jetsetdanny

Thank you for your feedback, MtM! 👍 The congratulations and gratitude for creating this great game go to Carl Paterson, its author 🙂 . He designed all of the beautiful rooms we can now enjoy (I only assisted with some 'postproduction' aspects, such as music). Thank you, Carl! 🙂 I'm glad you have mentioned that, because it is one of the things I've been 'preaching' very hard all along: that it is good to have a clear distinction between games that are evidently new games (using the excellent JSW game engine and its general concept, and perhaps some other elements, like selected sprites - but still new games) and 'products' which are not new games as such, but modifications of the original JSW (and MM, respectively), sometimes very minor, sometimes a little more expanded, but still not enough to be considered new games. On JSW Central, the distinction is made at the level of the lists: the "List of Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy games for the ZX Spectrum", with all its sublists, is the place where (what I consider to be) new games are listed, while there are separate lists for what I classify as "Versions of the original MM" and "Versions of the original JSW". It is an arbitrary choice of how to classify a given game, of course. In some cases, the classification is not so obvious, which has led me to create a sublist called "B. Advanced modifications of the original Jet Set Willy" within the list of "II. Jet Set Willy (JSW48) Games using Matthew Smith's original Jet Set Willy game engine for the 48K Spectrum and its modifications". Fortunately, in case of "WiLLY iN ThE MiRRoRVeRSE" (as well as Carl's first game "AmAZiNG WiLLY") there is no doubt whatsoever: they are new games, allowing the player to experience brand-new parts of Willy's universe, while still using the exquisite game mechanics of Matthew Smith's timeless original 🙂 .

It's quite a cruel punishment for being inept enough to lose a life! 😉

Updates on the JSW Central YouTube channel since the last video I mentioned in this thread: "Willy's Afterlife" "Manic Scribbler" "Jet Set Willy: Spectrum Computing" "Goodnite Luddite" "Ultimate Manic Miner" "Manic Panic" "Skint Willy" "Willy the Rogue" "Still Stealin'" "Manic Miner Mythologies: Eugene - Lord of the Bathroom" "Monstrum!" "Willy in the Islands of Mystery (Part 1: Exploration)" The videos of "Goodnite Luddite", "Manic Panic", "Skint Willy", "Willy the Rogue" and "Steal Stealin'" were made from RZX walkthroughs I had recorded previously (back in 2007 in case of "Goodnite Luddite", in 2019 in case of the three parts of the "Down and Out Trilogy" and in 2021 in case of "Manic Panic"). The video of "Ultimate Manic Miner" was made from an RZX recording I made recently, as I had not played this game to completion before. I managed to complete it at 11:35 pm, which is an improvement over the other publicly available recording(s) of this visually-stunning game. For the other six videos, I replayed and re-recorded them in order to improve my own earlier performances. I hugely improved my previous score in "Manic Scribbler" - from 25,465 points to 32,730 points. I moderately improved my earlier score in "Manic Miner Mythologies: Eugene - Lord of the Bathroom" - from 26,428 points to 27,001 points (I got my kicks out of beating the 27,000-point mark! 😁). Furthermore, I brought down my completion time of "Willy's Afterlife" from 8:08 am to 8:02 am, of "Jet Set Willy: Spectrum Computing" from 7:57 am to 7:51 am, of "Monstrum!" from 8:36 am to 8:24 am and of "Willy in the Islands of Mystery (Part 1: Exploration)" from 8:38 am to 8:26 am. All of the newly-recorded RZX files can be downloaded from the games' respective pages on JSW Central.

I extended the death effect in "Willy's Hoard" to make it longer (and different) than in the original "JSW" . To quote from the Readme: I modified the value of the addresses #8C1A - #8C30, copying the code from the 1985 version of "Henry's Hoard", to change the "lose a life" special effect.

