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Everything posted by jetsetdanny
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"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
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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.
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Yes, both top hats AND mining helmets!!! 😄
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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! 👍 🙏 👏 🍾
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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".
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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.
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[File] Manic Miner - Highscore Challenge
jetsetdanny replied to Spider's topic in Download Discussions
"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. -
“Terry The Turtle” (henceforth: “TTT”) is a JSW64 game by Steve Dixon (Jammajup, Purple Unicorn Software). It was released in 2013 in four versions: Yellow (Normal), Cyan (Intermediate), Red (Hard) and Vector (Special Edition). The game showcases lots of beautiful, atmospheric rooms (divided into 8 thematic zones plus tribute screens to other video games). If features a lovely little turtle, Terry, as protagonist. After a major hurricane the turtles hatch to find the run across the beach to the ocean even more difficult as the whole island has been transformed by the bad weather. You have to help Terry on his way to deep sea. I am currently preparing videos of the walkthroughs of all four versions of the game for the JSW Central YouTube channel, and I have run into the problem of whether or not it is possible to collect all items in each version. I would like to ask for your assistance to 'peer-review' my findings – if you’re interested and have some time to investigate, please read on. According to the game's author, "flashing Terry Tokens award lives but do not have to be collected to complete the game, you just have get Terry to deep water". With the game's completion defined in this way, all four versions of the game are completable. None of them is either Maria- or toilet-completable, though. The Red version is item-completable (I have been able to collect them all). The question remains if the Yellow, Cyan and Vektor versions are item-completable, i.e. if all items can be collected in each variant. I don’t think this is the case. The reason I’m posting this message is to ask for help in either determining how the items I cannot collect can be collected (if that’s indeed the case) or else in confirming that it is impossible to collect some of the items in these versions. I RZX-recorded my walkthroughs of the four versions of “TTT” back in 2015. The recordings have been hosted on the RZX Archive ever since and can be downloaded from there, together with a Readme where I list the items I don’t think are collectable in each version. That description is flawed – I already know that some of the items it mentions as impossible to collect can indeed be collected. So please disregard it – an updated list is presented below. I got in touch with Steve (Jammajup) back in 2015. He let me know how to solve some of the problems I had with collecting the items. He also said (in an e-mail), “I recall getting all possible items during play testing on all versions which had to be done but was a chore”. Steve has posted videos of the completion of each version – you can watch them on his YouTube channel. However, in these videos he “simply showed shortest route to game end and not how to get all items”, so they’re not helpful in terms of providing solutions to the problem I’m facing. For the JSW Central YouTube channel I plan to record videos showing the collection of all items that can be collected. So before I re-record the four game versions (or three of them, since the Red version is pretty much ready) I would like to be either able to collect all items in each version or to be sure that some items indeed cannot be collected. [A sidenote: The videos will show the collection of all of the items that can be collected, but not necessarily all of the rooms. My regular “ethos” when recording videos for the channel is to show the game completed as efficiently as possible without any unnecessary loss of life. It this means skipping some rooms that do not have to be visited, they are skipped. The only exception so far have been “Jet Set Willy II” and “Jet Set Willy II+” – since they can be completed without collecting all items, there are two recordings of each of them – one showing a completion with all items collected and no unnecessary loss of life, the other showing a speedrun with only the minimum amount of items collected necessary to trigger the toilet run and lives lost along the way to speed up the process. In case of “TTT”, I could showcase various variants of completion of each version, from the quickest possible completion (without collecting all items and without visiting all rooms – just getting Terry to the deep sea as quickly as possible) to the most comprehensive one (collecting all items and showing all rooms). I have opted for a middle-of-the-road solution – I plan to showcase the collection of all items, but not necessarily all rooms if passing through them would involve a detour. End of sidenote 😉 ]. So here are the items in each version I don’t see that it is possible to collect. Any feedback would be appreciated – both in the form of showing how an item/items in question can be collected after all, and in the form of confirming that you don’t see either how they could be collected. I “TTT” Yellow 1. “Hidden Chamber” (012) Most of the items in this room can be collected after you arrive here via a teleporter from “*SECRET* Ancient Device” (094). However, I don’t see how you can collect the uppermost item marked below: You can’t grab it from below or jump for it. You could only collect it arriving where it is from another room after entering from the room to the left or via teleportation. I believe there is no such teleporter or possibility of entrance from an adjacent room. 2. Room "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124) You can collect the two righmost items after entering from “U-852 Communications Room” (119), which is the room to the right, and you can collect some more items after arriving via teleportation from “U-852 Communications Room” onto the upper central platform, namely: you can grab 8 items without losing a life, and you can grab 4 more while losing one life. Please see the two attached RZX files to see what I mean. There remain 62 items in this room which I believe cannot be collected, including 13 in the enclosure at the upper left and 49 items in the central part of the room, around the stationary guardians. Any idea if there is a way to reach at least some of them? The problem is that “U-852 Communications Room” (119) is the ONLY room in the game which has an exit (left) leading to "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124). So you can only arrive in "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" from “U-852 Communications Room”, in a double way: via the regular left exit or via teleportation. If you enter “U-852 Communications Room” in the regular way, you can collect the two rightmost items and that’s it, you can’t do anything else (as far as I can tell). It *looks* like you should be able to climb through the two walls to reach the right edge of the central part of the room. However, you can’t do even this, because the rightmost yellow 'door handle' (a conveyor cell) is one block too high – you cannot jump up high enough to reach it. If you arrive via teleportation onto the upper central platform, you can collect the 12 items I mentioned above and do nothing else, because you either die smashing against the guardian below or you get teleported back to “U-852 Communications Room”. And then, even IF the player somehow got to the central part of the room, to the right or left of the stationary guardians, they still couldn’t collect all of the items – like the ones that are high up in the air. Or am I missing something??? II “TTT” Cyan I believe 11 items cannot be collected in this version. This number includes: - the uppermost item in the room "Hidden Chamber" (012); - 10 items in the enclosure at the upper left of "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124). Again, am I missing something here? III “TTT” Red The Red version is the only one which is item-completable. This is ironic, given that it’s supposed to be the hardest one. IV Vektor I believe 63 items cannot be collected in this version. This number includes: - 62 items in the room "U-852 SECRET LOAD & KILL SCREEN" (124) – the same ones that cannot be collected in the Yellow version. - 1 item (either one) in the room "STYX - THE RIVER OF HATE" (068): When you are falling down from "DESCENTION" (069), you can collect either one or the other item; you cannot collect them both, because they are two blocks apart. Then there is no way to go back and fall down again in order to collect the remaining item. So for the last time, am I missing anything here? Your feedback will be greatly appreciated 🙂 . TTT U-852 1.rzx TTT U-852 2.rzx
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[File] Manic Miner - Highscore Challenge
jetsetdanny replied to Spider's topic in Download Discussions
Sendy's "Manic Person" has the stack address changed (in both versions). It uses the spare bytes related to unused guardian data at #FAF3 - #FAFF. To be precise, the instruction at #8401 - #8403 places the stack at #FAFE. So when there's one address on the stack, it occupies the last two bytes of this spare space (i.e. #FAFE and #FAFF). I don't quite understand why it works this way, but then the following addresses are occupied going 'backwards' (i.e. the next occupied pair of addresses will be #FAFC - #FAFD, then #FAFA - #FAFB and so on). When working on the 'postproduction' of "Manic Person" (adding some special effects and loads of music), I was a little worried that a stack overwflow could occur, since the available space allocated to the stack is limited. However, after playtesting the game by completing it twice (two sets of caverns), there were still four or six spare bytes in the allocated space (00s, not overwritten by the program). It was actually the same amount as after completing the game for the first time (one set of caverns). So I decided it was safe to leave the stack there, as I couldn't think of any scenario in which it would occupy (overwrite) more space. The change was done in order to use the space at #934C - #9CFF for other purposes, of course. -
[File] Manic Miner - Highscore Challenge
jetsetdanny replied to Spider's topic in Download Discussions
Thanks for this amazing investigation, DigitalDuck! Are you sure about the statement quoted above? I haven't checked this out in any way, but judging by other instances of corruption that happen in MM games, I thought once it happens, it cannot be undone. Meaning: once some rogue cells are printed on the screen, they stay there. However, I may be wrong on this, so this is just a question, not a suggestion that your statement was incorrect 🙂 . -
[File] Manic Miner - Highscore Challenge
jetsetdanny replied to Spider's topic in Download Discussions
I don't recall anything like this. However, functionally this wouldn't be different from what usually happens - if the wall that collapses after the first switch is tripped blocks access to a part of the room where some items are, these items are only collectable after the first switch has been tripped (because prior to that they are unreachable). -
