jetsetdanny

First of all, THANK YOU for "Manic 40 Miner", Norman Sword! 😁 It is very enjoyable to play, I've had a lot of fun playing it! And it's a great technical achievement, too. You said it was supposed to be a proof of concept and I suspect you have proved all that needed to be proven beyond any doubt 🙂 . My RZX recording of "Manic 40 Miner" V6c6 can now be downloaded from the RZX Archive or watched on YouTube . I have also created an individual page for the game on JSW Central, with a complete screenshot gallery. I am copying the text of the description from that page below. Norman Sword, or anyone else, please let me know what should be corrected to make it complete and do justice to this great project! Manic 40 Miner is a game that runs in the original 48K, but thanks to a rewrite of the code features 40 caverns, a built-in editor and various additional features. The first 20 caverns are rooms from the original Manic Miner, with some modifications that illustrate the extended abilities of the game engine. The following 20 caverns are rooms from LiganTM's 2018 game Manic Miner: Back to the Mine modified to various extent. The game engine supports numerous features which are not available in the original MM engine. Each cavern can be drawn from 16 cell types. Kongs are movable. A room can have multiple conveyors. Switches are movable. You can have any combination of sprites in any room. You can have Kongs, Skylabs (which can move downwards or upwards) and Solar Light Beam at the same time in any room. You can also have Eugene in any room. Room 23 "Mercinary-Kongs on Hire Perches" illustrates how vastly the game engine has been expanded in relation to the original MM engine. It features a moving Solar Light Beam, a movable Eugene (whose routine can specify which item Eugene reacts to or whether he reacts only when all collected), multiple movable Kongs with a definable drop and colour (it can also be defined where each Kong removes a wall section from) and a Skylab that moves upwards, with a definable image, animation stages and crash sound. Manic 40 Miner has a modified title screen with improved title-screen piano graphics. It also features a variable tune speed playing routine and a sound effect when the player collects an item. The game has a built-in cheat mode, which is enabled by default. The player can jump caverns by pressing the combination of "3" and "1" to move to the previous cavern, or "3" and "2" to move to the next cavern. Pressing "3" resets the current cavern. The built-in editor can be activated by pressing "3" and "0" together. It allows the player to edit a number of features, including room layouts, cells, sprites, items and the start position of Willy and of the portals. A detailed manual of how to use the editor is included in the ReadMe accompanying the game. The game was started as a test routine and proof of concept (with version 1 released in February 2020), but ended up being a fully playable and completable (and partly self-editable!) game, with the final version 6c6 released in August 2021.

It must be a music group, right? I tried identifying it by looking at the groups listed here, but failed... 😯

I am pleased to report that I have completed "Manic 40 Miner" V6c6 with a score of 67,853 points. This was achieved using Rollback, of course - I couldn't imagine achieving a remotely similar score without Rollback, or snapshot saving and reloading, or some other "aid" of this kind. Chances are good that I will be able to prepare "Manic 40 Miner"'s individual page on JSW Central this weekend 🙂 .

I've made some progress today, but it was slow due to unfavourable real-world circumstances. I am currently up to room 35 (completed), so I've got 5 rooms to go. In fact, I recorded more rooms today in a sense: I re-recorded the ones I did two or three times, for the sake of quality. I managed to pull off some tight jumps, I hope they will look nice in the recording 😜. To be continued...

Welcome to the forum, Tuna! 🙂 Thank you for sharing the info about your interesting project 👍. I have completed the two levels. They feel nice to play. One thing I would appreciate would be to be able to use Q for left and W for right, which are the keys I usually use to play MM and JSW games (plus Space to jump, which works in your version). One difference I noticed in comparison to the original, which actually affects the gameplay, is that in the original "MM" Willy can step down from this platform: onto this platform: safely, while if he tries to do it in your version, he drops down to his death. I am looking forward to the next levels! 🙂

I am currently up to room 28 (completed) recording a walkthrough for the RZX Archive. To be continued tomorrow 😎... EDIT: This should have read "room 28"

Thanks for V6c6, Norman Sword! 👍 I am pleased to report that I completed it, starting in room 32 "The Pronce's Palace", without any problems 😁. "Completed" meaning I passed the remaining LiganTM's rooms. Since the completability of the original MM rooms and of the first 11 LiganTM's rooms has been confirmed before, I assume the game is fully completable now 🙂 . Time permitting, I will start "processing" it for JSW Central tomorrow, i.e. play it again to record a nice RZX walkthrough, take screenshots of all caverns, and create an individual page for it with a description, links, etc.