There are at least two ways in which the issue of Willy dying several times in a row after getting killed has been addressed, I believe: 1. Safe restart positions. You respawn not where you died, but at a location within the same room where it's safe (you won't die again immediately). I believe (off the top of my head, without checking) that this is something that was initially done in "Jet Set Willy II", but there is also a patch for a regular JSW48 game that does it. My recent description of it is here. 2. Norman Sword's immunity. Right after being killed, Willy is immune to, I believe, any kind of danger for a second or two: he does not get killed by guardians or Fire cells or by falling from an excessive height. Norman has applied it in "Jet Set Willy in Altered Reality" (where Willy is flashing while the immunity lasts) and "Manic Jet Set Willy" (where a receding horizontal bar below the screen shows the immunity) [please note that the JSW Central web page for "Manic Jet Set Willy" needs updating, it's on my to-do list]; possibly also in some other projects, I'm not sure right now without checking. The 'side effect' of this solution is that it in some cases it allows the player to take an alternative route through the game (by sacrificing one life to be able to fall from a great height and land safely, or pass a guardian or a Fire cell that would normally not be passable), which can accelarate the completion time (by sacrificing a life/some lives you can complete the game faster than normal).

Without understanding exactly how Erix1's code modifications work, I don't think the changes I've made to the file should interfere with what can be modified using Hackulator, possibly with the exception of some changes falling within one 'class of changes': those that concern special, PV-like effects in some rooms. There was (at least) one special effect from "Maria vs Some Bastards" that was not used in "JSW: RR" (the opening of the Temple of Frogs and the related message that was printed on the screen). I wiped out that code completely and replaced it with other code, useful for "JSW: RR". I also 'built up' on some other similar code, e.g. adding the printing of guardian sprites in addition to a message being printed. Again, I'm not sure how Hackulator handles these particular special effects, but if it does, it'll certainly be confused and not do its job any more in these few particular cases. Also, in some other cases, I compacted Erix1's code related to these special effects a little bit. So there can be problems related to two issues: the code being moved up and down (if Hackulator looks for a particular address to modify a particular special effect in a given room, it may not find it where it expects) and the code being optimised. For example there was an LD A,00 instruction somewhere (3E 00). I changed it to an XOR A (AF) instruction, which produces exactly the same result, but takes only one byte (instead of two), because I needed every single byte I could get in that particular area of the code (to add some more code). However, if Hackulator should be wired to be able to insert different values there (by modifying the operand of the LD A instruction, so for example doing 3E 01 instead of 3E 00 to change the value of the address in question to 01 rather than 00), it won't work any more and, in fact, by introducing *any* changes, will actually completely mess up the code. I don't think there should be any problems with modifying the building blocks (cells) of each room. TTBOMK, I did not interfere with that at all. [EDITED: Another potential sources of problems was added.]

I'll second what MtM has said 😁.

Thanks, Ian! 👍 It's based on what you wrote, of course. Let's wait for Vidar then, to see if he approves the 'official' bugfix.

Great job, Ian! Thank you! 👍 I've done it, the results are attached. The fixed file comes first, the unfixed second. The only difference above #8000 is the #AF at ##8633. The comparison shows some differences below #8000, in the Attribute buffer at #5Cnn and #5Dnn (cavern + Willy + guardians + items + portal). I'm not sure why this happens, as the TAP file with a JSW or MM game only contains data from #8000 to #FFFF (it's a block of code loaded starting at #8000), doesn't? So what does SPECSAISIE compare below #8000? In any case, to be on the safe side, I have prepared a fixed TAP file which is only different (as analysed by SPECSAISIE) from Vidar's original file at #8633, and I also saved it as a TZX file. It is attached below, as a 'draft proposal', with a description typical of the bug-fixed versions of games I host on JSW Central. Ian, would you have any suggestions for changes in the description in the ZIP file? And Vidar, would you be so kind as to 'officially' approve it as a bug-fixed version? I mentioned your endorsement in the attached text file, but of course it's only tentative, awaiting (and hoping for) your approval. Please let us know! 🙂 eugene.txt UNAPPROVED_Please_do_not_spread_Eugene_-_Lord_of_the_Bathroom_(bugfixed_version).zip

