jetsetdanny

I am looking forward to playtesting both your Diner and Mansion games, Willie, and if assisting you with what you call "Hexing" (code tweaks) will be within my abilities, I will be happy to do so. I should be able to do it after I'm finished with whatever contribution I can make to Hervé's current projects, so pretty much after "Welcome to Willy's Fun Park!" and "The Temple" have been released. I hope that there may actually be a nice timing coincidence: that a time will come when you will feel the first of these games is ready to fall under my scrutiny when I'm also ready to devote time to it 🙂 .

Well, I would say: if you do have inspiration and desire at the moment to work on those projects, go ahead and do so. There are times when inspiration runs low or other interests prevail or other circumstances make the creative process difficult, so it's good to use the right condition when they exist 🙂 . That's my feeling about it, at least 🙂 .

I've had the privilege and a great pleasure of playtesting the game last week 🙂 . Without offering any specific spoilers at this point, I can say that in my opinion it is a beautiful game, very atmospheric (like all of Hervé's games), with nice graphics and many, many interesting room designs and challenges. It showcases a very good use of the various features of the JSW64 game engine, such as switches, the superjump, droplets, crumbling floors, etc. Some of the challenges really made me think, and there was one that I took a really long time and repeated efforts to solve... So I would strongly encourage everyone to have a go at "Welcome to Willy's Fun Park!" once it's released - I'm sure you will find it a very enjoyable experience! 🙂 It is still being tested now and work is ongoing on the English version, the music and some other elements. For my part, I will do my best to allow for a late July release, real-world obligations permitting 🙂 .

There's no strict rule about it. I guess what Jet Set Willie suggested - commenting in the topic devoted to that particular game in the "Remakes" section, would be just fine. I would add to that the existing topic in the Download Discussions section, and I would say that it doesn't matter how old the topic is, it's always good to revive it to discuss the game 🙂 . Games that are available for download on this forum all have their Download Discussions topics (these are created automatically after a download is added). For other games, if someone wants to discuss any of them, I would suggest just creating a new topic in the "Remakes" section, with the title of the game as the topic's title, and commenting. It will certainly be appreciated 🙂 .

Thank you for your comment 🙂 . I coded the title-screen and in-game music. Before the release, Carl wrote to me that he liked the title-screen music and it seemed to fit very well, but it was driving him crazy because he believed he had heard it before but couldn't identify it. He tried to I.D it and a track from "Harry Potter" came up which did sound similar. Here's what I replied to Carl regarding the title screen tune: "I couldn't say with certainty what it is. The easiest answer would be that I composed it for "GhoST oF WiLLY", but that's probably not entirely accurate, or at least doesn't tell the whole story. And the story is this: It must be a tune that I heard somewhere at some point in the (possibly distant) past, or a modification of a tune I knew. It started sounding in my head when I was thinking about the title-screen music for "GhoST oF WiLLY" and so I coded it . As far as I can tell, it's very similar to a tune to which I once wrote some lyrics (a very long time ago, when I was 14 or something like that). This is how I identified it when it started sounding in my head. However, back then (at 14) I wouldn't have composed it, it was probably a tune I must have heard somewhere (no idea where). That was long before Harry Potter, though, and, in fact, I've never watched the Harry Potter movies yet (I intend to do it some day), so I exclude them as my source of inspiration". That's as much as I can tell you about it 🙂 .

Post approved 🙂 . I do look forward to your games' releases and I will be happy to playtest them once you consider them ready for release 🙂 .

