jetsetdanny

I used zx32 back in those days, but it's definitely out of date now. I believe this list of emulators may be useful, and also this one (the latter featuring direct download links).

Welcome to the forum, Byron! 🙂 Thank you for creating the two versions of "Manic Miner: The Lost Levels" and releasing them here - it's greatly appreciated! 👍 Thank you also for mentioning myself and JSW Central 🙂 . You seem to be a fast worker, with a conversion of the SAM Coupé levels already underway! That's impressive. I couldn't give you any legal advice as such, but I generally don't think anyone should be after you for converting them to the ZX Spectrum (and making the conversion public, of course). One thing to possibly consider regarding this project would be whether using one of the 128K JSW64 game engines could help overcome at least some of the problems related to the game engine differences. Furthermore, since there are more than one set of caverns in the SAM Coupé version (three IIRC? - is is the original set and two additional ones???), they could all be put together in the same game file - if you considered it a good idea, of course.

That makes perfect sense. I think people who have tweaked the code usually did it to make the game run *faster*, though - or at least that's what they usually referred to or seemed to be aiming at. Hence my observation (paired with the often heard complaints or comments about the difficulty level of various games).

Thanks, Gary!

It's good to know (from the other thread) that you did get your old laptop working. I use two emulators: ZX Spin (which is free) for playing (I pretty much always play using Rollback, i.e. RZX-recording games and being able to roll them back to cue points if I lose a life or want to repeat a manoeuvre) and Spectaculator (of which I own a registered copy) for watching RZX recordings and for playing them back when I record videos for the JSW Central YouTube channel. However, these are just my personal preferences. I know people use other emulators, like Fuse or Qaop. It would actually be interesting to hear what other emulators people use these days 🙂 .

Great news! 😁 Indeed it is! And you've come back at just the right time, because 2023 was an exceptional year for the MM and JSW games for the ZX Spectrum with a record number (compared to the previous decade and a half, at least) of releases of brand-new games, as I tried to summarise here. So now you've got a chance to contribute to this positive dynamic! 😉

Either is fine. Outside of the MM/JSW world I usually use "Daniel". Here many people refer to me as "Danny", probably because of the nickname "jetsetdanny", which I created as a username for e-mail and forums, but I've never been particularly attached to (never used it as a nickname to sign my games or other projects I've been involved in). But I kind of like "Danny" and I've grown quite used to it 🙂 . It'll be a pleasure 🙂 . I'm looking forward to it already! A great list! 😁 It's your call, of course, but I would definitely second finishing "Voyager" first, given how much work you have put into it already. It just seems such a waste when advanced projects don't get finished... Later on, let's see about the Mass Collab. I did mention that 'outside-life' circumstances (not to say 'real-life', since MM and JSW are as real to me! 😉) may not allow me to attend to it for quite a while, but we'll see. Perhaps your active involvement (in one way or another, taking "Phantasmagoria" into account) could help me prioritise it over some other projects/activities. After all, it's a very advanced project, too, so it must not go to waste. I definitely won't let it go to waste, it's beyond any doubt for me that it should be finished (with some involvement from the new generation of JSW authors, if they wish to contribute), it's just a question of proper timing and harmonising the time and effort it will require with 'outside' pressures...

Thanks for the file, Andy! 🙂 It does run visibly faster than the original.* * One thing that has always puzzled me is why some people are so excited about speeding MM and JSW up (there have been various attempts to do it, some admittedly very successful), while others complain that these (and many newly created MM/JSW) games are so difficult. It seems to be a contradiction. If you take a difficult game (where manual dexterity is involved) and make it run faster, it will be even more difficult. So anyone who thinks these games are difficult (and they are, *unless* you use Rollback, for example), should be thinking of slowing them down rather than speeding them up. That's what I think would be logical, at least...

Thanks, Gary! 👍 Could you give us the link to where Erix1's site is preserved though? I'm aware of this page, but it doesn't look like a whole site of his. One obvious thing I could link to from JSW Central would be his (preserved) home pages of "Manic Miner Mythologies: Eugene - Lord of the Bathroom" and "Maria vs. Some Bastards".

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! 🙂

Could you provide the code you are referring to? I mean what exactly needs to be modified and how.

