jetsetdanny

Thanks, CPL! Do keep us updated and... have plenty of spare time for your "side" projects! 🙂

Thanks, Norman Sword, I have downloaded version 1-1 and will playtest it when time permits, hopefully soon 🙂 .

The attract mode is a great feature. The changing of the screens is a little too fast for me, I think it might work better if it was slower. Just a personal preference 🙂.

Thanks for all the info, Norman Sword! I take it a new version will be released at some point. I am looking forward to it 🙂.

MtM, TTBOMK, the two biggest JSW games for the ZX Spectrum out there are: - Sendy (Alex Cornhill)'s "where's woody?". It was the first JSW game ever to feature 256 edited rooms (although the player does not have to visit all of them to complete the game). It's a great, very diverse game (as all Sendy's games are), not extremely difficult, very nice to explore. I think you would really enjoy roaming around it. - "Jet Set Willy: The 2010 Megamix" (which I created using 48 rooms designed by Paul Equinox Collins, from his unfinished "JSW '96 Remix", and lots of other material by other authors - some general credits are on JSW Central and the detailed credits are in the text file) also has 256 edited rooms. If you have a go at it, I would suggest that you play the Easy Version, because the Hard Version, in addition to some relatively easy parts, has some forbiddingly-difficult rooms and is probably very frustrating to play (meaning to be a serious challenge to players dedicated to solving such challenges at the expense of their time and mental balance 🙂). I would hate to state which games are the best, as I aim to treasure them all and treat them all equally and promote them all on JSW Central. The only "half-diplomatic" way out of this for me would be to state that the ones that I created or co-created are obviously the best 😀 LOL. The ones which feature most rooms that I actually designed, in addition to "The Megamix" I've already mentioned, are: - Willy's New Mansion (if you have a go at it, please play the Special Edition, as it's way more advanced and interesting than the original one; please do not be discouraged in the second room, where the killer blocks are flying that seem to have put some people off; once you've progressed on to the third room, it'll be much easier to explore - do save snapshots or use Rollback to assist you); - "Jet Set Willy: Mind Control" - it's relatively big, as it has 117 edited rooms (including many excellent ones by Sendy). It's not that easy, but the official release package includes a text document called "JSW - Mind Control - The Solution", which is actually a step-by-step description of how the game can be solved; - Willy's Hoard (a remake of "Henry's Hoard"; it does have some very difficult moments, but the special jumps it requires are described in a document called "The Quirky Spoiler", which is part of the official download package). After this blatant self-promotion 😉, I will be happy to provide suggestions and links for other games as well if you specify further what kind of games or what features in the game you are looking for.

Thanks for this new file, Norman Sword! 👍 It's very nice to be able to play this version 🙂 . Attached below is an RZX recording of my playtest (a picture being worth more than a thousand words 😉), in which I collected 82 items from the original JSW rooms. The playtest is incomplete - Maria is still there. I wonder whether item No. 83 is out there somewhere, and whether the Manic Miner rooms are out there somewhere to play - I didn't come across any entrance to them, but I suspect they may be there. Any hints would be appreciated. The issues I have come across mainly have to do with ropes. They don't work the way they do in the original JSW, i.e. Willy does not move up and down on them the same way he does in the original. He can still move on them, but it works in a different way and causes a disorientation to the player and some other issues. The most important one is that you cannot exit down from "Watch Tower" via the rope in the room below because Willy gets thrown back up every time. This can be circumvented by dropping down on the side of the room and getting killed below (just once, thanks to the immunity after getting killed you added, which is a nice feature). So this doesn't make the game incompletable, just makes you lose one life, but it would certainly be better if it was fixed. When you drop down from "Orangery" into "Swimming Pool", the rope in "Swimming Pool" is moving in a different way than in the original JSW. I think it starts on the right instead of on the left. Because of this, if you drop down the way you are used to doing in the original JSW, you get killed. IF the game is to be faithful to the original, this should be fixed. I suspect, without analysing it, that it may be that ropes in some other rooms are set to a different starting position than in the original JSW. Finally, the Water cells in "Rescue Esmerelda" do not work as ramps. It's not a huge issue, but a difference from the original JSW. These are my initial observations. I will be happy to continue playtesting if new versions are uploaded and if you give me hints as to what I've missed in my first playtest (which prevented me from completing the game). MV v. 1 - Daniel's playtest.rzx

Thanks for this info, Ankheg, and welcome to the forum! 🙂

Thanks for the video, Andy!