[File] Manic Miner - Highscore Challenge
jetsetdanny replied to Spider's topic in Download Discussions
Intriguing, indeed. And I fully agree that if it involved the use of some quirky feature of an unmodified game engine without any POKEs, then it should count. Has the algorithm been beaten again??? Looking forward to the revelation of the mystery 😉 . -
This is one of the main reasons I *always* play using Rollback. It allows me to progress efficiently through games while solving them "relatively honestly", i.e. without using an Infinite Lives- or any other POKEs. If I were to try completing a game with only seven lives (or even 20, or 50), I probably wouldn't be able to do it at all, and if I really had to do it, I would have to spend weeks and possibly months training to achieve it. I would consider that an utter waste of time - and that's referring to my otherwise beloved JSW and MM games.
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The 'cavern' thing, which sounds so weird when applied to Deserted Isle, is all Matthew Smith's fault. If "Manic Miner" had had consecutive islands as a setting instead of caverns, today we would be discussing whether a JSW room with a portal for the sole exit should be considered an island! 🤣
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I thought about "Manic Mixup" as well as an example of levels of difficulty. I would definitely agree here. However, I also relate to the word "level" being used for any kind of game where passing on to the next screen/game map/part of game map, etc. depends on solving the previous level (which may be a screen/game map/part of game map, etc.) successfully. "MM" is a perfect example of a game having levels in this sense. One screen (room, cavern) is equivalent to one level. Interestingly, in "Double Miner" I would say that there are 10 levels, but 20 rooms/screens/caverns, because the player needs to solve two rooms/screens/caverns before moving on to the next level. "Double Miner" is also an interesting test for Ian's definition of a cavern, because each pair of rooms consists of a "non-portal room" and a "portal room". You can move between them freely, but you can only progress to the next level of the game (the word 'level' comes in so handy here!) after collecting all of the items in both rooms, which activates the portal. So are both of these rooms caverns or not? I would only say that individually they are not levels; together each pair of rooms creates a level. Another consideration: speaking about 'levels' defined as I described at the start of this post, I believe the level of difficulty is irrelevant, or at least does not have to be relevant. The game can have a number of levels (in terms of this definition) that will have either the same level of difficulty, or a random level of difficulty (some levels are more difficult than others but not in any particular order - I would say MM is actually like this), or a rising level of difficulty, or, theoretically, even a falling level of difficulty, or some other pattern (like for example: a game where you progress through a zoo. First come screens featuring fish: easy level - moderate level - hard level; then come screens featuring birds: easy level - moderate level - hard level; then come screens features animals: easy level - moderate level - hard level, and so on). Admittedly, it is probably more common to find games where the difficulty level increases as the player progresses through the levels ("Jumping Jack" is a great Spectrum example that comes to mind, one of my non-JSW favourites) than where it goes down. But again, it happens in many games, but it doesn't have to happen to define what a level is. I would also agree that if someone talks about levels in JSW games, I would probably think about first of all about 'geographical' levels as per the game's map. However, this doesn't have to be the case either. Some games have so many "illogical" room exits (you leave room A and enter room B, but when you go back, instead of re-rentering room A you enter room C, etc.) that it may be very difficult to make a 'geographical' map of them. Or, even if the exits *are* logical, the game map can have such a shape that it would be difficult to talk about levels - which I think we subconsciously identify with the storeys of Willy's original mansion. But not every game map has such a mansion... Finally, one could also design JSW games that would have 'levels' as defined at the start of this post. A prime example of this would be "Party Willy (JSW128 version)" - you have to collect all of the items in the rooms that are equivalent to the 48K "Party Willy" Part 1 and do the mid-game toilet run to be able to start playing the rooms that are equivalent to the 48K "Party Willy" Part 2. In this sense, the game has two levels (although I wouldn't normally think of them as 'levels', but 'parts', because of the game's name). My general feeling is that in "Party Willy" you cannot really talk about an increase in difficulty level between the two parts (they are both very difficult). So it's an example of a JSW game that has 'levels', but they're not defined by increased difficulty. "Jet Set 40-40" is another example of a JSW game that has levels in the sense of having to complete one part of the game to be able to progress to the next part. In this case, the levels are also marked by an increased level of difficulty (the player has to collect four complete sets of items; once the last item of one set has been collected, the items of the next set will appear. The difficulty of the game will increase with each consecutive set of items, as more and more guardians threaten Willy's progress through his mansion and its surroundings).
