting keys is more sensitive than in the original (you can easily miss ones that you'd normally expect to catch), and I noticed a difference in behaviour when jumping onto the conveyor at the start of Willy Meets the Alien Kong Beast, which really ought to be fixed for an authentic experience (as it upsets my traditional way of playing this level!). Eugene doesn't flash when you collect the last object in his Lair, and – from what I've seen from the demo on the title screen – there are no sunbeams in the Solar Power Generator. I also didn't see a screen flash for getting an extra life (in fact, I don't think I even received an extra life!) when hitting 5,000 points in The Vat. But these are all very minor shortcomings. For an initial version 1.0.0 product it seems extremely good. A handful of little tweaks might be nice to have, but overall this is a fantastic new version.
In a screenshot on the home page, it's clear that the author has other level packs beyond the two he supplies, so it'd be nice to see other packs released for this version. (I'd like a pack with Lee Tonks' game, for example, which mentions me in the name of its final cavern!)
Anyway, I'm very favourably impressed with this new version, and it ought to be known about as a further modern conversion that's worth having.

I must have been living under a rock, as I had never even heard of the Playdate until now. Looks like a nicely done conversion!

Hi all,
I've just stumbled across a new Manic Miner port that was completely unknown to me. As I've seen no mention of it here, I thought you'd all like to know about it. Apologies if you're aware of it and I've just overlooked it myself.
Anyway, it's a version for Panic's little Playdate console. There's an emulator for everyone without a physical device.
I haven't had chance to try it myself yet (I've literally only just spotted it) but from the screenshots it looks to be a promising monochrome translation of the game.
Here it is: https://kounch.itch.io/pd-mm-engine

Great idea! I loved that movie as a kid. Looking forward to the large intestine 😂

Hello，everyone.I made a new game.🙂
The plot of this game is like this：Maria developed a strange illness and fell into a coma. Willy shrank himself, entered Maria's body through her mouth, collected and eliminated all the viruses, and finally escaped from Maria's eyes in a mini spaceship.
Here are a few screenshots：

 
The game will be released soon, stay tuned!

Talking of enhancing Manic Miner... Around the year 2000 I started work on Manic Miner 3D. I made a lot of progress converting the levels into 3D but I eventually came to the conclusion that the game is better suited to 2D. That said, Blake Robinson made a version that first appeared in 2005, and has done many changes since then using Unreal engine. It's worth looking at to see what throwing modern graphics at something can achieve.
https://blakearts.artstation.com/projects/0nlgw5

Very cool, a nicely done conversion!
Few things...  first thing I noticed was that the horizontal guardians move slightly faster than Willy. They should move at the same speed, unless you deliberately made them faster to spice things up! Also, the colour differences between the non-brights and the brights seems too extreme, making the non-brights too dark (eg. the sinking platforms, and the Willy sprite).

Talking of enhancing Manic Miner... Around the year 2000 I started work on Manic Miner 3D. I made a lot of progress converting the levels into 3D but I eventually came to the conclusion that the game is better suited to 2D. That said, Blake Robinson made a version that first appeared in 2005, and has done many changes since then using Unreal engine. It's worth looking at to see what throwing modern graphics at something can achieve.
https://blakearts.artstation.com/projects/0nlgw5

Hello Everyone !
Here's an update on my next game "JSW IN LONDON".
This game has 128 rooms.
I've almost finished 92 of them (72%).
I've found a good pace to make rapid progress. I've changed my approach to game design: I'm working on several rooms simultaneously and taking the time to optimize them as much as possible. That's why I don't consider them finished until the game itself is finalized after several tests.
I'm also trying to create original rooms and traps to avoid any feeling of "déjà vu". It takes time, but it will give the game a unique identity. At least, I hope so, and you'll tell me!
I'll be posting the first images of the rooms in the coming weeks.
Have a great week!
See you soon!
Hervé

Jolly good old chap! Looking forward to this one

Looks like a great start. Getting this working in visual languages can be especially tricky, well done!
One user worth checking out is manic986 who rebuilt MM and MM2 using scratch.

With the sound of firecrackers, a year comes to an end.Tonight is the last night of the Year of the Snake.Wishing everyone good fortune in the Year of the Horse!
My mini-game has been submitted, and I also used AI to make the game's cover.🙂
Have Fun！

Jolly good old chap! Looking forward to this one

I've seen those projects, they are quite impressive! I'm surprised by how accurate they are 🙂 I don't think i'll be able to make something as good as those.
 
In other news, i'm currently working on adding guardians! I have vertical guardians mostly finished so far.

Merry Christmas also! Hope everyone has a good one

Usually not a fan of enhanced colour remakes, but I cannot deny that Java Tileset always looks gorgeous. Would love to see a MM version (anyone feeling artistic?) 😁

The JSW Central YouTube channel has just reached the milestone of 500 subscribers! 😁

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who has subscribed - it feels good to know that this way of promoting JSW and MM games reaches more and more people 😊.