Same here - thanks for the detailed explanation, Norman Sword! 👍 I have run your keyboard scanner in Spectaculator, with the following results: Keys combinations 6519, 6529 and 6539 showed correctly (as expected). When I tried pressing 6549 simultaneously, only 5 and 6 showed as being pressed in your scanner! When I tried pressing 65429, 65439 and 654219, the result was exactly the same, i.e. only 4 and 5 showed as being pressed. Additionally, I tried pressing 659 together - it works, of course, but pressing 654 doesn't work. Two of these keys can be pressed together - either 4 and 5, or 4 and 6, or 5 and 6, but not the three of them (only two show as pressed, the two that were pressed first). It's the same no matter whether I used my laptop's built-in keyboard or a USB keyboard attached to the laptop. So this means that I have a problem with my keyboard. In view of all this, I have modified the explanation on JSW Central to read as follows: Number of rooms accessible without cheating: 59 (The rooms "The late Mr. Springs" [59] and "The lost Sundays - 1/7th of life" [60] are accessible only by using the Writetyper cheat, which can be activated [with great difficulty, because of the conveyor and the oncoming guardians] in "The original?" [28]. It should be noted that entering the long Writetyper codes for these rooms [654219 and 65439, respectively] may not work on some PC keyboards when playing the game on an emulator [due to keyboard scanning problems]. Moreover, the Writetyper teleportation into "The late Mr. Springs" has to be very precise so as to land within the Earth/Water cells, as most of the room is made up of Fire cells, which would kill Willy repeatedly on entry if touched. Furthermore, the rooms "ZIP password : 5zt421" [33], "Leaving so soon?" [56], "Now leaving Mr Top Hat" [57] and "You've finished this game!" [58], which are part of the final sequence, are only accessible during the toilet run.) I have also removed the word "probably" from the information placed above the screenshots of these two rooms, so that it now reads, "Rooms which can be accessed by using the Writetyper cheat:" Thank you, Norman Sword, for helping me attain certainty regarding this issue! 👍 Your keyboard scanner is a very useful tool 🙂 .

Thanks for this info, Norman Sword! I download the Fuse emulator (Windows version), which I hadn't used before, loaded "Mr Top Hat", POKEd it so that Writetyper would work (POKE 34275,10), and tried introducing various key combinations. I was able to make the codes 6519, 6529 and 6539 work, but I couldn't get 6549 to work. I couldn't get 65429, or 65439 or 654219 to work either (Willy does not teleport when all those keys are pressed). I tried it also on ZX Spin and (once again) on Spectaculator, with pretty much the same results. I can't get 6549 or combinations of key with these digits and one or two additional digits to work. This was on a laptop running Windows 10 with a (non-gaming, very regular) USB keyboard attached. I also tried using the laptop's keyboard, but the results were the same. Could someone try actually inputting these codes (i.e. 6549, 65439 and 654219) with the Writetyper cheat turned on (POKE 34275,10) in a JSW48 game to see if you get teleported to room 56, 60 or 59, respectively?