Great, thank you! I look forward to it! 🙂

So the TAP file that has been circulating on the internet (the one that can be downloaded, among other places, from the game's page on JSW Central) is dated 09.05.1999. The game was released (according to the Chronology I once created, and it was a fruit of a careful investigation) on "17 May (or a little earlier)". So I think there is every reason to suspect that it's always been like that. [The TZX file that is also available on the web, dated 30.12.2001, is secondary; it must have been created from your original TAP file in order to be placed on the TZX Vault; it behaves exactly in the same way, i.e. jumping from the title screen to start the game immediately.] In the recording hosted on RZX Archive, the title screen and the scrolling message are indeed displayed properly. The recording was made by "Fil" (Philip Bee, I believe), and published on the RZX Archive on 19 January 2005. I have downloaded it and wanted to compare a SNA file saved it and a SNA file saved after launching your original TAP file to see if they are different (I meant to do it using Andrew Broad's SPECSAISIE). As it turns out, however, Philip Bee recorded "Eugene..." in 128K mode. Because of this, I cannot compare the files in SPECSAISIE, as it only compares 48K SNA files (I don't think it's possible to save a 48K SNA file from an emulator when the emulator is running in 128K mode, which is enforced by the RZX recording). The files could still be compared 'manually', so to speak, especially the areas of the code where the different behaviour of the program may lie. It's a little mystery then. I did try to launch your original TAP file on an (emulated) 128K Spectrum, but it behaved exactly the same way as described before (starting the game immediately). So it looks to me like Philip used a modified/different file for his recording. One thing I have not tried (because I don't remember offhand how to do it) is to try launching your original TAP file on a 128K Spectrum but in the 48K mode. I don't think it will make any difference, but perhaps someone could try it. In any case, if you checked what the problem is and released an updated version with the title screen and the scrolly displayed properly, that would certainly be good 🙂 . Your game is so fine it deserves to be available to the world without any glitches!

Hi Vidar, (or do you prefer to be addressed as Erix1?) Thank you SO MUCH for your kind words and official approval of the fixed version of "MVSB"! This is really fantastic and extremely gratifying 🙂 . I am speaking for myself now, but I am sure Ian (IRF) and Andy (Spider) who were involved in creating it share my sentiment. Also, congratulations on "MVSB" winning the Manchester PLAY Expo competition! I was there, in person, it was a very memorable weekend for me, meeting Matthew Smith, Richard Hallas, Daren Pearcy (who has since passed away...) and other guys for the first time. Good old (pre-pandemic) times 🙂 . So thank you once again, your approval and endorsement are greatly appreciated! I will post this now and then reply regarding "Eugene" in a separate message.

Ian, I'm glad you like the loading screen I created for "JSW: RR" 🙂 . Erix1's loading screen looks like that:

As a person who is already well acquainted with the game, I would like to encourage everyone to check it out, and not just have a brief look at it, but really play it, preferably to completion! It can be completed without losing a single life (not easy if you don't save/reload snapshots or use Rollback! 😉). It's an amazing result of Sendy's brilliant design using Erix1's enhancements to the JSW48 game engine, pleasing visually and full of interesting challenges in terms of gameplay. It's also a game with a history. A beta file was uploaded to the old (today nonexistent) MM/JSW Yahoo! Group back in 2004, but then the gamma release, which at times seemed imminent, didn't happen. It's been a long wait for those who remember the Yahoo! Group days, but it's been worth it - and what a comeback by Sendy it is! So don't miss it, play it to the end, and then watch out for Sendy's other maturing projects! 🙂

