DigitalDuck

With the life sprite in its first position, you can also get through the corner of the new platform and land on the small platform underneath it. This jump stops being possible at 37 lives.

So I have a couple of corrections to this, namely that I'd missed some things that reduce the life count before some levels become incompletable: Eugene's Lair - at 39 lives, the platform with the black toilet is completely overshadowed by the garbage platform. Unfortunately it's now one cell too high to safely drop down from, and there's no other way down without falling too far. Return of the Alien Kong Beast - at 37 lives, all ways back down are blocked, and again the only way to get down is to fall too far. Attack of the Mutant Telephones - while it's possible to go from top to bottom by jumping through the top of the screen, the platform in the middle becomes an island once you reach 42 lives and there's no way to get up or down from it. Interesting. I'll post about it in that thread if I decide to experiment with that, but it's definitely unique for JSW-style games.

Yes, it's both the playing area and the buffer that's overwritten. When drawing a sprite it adds 256 to the memory address to go to the next pixel row, but naturally the screen attributes follow directly after the screen pixels so they're being drawn to. Even in the most extreme scenario lives are only drawn to pages 80-95 (memory addresses 0x5000 to 0x5FFF) which contain the lower third pixel data for the screen, attribute data for the screen, and the attribute buffers. I'm not sure where the stack is stored, but I don't think it's being overwritten here.

Absolutely - unfortunately this scenario doesn't seem to exist in the vanilla game, but with the right sprites and colours you could have a situation where it cycles between floor, wall, air, and nasty (or the four elements, water, earth, air, and fire), and require the Willy life sprite to be in a certain state to make the level passable (perhaps even requiring floor at some points, air at others, and wall at yet others, so you have to "edit" the level as you play).

Not shown in the video because I just wanted to get something out there quickly, but what's actually drawn on the screen depends on the sprite shown for Willy's lives; as I have the music turned off, it's not cycling. The state I have the sprites paused in is the only state in which items are auto-collected. In all cases at least one of the two blocks drawn is a floor block. I suspect the black cells are actually air tiles, hence the item being collectable; these same black tiles are nasties in Skylab Landing Bay. I actually discovered this a while ago with lives POKEs, this was just my first time seeing if it can occur during normal gameplay. You can experiment yourself with POKE 33879,n. After 48 lives, they start being drawn over the level name and air counter instead. There's a limit to how many lives you can have before each level becomes incompletable (although you can always lose lives until they become completable again). I've split them into three groups: Early blockers: Central Cavern - at 39 lives, you cannot jump over the robot without landing on the extended platform, which blocks your fall to below. Interestingly, it becomes possible again at exactly 46 lives only, as this allows you to walk to the right and drop down that way (similar to what the GBA/PC version allows you to do), but at 47 lives that way becomes impassable too. Miner Willy meets the Kong Beast - at 40 lives, there is no way of getting through the opening after pressing the switch to collect the last banana. Endorian Forest - at 40 lives, the middle trunk and extended platform seal you in the starting section. Return of the Alien Kong Beast - 40 lives, same as Miner Willy meets the Kong Beast. Skylab Landing Bay - at 34 lives, the nasties block a mandatory path. The Final Barrier - at 46 lives, there is no way of getting out of the top-right area after collecting the keys there. Standard blockers: At 47 lives, the "platform" extends covering the entire play area (minus the last two cells, but one of those is always a wall, and Willy can't fit through a gap of one cell). For The Cold Room, The Menagerie, Eugene's Lair, Processing Plant, and The Warehouse, 47 lives is the point at which they can no longer be completed as the entire screen is blocked and cannot be traversed from top to bottom. No blockers: These come in two forms: in Abandoned Uranium Workings, Wacky Amoebatrons, The Bank, The Sixteenth Cavern, Amoebatron's Revenge, and Solar Power Generator, you start in the bottom half of the screen and exit at the top. As a result, platforms stretching across the screen don't inhibit progress at all. You do normally need to revisit the bottom half of the screen in Solar Power Generator, but the platform extends to make that unnecessary long before it's made impossible. The second form is in The Vat, Attack of the Mutant Telephones, and Ore Refinery. While all three of these levels require going from top to bottom to top (or bottom to top to bottom in the case of Ore Refinery), they also have platforms very near to the top of the screen, requiring wall tiles to prevent you from jumping outside of the screen boundaries. These wall tiles are replaced with floor tiles, allowing you to jump through the screen vertically and access the other half of the screen. All of these levels can be completed regardless of the number of lives you have. Whether it should be allowed or not is already contentious enough with what I've already shown - I think we can safely say that if cheats are required then it definitely shouldn't count, so anything with extensive corruption is out. I believe this also means that the maximum attainable life count in the game is 38 (Skylabs limiting to 34 plus four extra lives attainable in one loop).