Norman Sword, Thanks for this tip! Obviously, that's the way to do it. When I considered the problem while on the "problematic" platform, I didn't remember that there had been a crumbling floor below. Oops! Shame on me 😧 However, I am facing another problem now. The green wall to the right of the portal (green and black, to be exact; green with black holes, kind of) seems to be lethal. It kills Willy when he emerges from the portal during a rightward jump (meant to allow him to go for the last item) or when Willy tries to walk right when inside the portal. Please have a look at this screenshot: It is taken during the very beginning of a rightward jump, during which Willy would normally emerge from the portal and found himself on the conveyor. However, something kills Willy a split second (for lack of better time measurement) after this screenshot was taken, before all of Willy's body has emerged from the portal. It's kind of as if there was an invisible Fire cell in the space where the middle part of the green wall used to be (this empty space was created, of course, after the left switch made this part of the green wall disappear). Since the conveyor is a right conveyor, I believe it's not possible to go for the item located to the right of the upper part of the green wall I am discussing from the left, because there is no way to move leftward on the conveyor. So you need to jump for it from the right, but this is where Willy gets killed by, as it seems, the green wall (with black holes). I think this wall is to blame, because when Willy is inside the portal and I try to walk to the right, without jumping, Willy also gets killed after a step or two. So it looks like the green wall is killing him. So is it a critical bug or am I missing something here?

Thanks for this find, Norman Sword! 👍

I have played LiganTM's (modified) rooms in V6c5, starting from room 21, until room 32 "The Pronce's Palace". I did not encounter any problems until "The Pronce's Palace" (who's Pronce, by the way? A variant of Prince?) I believe it's impassable, for the same reason that I reported earlier as related to the Kong switch (it's now also related to collecting one of the items). Once Willy has tripped the switch and collected the leftmost item, he cannot get down safely from this platform: So there's no way to complete this room. I will continue the test tomorrow, either on V6c5 still or, if Norman Sword uploads another revision in the meantime, starting with "The Pronce's Palace" and continuing until the end of LiganTM's (modified) rooms in the new revision 🙂 .

I've just added complete screenshot galleries to the pages of "Jet-Set Willy Ivy" and "Mr Top Hat". I've also added some supplemental information/corrections on these pages. 1. In case of Jet-Set Willy Ivy I realised the number of rooms accessible without cheating I was indicating previously (64) was wrong, as obviously the room "Was It Worth It?" (08), with a big word CHEAT written on the screen, can only be accessed by using the Writetyper cheat or POKing the game. I also corrected the number of rooms which need to be visited to complete the game. I described it as "not more than 63" with the following comment: ("Was It Worth It?" [08] should be omitted, as it cannot be accessed without cheating and has no items. Omitting "The Waxworks" [25] might perhaps be possible, at the expense of extending the route unnecessarily.) I could not force myself to try to complete the game without visiting "The Waxworks" (and I won't force myself to do it any time soon). However, if someone took up this kind of challenge and confirmed that "The Waxworks" can indeed be omitted, I would be happy to correct the information on JSW Central once more, to introduce certainty instead of probability. 2. In case of Mr Top Hat, I did spend some time trying to verify whether the rooms "The late Mr. Springs" [59] and "The lost Sundays - 1/7th of life" [60] are actually accessible by using the Writetyper cheat. I managed to activate Writetyper in-game (i.e. without POKing the game), after some 20 attempts or more, in the lower left-hand corner of "The original?" [28], and teleport to room 00 from there. I did not actually reach either "The late Mr. Springs" or "The lost Sundays - 1/7th of life", but I think that theoretically it should be possible to do. However, I don't know if it is possible to enter the long Writetyper codes for these rooms [654219 and 65439, respectively] on emulated keyboards (it's not possible in Spectaculator, as far as I can tell), and I don't have any way of checking it on the real hardware right now or in the foreseeable future. Hence, in the picture gallery I included these rooms as ones which can "probably be accessed by using the Writetyper cheat". If anyone should be able to verify this, I would be happy to correct the information on JSW Central. If you see any errors or dubious information on JSW Central, please let me know and I will be happy to look into it and correct everything as necessary. The same goes for language issues, typos, etc. - please let me know about anything that might need to be changed 🙂 .

Thank you so much, Norman Sword! 👍 Later today (in a few hours, probably) I will playtest all of the LiganTM's (modified) caverns to confirm that they are completable in V6c5.