I would suggest that "Rest in peace" is not the best phrase for Mr. Sinclair. "Continue your creativity and inventions on the other side" or something to that effect would be better 😀. Depending on what one believes about the existence of "the other side" and its possible characteristics, of course... I would hate to offend anyone - please take my comment as a tribute to the great man, nothing else 🙂 .

Variants V and W of John Elliott's JSW64 do exactly that 🙂 . From JSW you enter the MM caverns and have to go through all of them before exiting back to the JSW game map.

Thanks for making it and sharing info about it, CPL, it does look excellent! 👍 Forgive me if I am missing something obvious here, but - the game is not available to be played or downloaded right now, you've only shown us the video, right? If this is the case, I share MtM's hope that you will get it into a releasable state for the public. Do keep us posted about your progress 🙂 .

Yes, absolutely, that's exactly what I meant! I'm going to correct my original post in a second. Thanks for the spotting the error! 👍

A good illustration of a great quirk! 👍

Yes, on the Spectrum too. On the Spectrum, there is actually a whole array of weird aspects of the game mechanics (even more in JSW than in MM) that have come to be known as "quirky features". These have to do with they way Willy jumps (e.g. jumping into Earth cells which you have experienced; a jump through the so-called Innocent Looking Block is even more spectacular, as it takes Willy to the room below), with ramps (i.e. invalid ramps), ropes, and various other elements. Andrew Broad once wanted to write an "Advanced MM/JSW Trainer" to make the player familiar with these features (unfortunately, the project hasn't been completed so far).

Sorry if I'm pointing out the obvious, but it is possible to do on the Spectrum as well (from one particular jumping position). It actually allows to complete the room marginally more quickly.

I have added complete screenshot galleries to the pages of "ZX Willy the Bug Slayer" and "Maria's Revenge". I've also added some more information about the respective games on each of these pages.

Thanks for this detailed description, Norman Sword - it's very interesting and informative and I appreciate it! 👍

Did you progress on the bass guitar as quickly as you mastered the Z80 machine code, Ian?

It's an academic discussion, but... I did not say "Mercinary Kongs" used LiganTM graphics. I said it used the graphics from the corresponding room in LiganTM's game. There is a difference, I believe. There ARE some graphics in LiganTM's game, so, if somebody uses them, they use graphics FROM LiganTM's game. This does not automatically and explicitly mean that LiganTM is their author. Furthermore, I imagine this is exactly what happened in real life. When you were creating "Manic 40 Miner", Norman Sword, I imagine that, for the second set of caverns, you copied and modified the rooms from "MM: Back to the Mine". So, when you created "Mercinary Kongs" (and an excellent room it is!), you used the graphics from the corresponding room in "MM: Back to the Mine" (I would be very surprised if you were copying data from LiganTM's game and suddenly, for this particular room only, you switched to the original MM and copied some data from there). So, if the above assumption is correct, you DID use the graphics FROM LiganTM's game. The only element of my statement that could be questioned would be whether or not "MM: Back to the Mine" is "LiganTM's game". Of course an argument can be made that Matthew Smith is a co-author of the game, because of the many elements from the original MM that LiganTM's game uses. Yes, this is obviously correct, the way these MM and JSW games are usually credited IS a simplification, because Matthew Smith IS a co-author of all of the games that use his game engine, or a modified game engine that uses part of his game engine, not to mention his graphics, etc. But this, I believe, is generally understood and not mentioned explicitly, just expressed from time to time through the recognition of Matthew's godlike status 😄 (to quote an example off the top of my head: room 63 "In the Presence of The Almighty!" from Lee Tatlock's "Willy vs The Vampire Lord", with "MATT SMITH" written in large flashing letters across the screen). So I believe my statement is correct in itself and there is no reason to change it. It contains correct information, which is also sufficient in the context of comparing "Manic 40 Miner" and "Manic Miner: Back to the Mine", as explained in my previous post. IF the information were to be expanded beyond that context, the sentence could read: "Mercinary-Kongs on Hire Perches" is not 100% new - it uses Matthew Smith's graphics from the corresponding room in LiganTM's game.

