Sendy The Endless

Another thing UMM brought to light was the idea of conveyance within a game world, and how that can change when working in a new engine (JSW128 vs JSW64 with it's extra blocks in the room layout). In several parts of UMM it's difficult to know which blocks and even sprites will kill you. There are some classic stalactite nasty blocks which are actually safe to move through, some NPCs that you can stand on, some you can walk through, and some you can do neither.
The extra blocks aspect of JSW64 mean more creativity, but also remove the process of elimination that takes place in a typical JSW128/48 room, where a fire cell that doesn't look deadly can be deduced simply by it being the only type of cell you haven't touched yet, and hence you know to avoid it. There are several ways to approach this idea of conveyance, but I think the best way is simply to make sure harmful cells LOOK harmful - either spiky, or flashing, or otherwise malformed. The same goes for things in the background, be they sprites or window dressing in the form of blocks... Developing a singular readable style for how you colour- and shape-code is essential when these extra affordances are... afforded to the designer.
This brings me 'round to my final point about JSW64 designing - it can be challenging to make sure each block type has it's own unique attributes, whilst also creating a pleasing colour scheme across the whole room. There are a few ways around this - such as inverting the bit-pattern and attributes (reverse pixels, then swap paper and ink colours) - which let you use the same colour pair for two different block types. There's also a patch that Andrew Broad used in his James Bond game - the flash-cancelling patch. This is something I'm considering looking into as a future way of cell-class-colour management in my games going forwards.
Then there's the final option for JSW64 colour correction: The MONO patch : ) I'm not sure I could bring myself to use it, but with the right game, I'm sure it'd be very atmospheric, and would allow many blocks to be placed side-by-side to make up more complex visuals without having to worry about color coherency...
Finally, I dare suggest some of the negative reactions to UMM could be down to the author over-hyping his own project, using too many superlatives, even in the title (is this the ULTIMATE Manic Miner experience?). Perhaps that got people's goat a bit?
Either way I hope Igor makes a comeback. I think Jet Cat Frosya and ZX Heroes are among some of the best looking and playing JSW mods out there, and; certainly, given what's going on in Russia at the moment, I hope he's doing alright and is simply enjoying a hiatus on creating JSW mods!
Igor, if you're reading this, let us know you're OK! We miss you!

View File Manic Person
My first Manic Miner level-set, created long ago alongside Jet Set Willy: Role Reversal. 20 reasonable and 20 unreasonable difficulty caverns over two files.
Submitter Sendy The Endless Submitted 10/07/2023 Category Manic Miner [Remakes]  

Have at it! Thanks to Daniel for help with polishing up the code and the readme file, amongst other things (which are all detailed in the readme file).

Have at it! Thanks to Daniel for help with polishing up the code and the readme file, amongst other things (which are all detailed in the readme file).

Yes. 🙂
What you're thinking of (as described) is a bit like this:
FOR A=0 TO 200 : NEXT A
(Might have to have it at 250)
I would of in the past suggesting a loop with a HALT in it, but the problem is you need to enable interrupts for this to work (I thought that would be OK) however (thanks NS) it was pointed out the IX/IY might be corrupted so a better way of doing it without having to re-enable the interrupts is:
ld bc,2048
delay:
dec e
jr nz,delay
dec    bc
inc    b
djnz    delay
Will have to write it out in a different format.
Without looking, from memory it simply uses two calls , a few bytes of original code are moved to the "new place" where the ST code lives as they are needed, and in the original code space the call to the new routine, those two calls are 1 to call the title screen code and 2 to setup a call (in a loop) to call the title screen sound, but within the routine itself, so it can then make a sound and vary the border colour.
To answer the question in another way
Yes + Yes + Yes , all possible. 🙂
 

Would creating a fixed pause of a second or two be possible using a null loop? (I think that's what it's called, in Basic it would be an empty for...next loop)
I actually quite like the Softricks version of the JSW engine in which the screen flashes red and pauses for a moment. Perhaps that code could be ported into, for example, my next game, Strangel 2?