OK, I confirm that Room 26 is passable now 🙂. However, I believe room 28 ("United Kongdom Customs") isn't, because the conveyor there is a left conveyor (contrary to the original LiganTM's room, where the conveyor is a right conveyor), which makes it impossible to cross from the left to the right part of the room. I have also tried playing the other remaining rooms (moving between those I couldn't complete using the 3-2 cheat) , with the following results where I encountered problems: Room 29 "Germanopharmacy" - it is impassable as well AFAICT. This is again because the conveyor is a left conveyor (instead of right) and there is no way Willy can negotiate it to proceed rightwards when he drops on it vertically from above. Room 31 "Finding the Perfect Insurance" - I don't think it's possible to collect the item in the lower right-hand corner. Whether you jump for it from the side or whether you walk and drop upon it, you get killed by the Fire cell below it. There seems to be a crumbling floor there, but it disappears as soon as the item has been collected, or so it seems at least. There seems to be no way to avoid getting killed by the Fire cell below the item. Room 32 "The Pronce's Palace" - I have been able to complete the room without throwing any switches. I have also been able to bring down Kong, but if you do that, I don't think you can complete the game. It's because I don't see any way of escaping from this platform after tripping the switch located above it: So if this room is to be "Kongable", I think this should be corrected somehow. The rightmost switch does not seem to have any effect or even to move when touched. Just an observation. Room 34 "Mandatory Space-onaut Training" - I don't see how you can collect the uppermost item without losing a life. Jumping for it from either direction leads to falling down so far that you get killed. Room 36 "I forgot the name of this Cavern" - I don't see how you can collect the item in the upper right-hand corner without losing a life. You cannot jump onto the crumbling platform that's below it. So you can only jump for it rightwards from below, but that leads to losing a life. Room 37 "Iron Filings Recycler" - the conveyor problem again. The conveyor goes leftwards, while in LiganTM's room it goes rightwards. Consequently, I believe it's impossible to access the platforms that would enable the player to collect the item above the letter "l" in "Recycler" and get to the portal. These are all the problems that I have discovered. I was able to complete the rooms I didn't mention without any issues. Looking forward to v6c5 🙂 .

Thanks, Norman Sword! I'll have a look at it a little later today and confirm that all is good.

Norman Sword, Thank you for V6c3 👍. It's cool that you have applied a switch! I have just tried to complete Room 26 and I believe it is still impossible to complete. I confirm that all of the "old" items can be collected and the switch can be flipped. However, once that is done, Willy cannot get back to the part of the room which I circled in red below: (there's no way to jump there) and hence he cannot collect the last item. Extending this platform by one block where marked in red: would solve the problem, I believe. Time is not an issue (when playing with Rollback) as you can see from the screenshots above. I am looking forward to V6c4 🙂 .

I've just added complete screenshot galleries to the pages of "Jet-Set Willy (again)" and "Escape of the Snails".

Unfortunately, I believe V6C2 is still not completable. This is because "The Cloning Facility" cannot be completed as far as I can tell. This is because in order to collect the item I circled below: at some point Willy HAS TO be in-between the yellow and magenta guardians: Once there, he cannot escape, because it is impossible to get out from in-between these guardians. Consequently, all the items can be collected in this room, but the room cannot be completed, because you cannot reach the portal. With this in view, a "vicious" way of making this room completable would be by adding a switch that would do something after the last item has been collected, such as remove the Water cell circled below: so that Willy can then outmanoeuvre the magenta guardian and get to the portal. Alternatively, this Water cell could be removed from the start if implementing a switch were not feasible (for lack of memory space or whatever reason). If a switch was possible to apply, an even better solution would be to make it remove (once it's triggered) the Fire cell which sits on the conveyor. Thus Willy would be able to escape from in-between the yellow and magenta guardians, but he would have to make another detour around the lower part of the room. However, I wouldn't recommend removing this Fire cell altogether (i.e. without a switch), as that would make the room easier to complete and less interesting. Furthermore, in LiganTM's original game this room is completable, because the problematic item is not there. So this item: can be collected as the last one, omitting the magenta guardian while being on its right-hand side. So in LiganTM's original room you never get in-between the yellow and magenta guardians, from where you couldn't escape, either. So an alternative solution for "Manic 40 Miner", without using a switch, would be to remove the problematic item or move it someplace else where it would be collectable. Norman Sword, I hope you will release another revision of the game and I am looking forward to it 🙂 .