It seems that it's still collectable when another attribute is printed over an item - this happens in Abandoned Uranium Workings. It also seems that the bug is consistent in what it puts on-screen. My main concern is that it isn't possible the first eight (at minimum) times you complete the cavern, and these are clearly different caverns to those intended due to modified terrain.

I played through, albeit not in real-time (so savestates, rollback etc.) - I'm doing it for a max score run because I think it's interesting to watch the game disintegrate as you play. It takes about two hours of perfect play to get to this point so I don't recommend it.

In short: earning enough extra lives corrupts the screen, which acts as floor tiles in most caverns and allow routes that aren't normally available. The following five scores are shown in the video: Abandoned Uranium Workings - 1856 Miner Willy meets the Kong Beast - 4142 Wacky Amoebatrons - 1377 Attack of the Mutant Telephones - 1750 Ore Refinery - 1884

It doesn't use any POKEs, it's possible in both the original Bug-Byte and Software Projects versions without any modifications. However, it's not possible in the high score challenge version of the game.

I've managed to complete Abandoned Uranium Workings with 1856 points, but it's in a very non-standard way and probably shouldn't count in the rankings... I'll reveal more when I'm done exploring other levels.

Sounds like a great idea for another game...

This is the definition I was thinking of - although levels needn't specifically be completed in a linear order (for example, most Mario games have a fairly open structure where you choose a level, and completing that level grants access to additional levels) they are self-contained challenges which have a clear definition of "completion". In the case of Manic Miner, completing a cavern gives you a score bonus based on how quickly you completed the room and then loads the next cavern, refreshing your air and providing a new checkpoint to return to when you die. So each cavern definitely counts as a level. This is an interesting one. I'd definitely say 10 levels and 20 rooms, but I'm not sure if I'd count it as 20, 10, or even 0 caverns (the last being the same way I wouldn't consider the whole of Jet Set Willy as one cavern). The C16 version of Jet Set Willy II is split into four parts this way as well - although you can load each part at any time and there's no requirement to complete them (in fact I'm not even sure it's possible to complete most of them). Personally I'd refer to these as levels as well, as they're effectively just larger versions of the Double Miner case, but it would be interesting to know how this was referred to in the manual. The SAM Coupe version of Manic Miner has three sets of caverns, and the title screen asks you to select a "game"... I'm thinking Deserted Isle is a cavern after all.

For me the difference is that in Manic Miner, you're not free to exit at any time - you must collect all items and then head to the portal, and after heading to the portal you can't return (unless you complete a full loop of the game). In Jet Set Willy, you can (almost) always exit a room without collecting any items, and return later should you wish to. I could define a "room" as one screen of the game, such that both Solar Power Generator and Emergency Generator are rooms; but to make a distinction, Solar Power Generator can also be considered a "level", whereas nobody would consider Emergency Generator as a level, for the reasons above. In that sense, a cavern is a room that is also a level. ... is Deserted Isle a cavern?

Manic Miner Redux supports many thousands of rooms. (What? The original post never mentioned "Spectrum"...)

It'll depend on what programming experience you have already. 1. If you've not done any coding before at all, I definitely wouldn't recommend starting with assembly - follow a Python tutorial (effectively the modern BASIC) and learn the basic concepts before tackling assembly. 2. If you have knowledge of higher-level languages but have never done any assembly, Z80 isn't a bad place to start with that. You could follow the links in 3 and it wouldn't be too difficult. However, I do want to give a special shoutout to MarkeyJester's Motorola 68000 Beginner's Tutorial, as even though it's for a more complex processor it really does break everything down and you can apply the knowledge and concepts to every assembly language out there. I definitely recommend reading it, even if you're not interested in 68k ASM. 3. If you've done assembly before or read MJ's tutorial, or you're just feeling brave, then I'd go with two links. Patai Gergely has a breakdown of the Z80 that makes good initial reading for a surface level understanding. And then there's ChibiAkumas which will take you through the entire process of actually getting Z80 programs running. It's initially CPC-based but at the end of the day Z80 is Z80 and it covers a whole bunch of other platforms later.