View File JSW KCE (Key Code Edition)
Following a discussion here about the JSW engine pausing after a life loss or other suitable delay to allow the player to re-adjust themselves, I decided just for fun to re-instate the key code protection request upon a life loss.
It will accept any code as I'm not cruel enough to demand the player enter the correct code.
The game was also much cut down to only a few rooms, 7 in total are present but only 6 of them are needed to complete the game and the other one is inaccessible without cheating.
The .zip contains:
The game file in regular .tap format, the game code is compressed slightly.
A map file, not that it would really be needed!
An .rzx playback although @jetsetdannyhas a much more efficient one, this was not included in the files as it was not part of the .zip released in the topic.
A brief readme detailing the changes to the game itself.
Submitter Spider Submitted 08/19/2023 Category Mini Games  

When I look at the graphics on the label, I believe the name of this product *is* JSW-related - they have this cool platform-game feel to them 🙂.
https://www.eebriatrade.com/products/beer/neon-raptor-brewing-co/52765-jet-set-billie-funky-fluid-collab
Disclosure: 
I have no relevant financial or nonfinancial relationships with either Neon Raptor Brewing Co. or Funky Fluid to disclose 😉.

Have at it! Thanks to Daniel for help with polishing up the code and the readme file, amongst other things (which are all detailed in the readme file).

View File Manic Person
My first Manic Miner level-set, created long ago alongside Jet Set Willy: Role Reversal. 20 reasonable and 20 unreasonable difficulty caverns over two files.
Submitter Sendy The Endless Submitted 10/07/2023 Category Manic Miner [Remakes]  

Have at it! Thanks to Daniel for help with polishing up the code and the readme file, amongst other things (which are all detailed in the readme file).

Yes, they do look gorgeous! 🙂
Thanks for your input, Gyrominiac, and welcome to the forum!

the guardian sprites are weirdly nowhere to be found in the .jar file itself (and if they are they're probably compressed to hell), but that's okay since kemulator memory view helped me with ripping those
here's a sprite sheet i made like 2 or 3 days ago (they look gorgeous, don't they?)

the uploader of this video is andy noble (MM PC and JSW PC creator)
i emailed him about it a week ago and he responded with this:
"Yes, that's pretty much what that version was. I just used the graphics from the mobile version and used Matts music but rewrote the engine. It never got released as the guy who holds the copyright never returned any correspondence. Paul, who did the graphics, was happy for me to use them but didn't have the right to sign it off."
so, to clear things up;
the java mobile remake was made by numfum gmbh (the lovely graphics were drawn by paul vera-broadbent)
the JSW version shown in the linked video is a mix of the java version and the PC remake, created by andy noble (which went unreleased due to weird copyright crap, and i'm pretty sure the ending graphics shown in the video aren't in the java version)
anyway hi i've been lurking here for a bit and i just decided to join this site today, i'll post here again when i have cool stuff to show

Hi MtM, yes for me the SID is what got me into synthesizer music, electro funk, etc. When I learned synthesis Rob Hubbard was one of the first guys I checked out, since he was basically the master of my childhood! In particular I studied his instruments, which is how I learned things like waveform switching (such as switching between triangle and noise to make the classic C64 "sneeze" snare sound).
The cover art is a picture of me, uploaded into a free online C64 art editor: https://mcdraw.xyz/
I have 3 SID tunes on the album: Hear My Cry, Wanderers Dub and Somebody Stop This Crazy Thing. I actually made these on my iPad but the thing stopped working a long time ago. Hear My Cry was actually my first foray into programming for the SID and I'm fairly proud of it : )
Thanks for your interest and response!

Hi MtM, yes for me the SID is what got me into synthesizer music, electro funk, etc. When I learned synthesis Rob Hubbard was one of the first guys I checked out, since he was basically the master of my childhood! In particular I studied his instruments, which is how I learned things like waveform switching (such as switching between triangle and noise to make the classic C64 "sneeze" snare sound).
The cover art is a picture of me, uploaded into a free online C64 art editor: https://mcdraw.xyz/
I have 3 SID tunes on the album: Hear My Cry, Wanderers Dub and Somebody Stop This Crazy Thing. I actually made these on my iPad but the thing stopped working a long time ago. Hear My Cry was actually my first foray into programming for the SID and I'm fairly proud of it : )
Thanks for your interest and response!