Erix1, welcome to the forum! 🙂 It's really great that you have joined it! 😁 Thank you for your outstanding contributions to the MM/JSW scene! "Manic Miner Mythologies: Eugene - Lord of the Bathroom" and "Maria vs. Some Bastards" are truly amazing games! 1. Regarding the former, while re-recording it to make a JSW Central YouTube video very recently, I realised it has a problem in that the title screen is displayed only for a split second and then the game starts immediately, as if ENTER has been pressed. I believe your intention was to display the title screen 'normally', as it says on the title screen "PRESS ENTER TO START", so the program is supposed to wait for the player to press ENTER before proceeding to start the gameplay. In my video linked above I actually stopped the start of the game "artificially" to allow the viewers to appreciate your title screen. The question arises though: would you consider releasing a fixed version where the game would not launch 'automatically', but allow the player to savour the title screen? 2. Regarding the latter, I trust you are aware that back in 2019 this forum's team (with the leading role of Ian Rushforth - IRF), frustrated at the prolonged impossibility to complete "MVSB", released a bug-fixed, completable version of your beautiful game. We did try to contact you back then to ask for your 'blessing' for the project, but were not successful. So I would like to kindly ask you now to confirm you are fine with this release. It was a labour of love, a lot of effort went into analysing the game and coming up with solutions that would not distort the original Rev. E in any way or take away from it, only add to it. It was also a delight to record it for the JSW Central YouTube channel. If you could "officially" approve of this effort, it would be greatly appreciated! Finally, I will second Sendy's request for releasing Hackulator if you still have it. This would give people a chance to create more Erix1-mode JSW games! 🙂

Thanks, Sendy. The game is also on Spectrum Computing. The SC people may have some contact info for Vidar.

What game?

Everything is possible in the 'meta' world! Even Facebook turned to Meta, hasn' it? 😉

Thanks for your reply. That's too many to port the game to the Spectrum, unless it was done as a two-part JSW128 game (where you could have 512 rooms in total). Thanks for having a look at "WNM"! 🙂

Great discussion! 🙂 I will just add to the bit quoted above that in the Readme accompanying "Goodnite Luddite" Andrew Broad says, "You can consider yourself to have passed Goodnite Luddite if you finish the game using infinite lives (POKE 35899,0) on a real Spectrum, or saving and loading snapshots on an emulator. If you cheat by using any other POKEs, or by using WRITETYPER, you should consider yourself disqualified. ;-)" So the author himself states that playing this particular game by saving and loading snapshots is NOT cheating, but a valid method of completing it. This is (that's my comment) because the game is designed to be so hard it would be unrealistic to expect people to finish it without this kind of help (or the infinite lives POKE). He also establishes the same "rules of engagement" for some of his other games, e.g. "Party Willy".

I like the word "Hallowed" for use in JSW terminology 🙂 . However, I doubt that it conveys the meaning of "forbidden" strongly enough. These places in JSW games we are discussing are simply inaccessible, you cannot and you will not reach them (unless you use the Writetyper cheat or POKE the game). I wouldn't argue about it (not being a native speaker of English), but if you look at these examples of "hallowed ground", for instance, and the definition of "hallowed" itself ("used to describe something that is respected and admired, usually because it is old, important, or has a good reputation"), I don't see the element of the entrance to these places being forbidden at all. So perhaps a "Forbidden Hallowed Ground" would be a good compromise? 🙂 Not that it matters much, of course 🙂 . I made my remark about the "Forbidden Holy Ground" simply because I am so used to it, and I made my remark about sticking to unified terminology probably out of my subconscious desire that it would be the optimal scenario (as it would allow us to avoid any possible misunderstandings and save one's time thinking about what term to use if that term came to mind immediately because it was so universal). However, I suspect that our destiny is rather "unity in diversity", so of course feel absolutely free to use any term you like 🙂 .