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That's a nice-sounding definition, although I think it might lead to using the words "cavern" and "level" interchangeably and always referring to MM games, as there are no such levels in JSW. However, it won't always work, I believe, for the following reason: In JSW64 and other advanced game engines you can have a MM-like room which Willy enters and can only leave via a portal after collecting all items in that room. However, such a room may be not a part of any longer sequence (like having to go through all of the original MM rooms before returning to the main, JSW-like part of the game map), it may be there on its own, as a kind of "detour" among JSW-like rooms. In this case, it would still be a cavern as per Ian's definition, but I don't think anyone would call it a 'level' (it would be a 'room' and a 'cavern', but not a 'level'! 😜).
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Yes, I've experienced it too. It is an additional difficulty, and it is frustrating 😵.
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Ian has provided a fixed version of "Ultimate Manic Miner", where both the Eugene Lair and some other issues are fixed. Attached are three playthroughs of the fixed "Eugene Lair" done using the modified file. I recorded them using the Rollback feature. To be honest, when one plays using Rollback, I would say it's not a particularly difficult challenge - when you die, you roll back and try doing things differently, either by improving your movements (e.g. when you see you just need to move a little bit more quickly to get things right) or by choosing a different way ('let's go right instead of left at this time') or timing ('let's not go for those items now, but wait until the horizontal guardian has passed'). Of course the Rollback makes all the difference - playing this room without its assistance would certainly be a nightmare. UMM fixed Eugene Lair 3.rzx UMM fixed Eugene Lair 2.rzx UMM fixed Eugene Lair 1.rzx
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This distinction would be crystal-clear between the original "MM" and the original "JSW", but later games - like the ones based on the JSW64 game engine or Norman Sword's "Manic Jet Set Willy" blur it IMO. In the original "MM" the (activated) portal was the only way to leave the room, and in the original "JSW" there were no portals. However, in the later games you can have a room with a portal that takes you elsewhere, but you can also leave this room by "normal" means, going into one or more of the adjacent rooms. In this scenario the portals merely work as teleporters, to get you elsewhere instantaneously. I think it's questionable whether a room should be called a cavern only because it has such a portal.
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Thanks, Ian, this is the kind of feedback for JSW Central I greatly appreciate! (and receive rarely) 👍. I have corrected the entry on JSW Central for "JSW64: Manic Miner" according to your suggestion (adding "in some circumstances"). On second thoughts, I also modified the end of this sentence to read: "the first time it comes Willy's way after the player entered the room" (instead of "after entering the room"), because I believe that "after entering the room" would actually refer to the guardian rather than to Willy ("the first time it comes Willy's way after entering the room" = "the first time it comes Willy's way after it entered the room", "it" referring to the guardian). I'm not 100% sure my feeling is correct here but I hope the modified version is OK. As for "caverns" having to be used when referring to MM games and "rooms" when referring to JSW games, I don't perceive this as a definite rule. "Rooms" are generic for me, suitable for both games. "Caverns" are more MM-specific, I wouldn't use them for a JSW game unless the room in question actually depicted (or was called) a cavern. That's just my personal feeling about it 🙂 .