It's a matter of perspective. If I compare "Manic 40 Miner" to "Manic Miner: Back to the Mine", the only thing that matters is whether a given element in the former is the same as in the latter or not. Where it originated from in the latter is of no importance to what I'm considering. My wording that "Mercinary-Kongs on Hire Perches" is not 100% new - it uses the graphics from the corresponding room in LiganTM's game" was written in this context. I stand by it and I'm not changing it, but, fortunately, it is only written on this forum, not on JSW Central (where I would be more willing to change things that may be controversial). The text on JSW Central does not go into this kind of detail, it just reads that The following 20 caverns are rooms from LiganTM's 2018 game Manic Miner: Back to the Mine modified to various extent (with the exception of "Mercinary-Kongs on Hire Perches" [23], which is a new room). I think this statement is essentially true and does not need any further modification. Should anyone here present know of any reason that it should be modified, speak now or forever hold your peace 🙂 . P.S. Good point about the room name of room 23 being different, Ian!

It's good to see you back, Ian! 😊 There is an entire separate thread on the forum devoted to your temporary absence! 😄 I've modified the wording on JSW Central somewhat. "Mercinary-Kongs on Hire Perches" is not 100% new - it uses the graphics from the corresponding room in LiganTM's game, while the rest of its design (the layout, the switches, etc.) is totally new. I don't want to go into too much detail discussing it right there (it gets more mention below), so I just called it "a new room" for the sake of simplicity.

JSW Central YouTube channel has just been updated with four new videos. These are the walkthroughs of: "Maria vs. Some Bastards" (the 2019 bugfixed version) "Maria's Revenge" "Maria on Tour" "ZX Willy the Bug Slayer" In case of the first three games mentioned above, the videos hosted on JSW Central YouTube Channel and RZX Archive YouTube Channel were created from the same RZX recordings (of mine). In case of "ZX Willy the Bug Slayer", the video is of a brand-new RZX walkthrough, which shows the completion of the original game file. The RZX recording made by Robin Clive and hosted on RZX Archive since June 2007 shows the completion of a modified game file - only 7 spare lives are displayed on the status bar, instead of 16. I don't know why Robin used a modified file, as the game is perfectly completable without losing a single life, so there was no need to modify it.

Actually, Edge only downloaded a 4KB file Manic_Miner_64DX.sid. That's not all there should be, is it?

Here's part one: A_Very_Willy_Christmas_(Scottige_2001).zip which works fine on my Windows 10 computer. Hint: It says to press Jump to start. You need to press the SHIFT key (both the right and the left one work for me). The you can walk using the left and right arrows. I remember I once uploaded to the forum all the DOS and PC Miner Willy games I had. I would have to find the thread to point to the downloads if you're interested (or reupload). Please let me know.

Welcome to the forum, Toki! 🙂 Thanks for creating the deluxe version of Manic Miner for the Commodore 64 and for letting us know about it 👍 I've just tried downloading it in the link you've provided, using Google Chrome, but got a message "MM64DX.d64 is dangerous, so Chrome has blocked it". Irritatingly, I can only press the "Discard" bottom there, there is no option to keep the file anyway. Update: Edge, however, seems to have downloaded it OK. What's wrong with Chrome?