I also posted this on the “Central Cavern – The Wonderful World of Willy” Facebook group. It got some adverse reactions, and then my post was deleted by the admin. So much for freedom of speech. While we still enjoy it here, I’d like to explain why I posted it — beyond it being a personal way of coming to terms with this horrible event. I believe it offers a moment for reflection and serves as a grave warning. The warning is: don’t treat concepts that can become tragic as a joke. If it happened in “JSW,” the most brilliant of all games, it can happen elsewhere, too. “JSW” is famous for its humour—often described as British or Monty-Pythonesque—and that humour is one of its great assets. I understand that a plane crashing into the upper part of Willy’s mansion is part of that absurd humour. It must have been well received, since DrUnKeN mAsTeR!!! perpetuated it in his first JSW remake, even giving the room an explicit name that ensured the graphic design wouldn’t go unnoticed. However, more than forty years later, a strange twist of fate made this absurd invention tragically real. The images of the Air India engine smashed into a building were so graphic and shocking—especially knowing that people on the ground died, too, perhaps in that very structure. (A side note: the fact that we’re comparing a modern tragedy to a scene from a four-decades-old computer game itself speaks volumes about JSW’s lasting impact and legacy.) So from now on every time I pass through “Under the Roof” and “Nomen Luni,” I’ll think of the poor souls who perished in the Air India Flight 171 disaster—and of the one gentleman who miraculously walked away from the wreckage. I really don’t think I’ll ever be able to avoid that association. In the Facebook group, people freely share real-life photos referring to various aspects of JSW: MegaTrees, Maria, André the chef, and so on—and I love and cherish those discussions. That’s why I was taken aback by some of the group members’ reaction to my post. Then I thought that for those fans, JSW is a cheerful, pleasant subject, and they want it to stay that way. They don’t want to link it to anything sad or unpleasant. That attitude is understandable, but if you really love something, you should love it all: “for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health.” You should embrace it, flaws and all. If you truly love JSW, you should be able to accept its newly revealed, disquieting dimension. If you enjoy sharing pictures of MegaTrees or Maria or André the chef, how can you turn away from the images of a plane engine lodged in a building outside Ahmedabad? There's one other example of a similar warning that comes to my mind. I love old (very old!) U.S. folk music. One of its great icons was Pete Seeger. Among the hundreds of songs he performed was “Old Time Religion,” a humorous take on a traditional church song. It features verses like: “We will pray with Aphrodite, We will pray with Aphrodite, She wears that see-through nightie, And it’s good enough for me.” “We will pray with those old druids, They drink fermented fluids, Waltzing naked through the woo-ids, And it’s good enough for me.” and so on. But then comes the verse: “We’ll do dances to bring water, Sacrifice animals for slaughter, Sacrifice our sons and daughters, And it’s good enough for me.” I’ve always found that verse ominous rather than funny. Child sacrifice was an actual practice in some ancient cultures. When Pete Seeger sang that verse at his 1980 Sanders Theatre concert, some people in the audience reacted with laughter. But imagine hearing news of some kind of weird modern-day religious cult that murdered its own children as a sacrifice — something that’s entirely possible in this strange world we live in — and then that laughter would come back to haunt them, much like the images of Air India Flight 171’s engine driven into a building are something we can’t shake from our minds... Pete Seeger was a genius, and I’ll continue to love his music despite that verse. Matthew Smith is equally a genius in his realm, and I’ll continue to love JSW despite those haunting crash images that I can never erase from my mind. And I just wanted to share this reflection on how we should be careful what we laugh about.

I’m very much looking forward to playtesting the game! Since I’ll soon be taking some time off work, it might be the perfect opportunity to do so 🙂.

Absolutely! 😁

View File GhoST oF WiLLY I am thrilled to announce the release of Carl Paterson's fourth Jet Set Willy game: "GhoST oF WiLLY" 🙂. The plot of the game revolves — obviously — around Jet Set Willy, the legendary adventurer, who must come out of retirement after a curse originally meant for his descendant, Jet Set Junior, falls upon him. Stripped of his physical body and trapped in spirit form, Willy must return to his old mansion — now transformed into a surreal reflection of his own subconscious — to collect sacred relics and break the curse at Queen Maria’s altar. As he navigates twisted echoes of his past, the fate of the entire Jet Set family line hangs in the balance. The player must collect all the sacred relics — the Spirit Itemz — needed to reunite Willy’s mind with his body and lift the curse once and for all. The above is just my summary — please read the original plot in the Readme! The game features: - 61 newly designed rooms, created in Carl's distinct style, with many challenging jumps where a move in the wrong direction or a jump from an inadequate position will cost you a life; - Mostly new and some modified guardian sprites; - A significant difficulty level - the use of some 'assistive tools' — such as saving/reloading snapshots, Rollback or the infinite lives POKE 35899,0 — is highly recommended; - A custom-made title screen, custom font (called "Dead Forest", designed by Damien Guard) and other enhancements; - A new title-screen tune and a superlong in-game tune, 1,536 bytes long, i.e. 24 times as long as the tune in the original JSW, actually composed of a series of shorter tunes, never before used in a JSW game for the Spectrum, all in ternary time signatures, which is a first for JSW48 games; - Something extra at the completion of the game. The ZIP file includes the game in TAP and TZX format (v. 2 - this is the first public release), the Readme and info about the game's credits. Please download and embark on another epic journey through these enchanting new parts of Willy's weird universe that Carl has created. And play the game to completion, but remember (hint, hint!) to save three spare lives before reaching the final rooms... 🙂 Submitter jetsetdanny Submitted 06/15/2025 Category Jet Set Willy [Remakes]  

"GhoST oF WiLLY" will be released tomorrow, 15th June 2025. Those who are based in Europe will be able to enjoy it since the morning 🙂 .