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Yes please, it will be appreciated!
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Yes, I'll definitely do that. I will upload it right here. That's correct. My 'policy' for making the walkthroughs is to complete each game without losing any lives (unless necessary to collect an item or more) and doing it as efficiently as possible, resulting in a score in a MM game that will be as high as possible or the completion time in a JSW game that will be as good (early) as possible.* As a result, if there are rooms in JSW games that the player doesn't have to visit in order to complete the game, they may be omitted in my walkthrough. "May" (not "will") because it depends on whether going through this room/these rooms is propitious to completing the game as efficiently as possible. If it is, you will see them in the walkthrough. If it's not, they won't be showcased. The two rooms you've mentioned fall into the latter category and therefore are not present in my walkthrough. Nevertheless, I am grateful to Igor for this personal tribute (I am positive I'm "the Danny" it refers to 😉). The absence of the room in the walkthrough is a testament to the fact that I do stick to my 'policy' while creating the walkthroughs 😉 . * "as efficiently as possible" within reasonable limits. I do not strive to achieve the maximum possible scores, like the ones determined (scientifically and via a 'peer review' LOL) for "MM". They have not been determined for the other games, so I don't know what they are. And even if I knew, producing pixel-perfect walkthroughs would require an investment of significantly much more time and energy than producing just 'decent' walkthroughs. I would not consider this 'investment' justified.
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Ian, thank you for the fix! 🙂 Regarding another video of a walkthrough of "Ultimate Manic Miner" on the JSW Central YouTube channel, generally speaking, I am not planning to do it and I *hope* I won't ever have to do it. The reason for this is that my strong policy (at this time, at least) is not to repeat videos of any games on the channel. I don't want to fall into the trap of feeling an urge to create a new video every time I improve a score in a MM game or the completion time in a JSW game or whatever. I also want to avoid games having parallel videos on the channel (and I don't want to erase old ones in order to make room for the new ones). I have already improved some scores in MM games and have not made any new videos resulting from these improvements. If a new version of a game is released, with the blessing of the original author, it will create a serious dilemma for me, because it would be a good reason to repeat the walkthrough and post another video. This is why I said I "hope" that this will not happen. I haven't had to deal with such a situation yet, because all of the games I have made videos of so far were released "long ago enough" not to have any further versions released. Another strong principle I have is to release final versions of each game approved by the original author, *unless* the game is incompletable and there is no clear hope of reaching the author to produce or approve a bugfix. In such case, I would go ahead and showcase the game with a third-party bugfix. Another rule is that I would not present an incompletable game (except for special cases, perhaps, like the artistic modifications of the original JSW - it remains to be seen what I will do with them). Please note I am talking about fixing critical bugs here, the ones that make a game incompletable, not just any bugs. You're right that your suggestion came too late for my video of "UMM" in that it has already been made. However, even if you had made it earlier, I couldn't have implemented it, because it would go against my principles: of the author's approval of the fix and of not bothering about non-critical bugs in gamma-released games. The situation could only have been different if the suggestion had been made earlier and if Igor had released an updated revision of the game before I set out to make the video. Incidentally, there *are* some problems with Igor's old games. "Jet Set Willy 5: ZX Heroes" shows there are 255 items to collect - and there are 256 in fact (Igor might have fixed it in the past, because I remember Andrew Broad mentioning that he was in possession of a later version of the game than the one that had been released publicly, but Igor certainly did not release a fixed version). Also, his "Frosya the Cat" / "Frosya the Cat" Light Version game is still incompletable (only its third and final incarnation, "Jet Cat Frosya", can be completed), and these first two "incarnations" are probably also worth presenting. I will face this problem in the next few months, when their turn comes for the JSW Central videos. I will probably prepare bugfixed versions and try to get Igor to approve of them before making the videos.
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Why was Manic Miner never properly optimised?
jetsetdanny replied to Norman Sword's topic in Designer's Lounge
That was exactly my intention, in a positive, non-critical spirit 🙂 .- 25 replies
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- demo only
- optimisation
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