Thanks for your thoughts, Sendy! 🙂 I don't think we will be able to define the "ultimate purpose" of the game in absolute terms. It depends on the point of view and one's preferences (like pretty much everything else in this world IMO). Undoubtedly, completing the game involves collecting all items, reaching the bed and successfully making the toilet run to end up in the toilet. But then you could claim that for many people completing the game is not important, playing it and enjoying the exploration is. So it all depends. I only expressed my personal point of view above, and explained why I'm not too fond of Secret Gardens. I don't have to be, it's my choice. I understand others have a different point of view and different preferences, and I respect that. I also take these other points of view into consideration when designing games, to increase the chances that they will be enjoyable to people who have a different approach to things. It's a question of balancing my own attitude and preferences (which may be minoritary in some ways) and possible attitudes and preferences of others (which I will admit may be majoritary). My personal "primary dopamine hit" is in completing games, not in exploring them. That's why I play all games recording them and using he Rollback feature, because it allows me to enjoy constant progress. I roll the recording back to the spot where I failed. I never have to start the game from the beginning because I've lost all lives. I get my kicks because I progress and I'm ever closer to the completion of the game. Completing it provides my "ultimate dopamine hit". I don't enjoy having to struggle with the same obstacles over and over again. What's more, I don't have time for it. I'm not 15 any more, I don't have long school holidays, my spare time is very limited, while the numbers of things I would like to do in it continues to increase. I would have absolutely no pleasure in having to replay the game over and over again, passing through the same obstacles, only because I keep losing lives, or fall into a Multiple Death Scenario, and have to start from the beginning. I don't have time for such futile (from my point of view) exercise. I have too many interesting things to do in my life to just keep replaying the same rooms. I don't enjoy exploration for exploration's sake, either, because its aimless (from my perspective), it doesn't lead to the completion of the game. If I explore the game, it is with one purpose: to gain the knowledge necessary to complete the game (learn the geography, tricks related e.g. to the quirky features of the game engine, etc.). I have to admit that I am often amazed that people (let's say "members of the general games-playing public") complain that various JSW games are difficult. I am not referring to the dozen of the "hard core", really difficult games (like "STRANGEL", etc.), but to such games like the recently released "AmAZiNG WiLLY" (I have seen some comments that it's difficult). When you play saving and reloading snapshots, or using Rollback, most games are NOT really difficult. "AmAZiNG WiLLY" has quite a number of places where you need to think ahead before you make your move (great design by Carl Paterson!). You jump onto a certain platform and then realise you are trapped, you will have to lose a life. OK, that can be very frustrating if you are playing in the "regular" mode (some people would call it "without cheating"). Yes, definitely it is frustrating if you only have 7 lives to start with. However, I don't understand why anyone would want to play in the "regular" mode today, having the possibility of "assisted" play, like Rollback or saving/reloading snapshots. For me, it would be a waste of time and a source of frustration. I understand the speedrunners who beat these amazing records of completing the game without any "assistance" don't use it, because it's their objective, to achieve the best completion times without any assistance (incidentally, they are results-oriented like myself, I believe). But casual players? Why would you want to repeat the same struggles if you don't have to? I guess for some people it may be a question of honour (???), the notion of completing the game without "cheating". That's fine, it's their choice, their attitude. I'm absolutely not implying it's wrong in any way, I'm just saying that from my very personal perspective it seems hard to understand why people prefer not to use these "assistive technologies" when they have them at their disposal (and they didn't have them before the emulation era; an infinite lives and other POKEs would have been the most they could get back in the 1980s, I think). Now that I think about it, though, I will share the following reflection. I have a feeling - and I could be wrong - that not too many people complete the new JSW games for the Spectrum which are released from time to time. There are not many comments by people saying "I've completed this game!". So either people don't complete games or they don't bother to comment on it. It could be either, but I do feel that a lot of people have a go, or two, or three at a game, explore it a little bit, maybe even a little more, but fail to ever complete it. I dare say that the reason for this is because they don't use the "assistive technologies" (and don't have enough determination to complete the game without them). How much time can you expect a person to devote to a game? I probably wouldn't have completed most of the games I have completed either if I had had to struggle with them and start from the beginning every time I lost all of the (usually 7) spare lives. But then if you don't complete a game, even if you enjoyed exploring it, etc., you don't get a full experience of it, only a limited knowledge. And no real satisfaction, either, at least from my personal perspective. And authors don't get that gratifying info that someone has completed their game. Okay, enough rambling 🙂 . Once again, this is just my very personal take on things. I'm not saying it's better than anyone else's. But I do claim it's not worse than anyone else's 😉, because I believe all personal points of view are equally valid, as there is no supreme arbiter who could say: This point of view is right, that one is wrong; not even Matthew Smith 🙂.