One real-life reference to JSW I hate to see... What a terrible tragedy!

I've started this topic because announcing an upcoming game release in a separate thread in the "Remakes" section would be impractical — after the game's release, if a download is created on this forum, the download topic will be generated automatically, duplicating the topics devoted to that game. Since I believe it's better to leave discussion of a new game for the download topic, this thread is meant to give everyone interested a heads-up regarding any upcoming release. So here's the first announcement: in the very near future (read: days), Carl Paterson's fourth JSW game will be released 😁 (a quick reminder: his first three games are: AmAZiNG WiLLY, WiLLY iN ThE MiRRoRVeRSE, and JeT SeT JnR aNd ThE CuRsE oF ThE PhArAoH). The new game is called GhoST oF WiLLY. The plot of the game revolves — obviously — around Jet Set Willy, the legendary adventurer, who must come out of retirement after a curse originally meant for his descendant, Jet Set Junior, falls upon him. Stripped of his physical body and trapped in spirit form, Willy must return to his old mansion — now transformed into a surreal reflection of his own subconscious — to collect sacred relics and break the curse at Queen Maria’s altar. As he navigates twisted echoes of his past, the fate of the entire Jet Set family line hangs in the balance. The player must collect all the sacred relics — the Spirit Itemz — needed to reunite Willy’s mind with his body and lift the curse once and for all. The above is just my summary — please read the original plot in the Readme! The game features 60 brand-new rooms for you to enjoy, created in what I now perceive as Carl's distinct style, with many challenging jumps where a move in the wrong direction or a jump from an inadequate position will cost you a life. People who don't use snapshot saving/reloading or Rollback will surely consider the game very difficult. The use of some 'assistive tools' is recommended; the infinite lives POKE 35899,0 will probably be a must if you want to complete the game. And it's certainly worth completing, as Carl takes you on another epic journey through these enchanting new parts of Willy's weird universe. And it can be completed... (hint hint) — if you save three spare lives before reaching the final rooms. So please watch this forum for the release announcement — it's coming soon! 🙂

Welcome to the forum, fawtytoo! Thanks for joining! 🙂

Thanks for the update, Hervé! It's thrilling to know that you've got over 90% of the rooms done now 🙂 .

It's great to know about your progress, Hervé! Thanks for the report 😊

Thanks for the update, Hervé! 👍It's great to know you are making good progress on this project 😊.

I've just been able to access zxart.ee without any problems.

It sounds terrific! Thank you for the update, Hervé, and I am looking forward SO MUCH to visiting Willy's Fun Park when it's ready! 😊

Thanks for starting this topic, Willy! Two more music links:

I am a little confused. You say the author of this screen is Mick Farrow. However, the main graphic is the same as the one Byron Needham used for the loading screen of "Manic Miner: The Lost Levels" and Byron mentions in the Readme Credits that "The loading Screen was created in Multipaint by Tero Heikkinen". So who was really the author of this graphic?

Great! 😁

Thanks for your reply, Hervé! It's good to know about the "inner" details of your work which resulted in this excellent game 🙂 . I am sorry about the delay in starting my work on the music. I am now coming to the finishing line of another JSW project I've been working on and should soon be able to turn my attention to "The Temple", which I'm looking forward to very much indeed 🙂 .

It's truly mind blowing - thanks for sharing it! 👍What an enormous amount of work must have gone into preparing the best route and then practising its execution! Chapeau bas! 🙂 I have made a note of the link to add it, in the future, to the page on JSW Central dedicated to the original JSW. That page is really a stub, I never included a description of the game, as it didn't seem necessary at the time (EVERYONE knows it!!!), and my attention was always focused more on the remakes and new games than the original. However, I will need to prepare a good description to place on this page at some point, and when I do, I will add various (probably quite numerous) links related to it. That's something to do in the future, though, because it will require time to do well, and my immediate JSW priorities are different. Thanks again for the link, though - it's really impressive! I just hope Matthew Smith has seen it, and I don't think he imagined something like this was possible when he coded the Writetyper cheat 😊.