I'll definitely use it to help justify the inclusion of any runs I do. I'm certainly not going to do the whole list though...

If they allowed mods in general, you'd have an issue where the site is flooded with the most minor of mods in which there's basically no difference between them and the original game. It makes sense that they only want mods which are effectively completely new games. It just means that there's a higher standard to meet for acceptance.

My Jet Set Willy II+ TAS has just been published to TASVideos, so now I've done the full set of official/semi-official Miner Willy games. I'll probably focus on some other games for a bit before I come back to Miner Willy, but when I do some things I'm thinking of working on: Manic Miner GBA - there's already one TAS for this but I think it can be improved upon using some of the things we found for the Spectrum version. Manic Miner Max Score (no deaths) - since this is how the game is typically played competitively, I should package this together at some point as well, even though it will be 85% identical to the existing run. Jet Set Willy WRITETYPER - I've done it myself in real-time in under 3 minutes and seen RuffledBricks do it even faster, so I think it'd be fun to see just how quickly it could be done if you had superhuman reflexes and three hands. Jet Set Willy II/+ 100% - visit all rooms, collect all items. It's a lot more work but it would be nice to actually show off some of the more interesting parts of the game. Some notable mods - typically these are frowned upon but exceptions can be made for those that are sufficiently different to the originals and provide something new and unique. I'm thinking JSW Nightmare Edition, Manic Panic, and JSW Altered Reality as candidates, as they all do interesting things and would make entertaining viewing when played "perfectly".

Absolutely, I'll look into doing that.

Jet Set Willy Online also had this music, I don't know where it was taken from though.

Can you at least quote the error message? I'm assuming it appears as soon as you try to open it?

I think the CPC versions (and JSW2 Spectrum) also allow you to jump from Emergency Generator to Priest's Hole, although I'm not in a position to check right now.