I will just add that browsing through the old messages from the JSW/MM Yahoo! Group I can see that Stuart once wrote, "I always like to include a secret room which (hopefully) ties in with another game". The "Doc Shiels' Sea-Head Factory" room in "Utility Cubicles" was a harbinger of his second JSW game, "Monstrum!". Similarly, Stuart's third JSW game (and the first one using the JSW64 game engine), "Willy and the Dodecahedron", features a Secret Garden room called "The Lemonade Man" (081), which is a reference to Stuart's planned sequel to "Willy and the Dodecahedron" called "Willy Meets the Lemonade Man". Stuart once wrote that "it would be a smaller game with (ideally) more sophisticated rooms". It hasn't materialised yet, but hope never dies in JSW world 🙂 . I sincerely hope Stuart will make another comeback and present us with the Lemonade Man adventures one day 🙂 .

Thanks for this description, Sendy! I totally agree with most of it 🙂 . I believe the standard name which was used on the JSW/MM Yahoo! Group for the second type you described was "Forbidden Holy Ground". This term was also going to be used in Andrew Broad's unfinished Nomen Clature: A MM/JSW Glossary (you can see it there, but without a definition). I believe it would be best to stick to it to keep the terminology as unified as possible 🙂 . Personally, I am not too fond of these: It's probably because I'm generally results-oriented. If the ultimate purpose of the game is collecting items, it is collecting items. If a room has no items and it is not necessary to pass through it to complete the game, it is pretty much pointless from my point of view. I recently re-recorded a walkthrough of Stuart J. Hill's "Utility Cubicles" (the YouTube video can be watched here). It does have a prime example of a Secret Garden - it's "Doc Shiels' Sea-Head Factory" (63), a nice room hidden to the left of "Ore-Rich Cavern" (39). You won't see it in my walkthrough, though, because my walkthroughs are meant to present elegant, efficient solutions to games. So if there is a room where there is no item and no need to enter, it won't be documented in the walkthrough. While "Doc Shiels' Sea-Head Factory" actually *feels* like a Secret Garden room as per your definition, there are several other rooms in "Utility Cubicles" which do not have to be visited to complete the game, because they have no items and the player does not have to pass through them - but I wouldn't call them Secret Gardens. These are: "Synthetic Lair of the Pac-Worm" [11], "Pathway to the Pyramid" [20], "Confusion Pipe, Primary Level" [26], ""Confusion Pipe, Secondary Level" [32], "West Wall of the City" [48], "Broken Pipe" [54]. So 7 rooms out of 64 do not need to be visited at all. For me, this is the weakest point of this otherwise excellent game which I have always liked. And it has 175 unused items, so it would just be enough to use 7 of them to put an item in each of these rooms to force the player to visit them. I would also like to mention one of my favourite secret passages in JSW games. It's in Matt Doughty's "Maria's Revenge". To access it, you need to start in "The Factory" (you can see it at 26:34 in my walkthrough). You have to go through three following rooms and in the third of them, "The Barn", you are now able to exit upwards, which takes you to two more rooms and one item. I remember when I first played that game it took me a long time to figure out what needs to be done. The beauty of this design is that you pass through these rooms at the floor level, you see them, and yet it's really hard to envisage that you need to pass through them also at a higher level. The starting point is concealed nicely too (in plain view!) - it's not an obvious jump at all. This one is a real classic for me 🙂 .

Thank you for the link and for making the game, Pixel Stonk! I've had a brief walk around the game. I didn't experience any lag problems. The game has a nice feel to it and it's great to see new rooms. It could probably even be ported to a Spectrum version one day. How many rooms does it have altogether? The room "Silver Screen" reminds me of my room "The Cinema" from "Willy's New Mansion", best experienced in the Special Edition of the game, where the Patch Vector makes the screen, Willy and the guardians flicker. It can been seen here starting at 26:19.