Hey, does anyone here like chip music? I just released an album of NES, SID and Beeper music at Bandcamp, you can grab it for free or pay what you can afford/think it's worth!
https://sendy.bandcamp.com/album/hear-my-cry
I figured I'd post it here as I'm really not a member of many other communities these days and haven't been on the scene in ages. I have some IDM/breakcore music on my bandcamp, too. It's all "pay what you want" so you can download it for free if you promise to show your friends who might like it ; )
I'm also posting oscilloscope deconstructions of my chiptune compositions to my Youtube page, here's a sample:
Anyone else on here do music, chiptune or otherwise?
Sendy

I have spent a whole bunch of time playing this this week. It goes WAY deeper than I realised with the permanent upgrades etc. It's really quite impressive. Is there a screenshot map of the mansion anywhere?

Hey, does anyone here like chip music? I just released an album of NES, SID and Beeper music at Bandcamp, you can grab it for free or pay what you can afford/think it's worth!
https://sendy.bandcamp.com/album/hear-my-cry
I figured I'd post it here as I'm really not a member of many other communities these days and haven't been on the scene in ages. I have some IDM/breakcore music on my bandcamp, too. It's all "pay what you want" so you can download it for free if you promise to show your friends who might like it ; )
I'm also posting oscilloscope deconstructions of my chiptune compositions to my Youtube page, here's a sample:
Anyone else on here do music, chiptune or otherwise?
Sendy

Hey, does anyone here like chip music? I just released an album of NES, SID and Beeper music at Bandcamp, you can grab it for free or pay what you can afford/think it's worth!
https://sendy.bandcamp.com/album/hear-my-cry
I figured I'd post it here as I'm really not a member of many other communities these days and haven't been on the scene in ages. I have some IDM/breakcore music on my bandcamp, too. It's all "pay what you want" so you can download it for free if you promise to show your friends who might like it ; )
I'm also posting oscilloscope deconstructions of my chiptune compositions to my Youtube page, here's a sample:
Anyone else on here do music, chiptune or otherwise?
Sendy

Apparently Darren Salt made some custom mansions to show off his room editor too. I'd love to see a longplay of these some time, but really to the Internet it's like the Archimedes barely exists...

A complete remake by Darren Salt, I remember hearing about this game back in the 2000s but never being able to find an emulator to run it. Apparently this is the version of the game that introduced the trampoline block-type, came with its own level editor, and I've always been super curious about it.
http://www.acorn-gaming.org.uk/index.php3?p=Free/JSW2/index
Unfortunately, to this day I can't find much info on the Acorn Archimedes, nor do I see any footage from the game on youtube or anywhere else. Does anybody know anything about this?

A complete remake by Darren Salt, I remember hearing about this game back in the 2000s but never being able to find an emulator to run it. Apparently this is the version of the game that introduced the trampoline block-type, came with its own level editor, and I've always been super curious about it.
http://www.acorn-gaming.org.uk/index.php3?p=Free/JSW2/index
Unfortunately, to this day I can't find much info on the Acorn Archimedes, nor do I see any footage from the game on youtube or anywhere else. Does anybody know anything about this?

Apparently Darren Salt made some custom mansions to show off his room editor too. I'd love to see a longplay of these some time, but really to the Internet it's like the Archimedes barely exists...

I do recall the game itself however I also remember I was unable to get it to run, (or the Atom version actually) as the emulators are confusing. This coming from someone who had two dead A5000's and a working A7000 for a few months. I've never been able to get on with RiscOS unfortunately, the need to load plugins to extract files or do simple tasks was difficult.
I do have that version or similar. 🙂
The trampoline block (not that far off Dynamite Dan) was also in the 'extra caverns' sets for the Sam Coupe version of Manic Miner.
Its a bit like the Oric Atmos version of MM there's not a lot of erm 'coverage' on YouTube.
As time allows I will look into this again though. 🙂
Manic Miner also exists on that platform, here's a pic:

I think although that pic is from an old topic, I -might- of got this one to run.
If I still had the A7000 I'd of likely transferred the JSW and MM images to floppy and tried them for real.