(in no particular order) Sendy is back and her long-lost "Jet Set Willy: Role Reversal" and "Manic Person" have been finally gamma-released (with some input from yours truly). Furthermore, she has created "Strangel 2"! It's in a beta stage, I would say. I had the privilege of playtesting it, it's an amazing game. It still needs some finishing touches before the official release, but it's really another demonstration of Sendy's genius as a JSW author 🙂 . Adban de Corcy (Fabián Álvarez López) was active on the forum a couple of years ago. He worked on "Jet Set Jason: In Roddënwald" and developed it much further, but it's not ready for release yet and I don't think he has worked on it recently. I do hope he will complete the project one day, though. Geoff Eddy is a member. He released a very nice new game "Willy does the Great Pyramid!" back in 2021. Richard Hallas posts on the forum from time to time as well as on the "Central Cavern - The Wonderful World of Willy" Facebook group. Andrew Broad was active here in the past, but hasn't been seen for some time now. John Elliott is a member and, hopefully, reads the posts from time to time. He hasn't posted for a while though. Igor Makovsky is a "double member", but hasn't posted here yet. Vidar Eriksen (Erix1) has joined the forum, but unfortunately his presence was only momentary (he contributed 4 posts). The Drunken Master!!! is active on WoS, not here. I don't believe Stuart Hill has joined this forum, but he has commented on "Monstrum" on the JSW Central YouTube channel (revealing interesting info about the ending). That's a quick overview. I may have missed some people (sorry about this!), this "old-timers" list is not necessarily exhaustive. And there are some wonderful people here who were not active in the Yahoo! Group days but have done A LOT for JSW and MM in the last decade - I'm sure you will be pleased to e-meet them 🙂 .

Gary, Thank you so much for your official approval for the fixed WCH file - it's greatly appreciated! 👍 I will add this info to the Readme and to the game's page on JSW Central soon (within a couple of days). Thank you also for your permission to use stuff from your website 🙂 (which continues to be a reference point for me from time to time when checking some things related to the games from that period or earlier times). Regarding the JSW128 "Mass Collaboration" (MC) based on Utility Cubicles - I do intend to move this project forward at some point and bring it to completion. Sendy (who was its original coordinator) gave me permission to do it some years back on the Yahoo! Group; she may be involved as well, as the came back to the scene last year. There is also a person here at this forum (Jet Set Willie) who has already contributed some rooms to be included in the final version of MC. However, before the project is relaunched, there are some things that need to be done to get the file ready for a renewed circulation among authors, and in my current real-life circumstances it looks like I may not be able to find enough time to do it for quite a while. So the project is on the backburner as far as I'm concerned, really, but I do want to come back to it one day when circumstances permit (even if it is a few years from now). I do recall you estimated "Voyager" to be around 60-70% done. This is great and it would definitely be fantastic if you completed it, given that so much work has gone into it already 🙂 . I've checked your posts on the (now sadly offline) Yahoo! Group and here are the references you made to your unfinished games (apparently there was also one named "King Willy"): Wed Mar 13, 2002 sendy wrote: > gawp, what happened to your game? is it still going?! If you mean JSW - Voyager, yes. I found (most of) it on an old disc, so I'm on it again. I may put up a pre-beta demo for feedback? I've also started a new JSW game called 'Ants Invasion'. Will gets 'shrunk' to ant-size and has to escape from an ant-hill. It'll be better than it sounds... Wed Sep 4, 2002 (...) Voyager is coming on nicely (about 100 rooms now) and will be released at some point. Ants Invasion is mapped out on paper, with only about 15 rooms done. A lot of work there. King Willy is still in the design stage. I may do that one on the PC editor. Wed Apr 28, 2004 I'll upload more stuff soon. I'll put up a rough guide to areas in Voyager ASAP so people have a rough idea what's out there. I've also been working on 2 other JSW games. "Ants Invasion" and "Phantasmagoria" (the 2nd one uses some of the abandoned rooms from the UC MassCollab). But Voyager is the priority at the moment. I really want to get it done, as it's been too long in the making. Wed May 19, 2004 8:36 pm I've put a few preview pics up for "Voyager" and "Phantasmagoria" in the photos section under the 'gawp' folder. I've done about 40 screens for Phantasmagoria now... So how is "Phantasmagoria" exactly related to the original "MC"? You've mentioned that it uses "some of the abandoned rooms" from it. "Abandoned" meaning ones you designed for "MC" but then decided not to include in that project? I look forward to all and any projects you may choose to continue 🙂 . I've replied here.