So speedrunning and score attacking Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy have been around for as long as the games have, in various forms, and I'd argue make the game much more fun than merely playing "for completion". However, I wanted to make a post to highlight some things that go on outside the circles here that CPL, crem, and RuffledBricks have kinda introduced but maybe weren't fully understood due to differences in terminology. So let's cover the terminology, as used by the competitive gaming scene in general: Score attack: only applicable to games which have a score counter, the object is to get the highest score possible. If two players earn the same score, the winner is typically the one who achieved that score more quickly. Manic Miner is the only game in the series to have an explicit score counter, but you could argue the item count in JSW2 is also a score of sorts. In both cases, there is otherwise optional content that must be done to maximise score: defeating the Kong Beasts in Manic Miner, and collecting all items in JSW2. Speedrun: in a speedrun, the object is to complete the game as quickly as possible. Sometimes there will be additional optional restraints placed, for example "no deaths allowed", "no glitches allowed", "must collect all items"; these are typically known as "categories", and competitions usually occur within individual categories. Any of the Miner Willy games can be speedrun; JSW2 even includes an in-game timer which can be used. Both of these can be split further into three types, depending on how the run is performed: Real-time: this refers to completing the run from start to finish in one go, without the use of any additional tools like rollback or snapshots. "Score attack" or "speedrun" by themselves usually imply real-time, but not necessarily depending on context. Segmented: this is also without the use of any additional tools like rollback or snapshots, but rather than require the entire run be completed in one go, it is split into "segments", usually through the use of in-game saves. You could split Manic Miner per-level, using the in-game cheat to select a level and then try to complete that level with the best time or highest score possible. You take as many attempts as you like to optimise that one level, and then move onto the next. These scores and times are usually kept by themselves, in the form of Individual Levels (ILs); but once you've completed all segments to your satisfaction, you could combine the segments and get a total score or time that way, although this is rarely done in the case of score attacks. Tool-assisted: this refers to completing the run using additional tools not intended for use with the game. This includes rollback, snapshots, savestates, and frame advance. You can essentially micro-segment this way, and then recombine everything to get a total score or time at the end of it. Most tools store the inputs along the way so it can be replayed as though it was done in real-time; this is how .rzx works, for example, and the majority of .rzx recordings are tool-assisted as they use rollback. ============ So with that out of the way, there are four major sites for competitive gaming; Twin Galaxies primarily deals with real-time score attacks; Speedrun.com primarily deals with both real-time and segmented speedruns; Speed Demos Archive primarily deals with segmented speedruns; and TASVideos primarily deals with both tool-assisted score attacks and tool-assisted speedruns. For real-time speedruns, I've set up and run boards on Speedrun.com. Video evidence is required, but you don't need to have a timer on-screen - we're capable of verifying the time ourselves. Manic Miner has two major categories: 1 loop requires reaching the swordfish as quickly as possible; the Spectrum record is held by CPL with a time of 13:24. Kong Beast requires defeating the Kong Beast as quickly as possible; the Spectrum record is also held by CPL with a time of 4:35. These categories have sub-categories, meaning that there are separate leaderboards within these; these are effectively just major versions of the game, as it's not fair to compare versions with different level designs etc. In addition, the Game Boy Advance and SAM Coupe have their own categories as they have multiple level sets. Jet Set Willy has three major categories: any% (a common way in speedrunning to say "just beat the game by any means necessary") requires reaching the toilet as quickly as possible; the Spectrum record is held by myself with a time of 19:01, however this is more of a technicality as RuffledBricks' run was performed on the slower 128K; his run is better and you should definitely learn from that run instead. Warpless requires reaching the toilet as quickly as possible, without using unintended room exits (defined as the upwards exits in Rescue Esmerelda, On the Roof, Watch Tower, and The Beach); the Spectrum record is held by RuffledBricks with a time of 21:59. Max Lives requires reaching the toilet as quickly as possible, without any unnecessary loss of life; the Spectrum record is also held by RuffledBricks with a time of 22:19. These categories also have sub-categories for versions; the 2015 bugfix is one such sub-category as it's a notable mod that fixes issues in the game without adding content. There's also a WRITETYPER category, in which the WRITETYPER cheat is allowed to help you beat the game, but that one's more for fun. Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier has four major categories: any% requires reaching Central Cavern as quickly as possible; I'm the only one with a recorded Spectrum run with a time of 29:26 (or 55:04 using the in-game timer), and I completely understand why. 100% requires reaching Central Cavern as quickly as possible having completed every item and visited every possible room in the game; nobody has submitted a Spectrum run and I also completely understand why. Cartography Room requires reaching the Cartography Room as quickly as possible; the Spectrum record is held by myself with a time of 1:57 (IGT of 3:24). Cartography Room Item requires collecting the item in the Cartography Room as quickly as possible; the Spectrum record is held by myself with a time of 3:12 (IGT of 5:54). Once again there are sub-categories for versions; JSW2+e.22 is more popular than the original game, probably because it's actually playable. In addition, the C16 version has its own category as it has multiple levels. Finally, Multiple Miner Willy games is just beating all three games one after the other, also known as the "Willogy". I'm the only one with a recorded Spectrum run with a time of 1:03:32, which isn't a surprise as it's also the only run I actually managed to complete. For tool-assisted runs, I've submitted a few runs to TASVideos; the Miner Willy-related runs are Manic Miner (with a lot of help from crem), Jet Set Willy, and Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier. Runs on TASVideos are timed differently - rather than starting the timer when you begin playing, they are timed from the moment the computer is turned on until they very last key or button is released, but it's possible to get a real-time equivalent by simply timing the portion that's normally timed in a real-time speedrun. These are listed in the commentary for each run (found by clicking the "Author notes" button). With these, my tool-assisted Willogy time is 51:54.814, more than 11.5 minutes faster than my real-time run. I'm going to continue doing tool-assisted runs for the Miner Willy games, both alternative goal choices for the original games as well as notable mods for the series. So I guess the question is, what would you like to see?

There are already a few cases where it doesn't behave identically to the original game - you can no longer clip into wall tiles by entering them from the corner; you can now jump into narrow hallways from the right as well as from the left; and Willy's head is solid while walking left. I don't plan on porting the original behaviours for these, even as options. I'm happy to implement an option to turn off the wall jump, but as you say it's low on the priority list - there's nowhere in the original game where the level design would even have that effect, and only a couple of levels in the whole of MMR so far.

This is known and it's deliberate to allow climbing walls by alternating solid/non-solid blocks. Unfortunately it looks especially weird when it comes to collapsing ground and I'll probably tweak the behaviour to force a drop if you're not holding the jump key. It wasn't present in the original engine.