Count me in for playtesting when it comes to it! 🙂

Andy (Spider), thank you for the link, it's very interesting. I wasn't aware of the difference between copyright and trademark. Pixel Stonk, do let us know once you have more information about the current legal situation of JSW - it's always good to know. And good luck with your project - it's really impressive and it will be great if you manage to complete it successfully! 🙂 P.S. I have one maths problem with the info you've given: In the ad, it says that the game includes "all classic rooms from the original games" "plus over 200 never seen before". In your post, you say that the game contains "nearly 500 rooms". The "classic rooms from the original games" would be 134 rooms from "Jet Set Willy II" (that also include the 60 rooms from the original "JSW") plus possibly 20 rooms from "Manic Miner" (if they are included). So the addition of "over 200" rooms never seen before brings the total number up to some 350. That's still a long way from the nearly 500 you've mentioned. Any comment on this?

Welcome to the forum, Pixel Stonk 🙂 Your project looks VERY impressive, it's great stuff really! 👍 I don't quite understand why you want to make it an "official" sequel to JSW and JSW II. Such an ambition makes you an obvious target for those who claim to be (or indeed are) the current owners of the copyright. From this point of view it would be much easier to release the game as a free, non-profit offering and abstain from any claims of anything "official". Still, if you do want to make it official, I wish you the best of luck in negotiating with the current copyright owners. I can't tell you anything with any degree of certainty, but when I last investigated this issue a little bit more than two years ago, I came to the conclusion that the current copyright owner for both Jet Set Willy and Manic Miner is: Andrews UK Limited Suite 112, Crystal House, New Bedford Road, Luton, Bedfordshire, LU1 1HS, United Kingdom The details for JSW are here and for MM here. Look at all the tabs there. The copyright clearly refers to retro computer games. Interestingly, in the graphic, Willy's hat is different, it looks more like from "Willy's New Hat" than from the original. Interestingly, this is a different copyright owner than the one that CPL has indicated. So perhaps that's the beginning of a legal dilemma for you... In any case, I don't believe Matthew Smith owns the copyright (or any part thereof) any more, from a strictly legal point of view. Nevertheless, if you want to contact him, try contacting Paul Drury of Retro Gamer fame (pauldrury64 at hotmail.com) - I have reasons to believe he may be in touch with Matthew, at least from time to time.

Thanks, Norman Sword and Spider. I will try to complete V6C2 and will report about its completability (or lack thereof) shortly. I will work with this version as the final one for JSW Central if it's completable 🙂 .

Thanks for the new versions, Norman Sword! 👍 I believe it is always good if there is one final version of a game (unless there are parallel final versions, like Easy and Hard one). It wouldn't be advisable, IMHO, to have two versions that are "equally final" while differing in just a tiny detail. Therefore, I will consider the last version according to its number, i.e. V6c2, to be final and I will work with it in the context of JSW Central (RZX walkthrough, screenshot gallery, etc.). Please let me know if you should have something against it.

I have played "Manic 40 Miner" up to "The Pyramid Entrance", i.e. the first of (modifed, at least this one is) LiganTM's rooms. I believe this room is impossible to pass, because I don't see a way of collecting the rightmost item (the one that's above a platform that's above the portal). I can get onto the platform below the item, but this platform, apart from being a crumbly cell, is also a right conveyor (quite a technical feature - a crumbly conveyor!). There is a Fire cell directly above the item. Therefore, I can't see any way of jumping for it safely, since you can only jump for it straight up or rightwards, and both these jumps result in Willy being killed against the Fire cell after collecting the item. Norman Sword - or anyone else who might know for certain - please let me know if there is some trick here that I've missed, or whether the room is indeed impassable. If it is the latter, a bugfixed version (6d?) would be greatly appreciated.