I don't ever use Macs, so I don't know. However, I can share some info about running JSWED on a Mac. Igor Makovsky asked about it recently. The conversation is in the comments under the video here, starting with Igor's comment "Game author here. It was a dedication to my lovely SO, btw". As mentioned there, I reached out to John Elliott, JSWED's author, of course, to see if he can help. He got back to me and said that he hadn't tried to build JSWED on a Mac. He said it would be necessary to install the software development tools, download the source for JSWED and the libraries it uses, and compile it. Alternatively, it might be worth trying to run the Windows version under emulation, if the Mac has a suitable Windows virtual machine or emulator installed. John currently doesn't have access to a recent Mac, so he can't really offer detailed advice for this.

Hi UncleWan, welcome to the forum! 🙂 It's great that you've found this place, been able to overcome all the technical difficulties and can now post here. I find it amazing that you like MM and JSW while you first saw JSW only about 3 years ago. This actually gives me hope that some people in the future, long after our time, will still like the Willy games, which of course will be to them like perhaps us reading ancient literature or something. I've had a look at your Baidu page. Interestingly, when the page is translated automatically from Chinese to English, the game's name becomes "Crazy Miner". That's an interesting twist on the title 😉 . So thanks again for joining the forum and we look forward to the (unexpected, to be honest, while positively exciting) feedback and input from China!

Hi Gary, It's great to see you here! 😁 Thanks for joining the forum and welcome! 🙂 Thank you also for your positive attitude regarding the fixed version of "Willy Comes Home". Could I add your "official" approval to the Readme which accompanies the fixed version? I am aware of only one unfinished game of yours. It's "Voyager". I keep a file of it that you once posted to the Files section of the Yahoo! MM/JSW Group - it's called "Voyager(partdemo).zip", with "Voyager(partdemo)" in TAP and ZXS format inside. It' looks great (when browsed through in JSWED). I can send it back to you via a PM if you should need it (however, perhaps you might have a later version than the one you posted in the Yahoo! Group Files section). Please let me know if you need it 🙂 . John Elliott's JSWED still works like a charm, including on Windows 11, so hopefully it should be easy for you to work on a JSW game or two again. I look forward very much to "Voyager" being finished and released - it really is a very interesting project - and to anything else you might create. And if there is anything I could do to assist (like playtesting), I'll be more than happy to do it 🙂 . - Daniel

Hello Everyone, I am bumping this topic to see if there may be any suggestions as to the item collection issues described in it. Since posting here, I sent the game's author, Steve, two e-mails drawing his attention to my questions, but he hasn't responded (while my e-mails didn't bounce, either). I'm planning to present the four videos of "Terry The Turtle" on the JSW Central YouTube channel in May (starting about four weeks from now). If I don't solve the mystery by then, I will just re-record the walkthroughs as best I can, collecting those items I know how to collect and leaving the problematic ones in place. I certainly want my walkthroughs not to miss any collectable items, so if you should like to help make sure their quality is not compromised, please have a look at the problem described in this thread to see if you can come up with any definitive answers! 🙂