I just discovered the Jet Set Willy homebrew scene about 2 months ago and have been steadily ploughing my way through the back catalogue. Wow! I am so impressed with what people have achieved and the scene that has grown up around JSW and Manic Miner over the last forty years.
I remember playing Jet Set Willy on my older cousin's Spectrum 48k with him when I was very young. I remember that it was hard, that it had an incredible atmosphere and that it sparked something in the imagination. I don't think either of us were very good at it, but we loved playing it nonetheless. Fast forward to a couple of years ago and I got into retro gaming handhelds. This was a huge nostalgia blast, and let me re-live some of my favourites from the Speccy, C64 and Amiga. Just before Christmas I gave Manic Miner a go. It was a game I had never played back in the day, but with the advantage of save states I was able to really get into it. Then I thought to have another look at JSW and noticed there was at least a dozen remakes included in the rom pack I had found. This was intriguing to me, as some of the best games I had recently played on other platforms (such as NES) had been homebrew games. I started dipping my toe in and I got hooked!
Now I'm playing a JSW remake every day. I load it up on my handheld with my morning coffee. I bring it with me in the car when I take the kids to activities. And after they're finished their homework I delve in again. They say "Dad, you're always playing Jet Set Willy!".
One of the "problems" of the retro gaming handheld thing is that with almost every title ever published available at your fingertips it can be quite hard sometimes to choose what to play. At the moment I'm loving the idea of playing a series of games with the same mechanics, but different concepts. I am absolutely loving the experience of exploring Middle Earth, Egyptian pyramids, the life of Doc Shiels, space stations and lairs of dominatrix vampires. I think there's something really special about the ability to name each room that acts as a kind of springboard for the imagination.
I want to say a huge thanks to the people that have been involved in the scene down through the years. To have something to fill the idle hours of the day that is not served to me by a social media algorithm but has instead emerged from the dedication of an individual artist who loves their subject is priceless.
And I'd like to say a special thanks to the people who have been involved in efforts to preserve and present this body of work. I have consulted Danny's JSW Central and his YouTube channel many, many times when I've been stuck on a game, or need inspiration for what to play next. Without this I would be lost, literally!

Overview
The objective of this document is to allow, and make it easy for, authors of JSW games to code their own in-game music for games using the JSW128 and JSW64 game engines.
I have prepared one document, but I will post it in several parts to make it easier to read and to reply to the various issues I intend to discuss.
 
Credits
The following information draws heavily on (and at times quotes directly) information contained in John Elliott’s document “Jet Set Willy 128: Music format” and in his JSWED v2.3.7 manual (a PDF file that can be found in JSWED’s installation folder).
Richard Hallas’s document “A Miner Triad. Music in Jet-Set Willy and both versions of Manic Miner” was used for the JSW48 chart tone.
Andrew Broad’s specialised program SPECSAISIE was used to obtain the basic tone chart for the 128K games as equivalent to the basic tone chart of the 48K games.
 
Introduction
People interested in creating new JSW games using JSWED will likely design games using either the classic 48K game engine (JSW48) or one of the 128K game engines, i.e., JSW128 or JSW64.
How to code music for JSW48 games was described very clearly by Richard Hallas in his document mentioned above. More useful information can also be found in this thread.
This document discusses the coding of title-screen and in-game music in games using the JSW128 and JSW64 game engines. Most of the information presented here has already been available for a long time in John Elliott’s documents credited above. My aim is to present it in a slightly different way — which I hope makes it easier to understand what should and what can be done. I also share my own experiences and practices from coding the 128K music.
Music in JSW128 and JSW64 games is played by default via a built-in music player by Ian Collier. This music player can be replaced in JSWED with Soundtracker by BZYK (Piotr Baczkiewicz). I have had no experience with Soundtracker, so this document refers exclusively to the default music player.
My own experiences with coding 128K music relate to two games by Hervé Ast released in 2025. Hervé kindly allowed me to contribute musical arrangements to them. For “Welcome to Willy’s Fun Park!”, I composed both the title-screen tune and the in-game tune (the same in all rooms). In “Willy in the Islands of Mystery. Part II: The Temple”, I expanded my work significantly: I composed multiple in-game tunes and modified the game engine to allow each room to have its own tune, resulting in different tunes in various rooms.

View File Willy in the Islands of Mystery : Part II : The Temple
Hello everyone
I am thrilled to announce the release of my sixth game, "Willy in the Islands of Mystery: Part II: The Temple."
It uses the JSW64 engine with the variant [].
This game is a direct sequel to the first game, "Willy in the Islands of Mystery: Part I; Exploration," created in 2007.
I encourage you to start by playing Part I.
It is available for download via this link:
https://xa.bi/jsw/islands1.htm
Part I, "Exploration":
The story: For some unknown reason—perhaps after the sinking of his cruise ship—Willy is alone on a raft in the middle of the ocean. One morning, he discovers a mysterious island on the horizon. He will have to explore it and find a way back home...
Part II, "The Temple,"
Begins in the exact same room where Willy finished the game in Part I.
The story: After exploring the islands, Willy discovers an ancient temple. To leave the Isles of Mystery, he must face its dangers and collect all the flashing objects scattered inside. Perhaps the Temple holds the key to his freedom.

Part II, "The Temple," has many surprises in store for you.
Technically, it's the first JSW game with different music for each room.
The theme is therefore different depending on the room.
This game also has many effects that greatly enhance the game's atmosphere.
I won't say any more; you'll have to discover it all for yourself...
And I've saved the best for last: I didn't create this game alone. Daniel (JetSetDanny) worked incredibly hard on all these improvements: music programming, visual effects, adding traps, scrolling messages, loading screen, end screen, game translation, title colors, complete testing, promoting the game on social media and websites dedicated to classic games… I think I'm forgetting some things, and I apologize to him.
It was a colossal and time-consuming undertaking. I want to thank him for his dedication and availability.
This is why this game is co-signed (Hervé and Daniel), as you can see on the home screen.
The game is available in two languages: English and French, In TAP and TZX formats

Have fun!   
Hervé


Submitter Hervé AST Submitted 12/31/2025 Category Jet Set Willy [Remakes]