Hi Dickie - welcome to the forum and thanks for your game! 🙂

"Willy Comes Home" is the only JSW game gamma-released (so far! 😉) by Gary Pearce (Gawp!). It holds the distinction of being the first 'properly-edited' game using the JSW128 game engine. This is because "Jet Set Willy 128", the very first game ever released in this category, mostly served as a demonstration of the engine's features, with the majority of its rooms sourced from the original "JSW" and Richard Hallas's "Join the Jet-Set!". In fact, Gary began his editing work with "Jet Set Willy 128", and the block designs in many rooms clearly reveal their origins in one of its source games. He used sprites from the original "JSW", "MM" and "Join the Jet-Set!", and also created some new ones. The game boasts a large map that can be explored with relative ease. It uses Hacklevel 6 of the JSW128 game engine. The game was released in March 2000, with a corrected version 1.1 following in April of the same year. However, despite the update, v. 1.1 was still incompletable due to a critical bug in the room "Harbour Hangover" (083): it was impossible to collect the rightmost item because of a Fire cell that prevented it. There are also two additional problems in v. 1.1 of the game which would render the game bed-completable only even with this issue corrected. The first problem involves a hole in the floor of "Bathroom (with purple bath)" (033) - Willy would fall into it during the toilet run, descending through "The Chapel" (027) and repeatedly getting killed in "Ballroom West" (021), resulting in a very anticlimactic ending. The second one is that even with the hole problem fixed, upon reaching the toilet, Willy would get teleported to "A flash in the Pan" (201), since there is a teleporter, necessary for gameplay progression, that shares its location with the toilet. This ending does not seem correct, as the game file contains an edited sprite of Willy inside the toilet, suggesting that the game's author intended it for the traditional ending. In June 2007, Robin Clive submitted a recording of "Willy Comes Home" to the RZX Archive. The recording was made using a modified game file, with the Harbour item problem fixed by removing the obstructing Fire cell and the Bathroom problem fixed by filling in the hole in the floor. However, Robin did not address the third problem described earlier and, as a result, at the end of the toilet run his playthrough ends in "A flash in the Pan" without reaching a proper conclusion. Robin never released his modified game file (however, an RZX recording can be used to play the game it was made from). I recently tried to complete the game and discovered the problems discussed earlier. I also prepared a bugfixed, toilet-completable version of the game. The "Harbour Hangover" item problem was solved by adding a platform from which Willy can jump for the item in question (the original obstructing Fire cell remains in its place). The Bathroom hole problem was solved by adding some extra code that makes Willy jump during the toilet run (so that the original design of this room has not been modified), and the issue of teleportation near the toilet was resolved by adjusting the code to check for Willy's proximity to the toilet earlier. The bugfixed version can be downloaded from the recently updated game's page on JSW Central. I am also attaching it here for your convenience should anyone be interested in obtaining it. It can be completed without any loss of life. I have been able to complete it (in my third recording 😉) at 8:57 am in-game time, and I have to say I was very proud of making it in under two hours. My RZX walkthrough can be downloaded from the game's page on JSW Central. You can also watch a video of it on the JSW Central channel on YouTube. I would like to encourage everyone to play the game. It is easy (especially when you play saving and reloading snapshots or using Rollback) and fun to explore. I'm sure you will enjoy it! 🙂 Willy_Comes_Home_(bugfixed_version).zip

A few weeks ago Richard Hallas brought to my attention a JSW remake that was missing from the lists of games on JSW Central. It is called "Jet Set II" and it was created by Stewart Fordyce (Wizard Software) back in 1985. I believe this remake remained obscure until October 2022, when it was added to ZXDB and posted on Spectrum Computing by R-Tape. In fact, Richard had spotted it on SC before he let me know about it. "Jet Set II" has the same layout as the original JSW. Several rooms are completely modified - most notably, "THE FURNACE" (10) replaces "The Front Door", "JUMP IN THE MOTOR" (40) substitutes for "Dr Jones will never believe this", "Space Invaders" (55) replaces "West Bedroom" and "Above the West Bedroom" (57) bears no resemblance to its original version despite sharing the same name. While most rooms have been altered to varying degrees, some remain unchanged, such as "On the Roof" [18] and "Master Bedroom" [35], the latter now named "GET OUT YOU CREAP". Guardian paths and item locations remain unaltered, although some guardian sprites have been modified. The title-screen and in-game music are the same as in the original JSW, while the scrolling title message has been edited. The player is instructed to "guide Willy around his brand new house", to "collect the objects to get some money in the bank" and then to "get to bed before 12:00 am". I have now fully 'processed' the game (as per my standards). I played it to as near to completion as was possible, identified critical errors, created a bug-fixed version, played it to completion and RZX-recorded it, created a video of my walkthrough for the JSW Central YouTube channel and added the game to the list of games on JSW Central, creating an individual page for it, along with a complete screenshot gallery and download options. The game's JSW Central page is here, and the YouTube video of my walkthrough is here. The game as created by Stewart Fordyce was impossible to complete due to a critical bug in the room "Under the Drive" (45). It was impossible to jump over the magenta guardian after entering the room at the upper right, which resulted in Willy's repeated deaths. Since this is the only way out after passing through "Tree Root" (46), where two items need to be collected, this bug effectively made it impossible to collect these items and continue the gameplay, rendering the game incompletable. An additional problem was that even with this issue corrected, the game would still only be bed-completable, as the wall in the middle of the Bathroom would prevent Willy from finalising the toilet run. I fixed the "Under the Drive" problem by removing one Earth cell, which prevented Willy from making the same kind of jump over the guardian as in the original "Jet Set Willy". I also solved the Bathroom problem by adding some extra code which allows Willy to pass through the wall during the toilet run. The bug-fixed version can be downloaded from the game's JSW Central page. I was able to complete it, with the loss of one life, at 7:56 in-game time (just like in the original JSW, a life has to be sacrificed to collect the leftmost item in "Conservatory Roof" [43]). All in all, I would definitely not call "Jet Set II" a quality release by today's standards. I even wondered whether to include it in the "New games" category or rather the "Advanced modifications of the original JSW" section. Finally, I opted for the former. I do think "Jet Set II" has historical value, going all the way back to the "real hardware" era. And, if someone wants to spend an hour or two roaming around Willy's somewhat modified mansion - it's always a pleasure, and it's free, too 🙂 . If anyone has any more info about Stewart Fordyce or the game itself, please let me know about it (here or by e-mail) and I will be happy to update the information on JSW Central.

Yes, both top hats AND mining helmets!!! 😄

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! 👍 🙏 👏 🍾

Platforms - yes. These are the so-called "Forbidden Hallowed Grounds". Please see this thread for more info. Items - no. If items were put in really inaccessible areas in a regular JSW game, the game would be incompletable, because you couldn't collect these items if you couldn't reach them. Hence you couldn't make Maria disappear or reach the bed to trigger the toilet run. This basic problem does not occur in "Terry The Turtle", because this game is not Maria-, bed- or toilet-completable - there is no Maria, no bed and no toilet run, so the fact that not all items can be collected does not matter. As defined by the author, "flashing Terry Tokens (...) do not have to be collected to complete the game, you just have to get Terry to deep water".

Thank you for your thoughts. I believe the answer is 'no' to both questions. I've checked the rooms in question in JSWED, changing the attributes of all cells to certain default colours I always use for these occasions (blue on blue for Earth, green on green for Water, etc.), which rules out any hidden platforms. I also checked the guardians. I believe there are no switches in the game. I am pretty sure there aren't any custom code modifications, either - my understanding is that the game was designed using JSWED's GUI without any 'fancy' stuff.

"Terry The Turtle" is the game to try it "the natural way", i.e. without any POKEs. You start out with 7 lives which are visible on the screen. As you gain extra lives, 4 more become visible as little turtles on the screen, just like the original 7. The next 3 extra lives are not marked in any visible way, and then with the 15th life the leftmost little turtle at the bottom of the screen, symbolising a life, starts to flicker. Then, with the following extra lives, the next turtles at the bottom of the screen start to flicker. When the number of lives exceeds 28, it affects the display of the room names (the letters disappear starting with the leftmost one; the effect is irreversible - even if the number of your lives goes down below 28 again, the affected letters in room names in new rooms you enter are not visible). With even more lives the game is slowed down or it can crash or become unplayable in some other way (e.g. because of 'rogue' cells blocking your way). As the author of the game, Steve Dixon (Jammajup), explains, "if you are good at these types of games and constantly use the emulator save state you can collect so many lives you can slow down or even crash the game!" Indeed, this is a serious problem and in order to eliminate it, while recording the RZX walkthroughs of the four versions of the game (three of which still need to be improved - please see this thread for details), I deliberately killed Terry many times during each walkthrough, so as not to have more than 28 lives at any point in the game. The elimination of the excessive number of lives had to take place, much as I dislike serial suicides 😉 . However, if someone is interested, you could experiment with the extra lives and the effects their excess produces.