jetsetdanny

OK, the last thing for tonight. I've managed to extract and convert "La casa de Jack" from the above DSK file to a TZX file using ZX-Blockeditor. Here it is: EDIT: The attachment has been deleted, as I'm going to update 'better' versions. Apparently, it doesn't have a loading screen (like the Italian version). The only difference with the .Z80 version is that it prints "PULSA ENTER PARA JUGAR" (i.e. PRESS ENTER TO PLAY) after the game has loaded and the game is only launched after you press a key. Tomorrow or during the weekend, when I have time, I will have another look at the files downloaded from the above website (I'lve also dowloaded the whole Italian LOAD 'N' RUN tape 11 with various programs, including "La casa di Jack") and prepare a set of extracted / converted if necessary files (2x TAP and 2xTZX) of what I think will be files as close to the original as possible. Plus the fixed versions (so 8 files in total: 2xTAP original + 2xTZX original + 2xTAP fixed + 2xTZX fixed), to offer them as the ultimate download option here instead of the currently hosted files (if Andy agrees) :).

Thanks, Ian :) Yes, my mistake. I'll upload the other file tomorrow (actually, it can be downloaded from here, as mentioned above). After some further research (it's all here, actually, only I didn't look closely enough before): - The Italian LOAD 'N' RUN tape 11 with "La casa di Jack" was released in December 1984. - The Spanish LOAD 'N' RUN tape 1_02 with "La casa de Jack" was released in March 1985. So it's just like I suspected: the Italian version is primary, the Spanish version is a variant of the Italian version. I believe this settles the whole issue and gives us a clear picture. Furthermore, the game was called "La casa de Jack" in the Spanish magazine (printed version). So I would advocate even more using this name for the Spanish version. I have downloaded the actual file of the Spanish LOAD 'N' RUN tape (to see if something more can be found there beyond what's in the .Z80 snapshot - like a custom loading screen), but it's in DSK format EDIT: I found it in TZX format, too. Spin opens it, but then nothing happens. Here it is: EDIT: Attachment has been deleted. It's re-uploaded below. Perhaps someone will be able to make it run and / or convert it to TAP file? EDIT: I've done it myself. Please see below. EDIT 2: It was useless work, because later on I found a TZX file I could use.

Ever since I first learnt about "La casa di Jack" being 'a Spanish version of "JSW"', I have been uncomfortable with it. I never understood why a Spanish version of the game should have an Italian title. It just didn't make sense. Now, having investigated the issue, I believe I have the answer. Or rather, I know the truth. The truth is (in my strong conviction) that "La casa di Jack" is an Italian version of "JSW", which also happens to have a Spanish version. I am sure the Italian variant was the primary one (hence the title in Italian), and the Spanish version is secondary, translated from Italian. What happened was that the secondary Spanish version has been known amongst the JSW community for ages (at least since this page went online, probably earlier), and the primary Italian version surfaced later. The info on Andrew Broad's List of MM & JSW games is therefore misleading, when it is first stated that: A Spanish variant of Jet Set Willy called La Casa de Jack is now available for downloading (thanks to Vidar Eriksen (Erix1) for making it available!). It was written by Juancho Mart La casa di Jack (bug-fixed).tap

Thanks, Andy! :)

Andy, Thanks for discussing this version and creating a TAP file from the existing .Z80 snapshot :). Some points on this subject: 1. In the original .Z80 snapshot, after starting the game, Willy keeps jumping up vertically and you can't play the game (it doesn't respond to the movement keys). After the game has been reset (and exits to the title screen), after going through the title screen and the micro cheat selection, you can play the game normally. I've seen this problem: Willy just jumping up vertically, without the player being able to control him, after launching the game, in several old JSW hacks. I wonder what the technical explanation of this problem is. 2. Andy, I would suggest changing the above wording a little bit. When you talk about 'renaming' Entrance to Hades, I thought you were referring to the room name, and I didn't know what you really meant (because all of the rooms are renamed in this version of the game) until I saw the screen in-game. I think that saying something along the lines that the author has taken the time and trouble to modify the "DIE MORTAL" message in Entrance to Hades to read "LA MORTE" (which, incidentally, is not Spanish, but Italian, similarly like the title itself; in Spanish it would be "LA MUERTE" and "LA CASA DE JACK", respectively). Not all of them. The values of the bytes which describe the item locations in the #A4... range are modified. They have the same "layout" as in the orignal, but their values are increased by (decimal) 64, so e.g. The value #B2 at #A4AD in the original JSW becomes #F2 at the same address in La Casa di Jack. The value #1C at #A4C7 in the original JSW becomes #5C at the same address in La Casa di Jack. So to apply the fix for the First Landing item you need to apply the value #4B instead of #0B at #A4C7. I have seen such a pattern of differences before, but I can't remember where exactly. I am unable to explain the reason for it right now, although I know the explanation is very simple... I have applied the fixes to the TAP file which you created and I would kindly suggest that it be added to the download options on the Download page, so that everyone interested has access to a completable version of the game. Here it is: Jet Set Willy (Juancho Martinez Cubero) aka La Casa Di Jack) bug-fixed.tap Incidentally, there is a typo in the name of the two files offered for download at this moment. This author's first surname is Martinez, not Martizen. I have played the attached file to completion and I testify it can be completed with just one loss of life (in Conservatory Roof, just like all JSW variants where the Official Software POKEs have been applied, but Conservatory Roof has not been fixed otherwise). In fact, I have recorded an RZX walkthrough of it (with a completion time of 8.00 am), which I will make public very soon, in a few days' time, along with some other stuff :).

Thanks a lot, Ian, this optimisation may come in very handy when one needs some spare bytes! :)

Thanks, Andy. Some great stuff there :).

Brilliant! :)

Congratulations again, Ian! :)

Thanks, Ian! :)

Thanks, Ian, it's very helpful! Would it work the same with authors' names, e.g. Jet Set Willy - Elon Musk's version or (equally correct) Jet Set Willy - The Elon Musk version ?

R. D. Foord Software's version of "JSW" or R. D. Foord Software version of "JSW"? "R. D. Foord Software" is the name of the publisher here. So this is equivalent to: Software Projects' version of "MM" / Bug-Byte's version of "MM" or Software Projects version of "MM" / Bug-Byte version of "MM" Which is correct (or better, if both options are correct)?

Interesting stuff, Ian! Congratulations on this novelty :).

It's good that you've found what you needed :). In the TOSEC zip which can be downloaded from the link I mentioned above, there are two files which may be of interest. Here they are: Manic Miner (19xx)(Steven Green)(fr)cr F.T.Pirate-Prospectrum port.zip ZZZ-UNK-Manic Miner Conversion by N.Hawaworth (PD).zip

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but have you tried this download?

The author of 'April Showers', the (then) new room in 'Jet Set Willy', published as a type-in in 'Your Spectrum' magazine in April 1985, is apparently John Nicholls, not Nichols. His surname is spelled with a double 'l' in the original article (page 41) where it appears three times. I have always seen it spelled with one 'l' on JSW-related websites. This incorrect spelling is also present on WoS. I imagine the error was perpetuated by people copying the surname from sources where it appeared earlier, without consulting the original article. I am sorry to admit I contributed to it, too, including in the text files which accompany 'Jet Set Willy: The 2010 Megamix' and its earlier incarnation 'Jet Set Willy: The 2005 Megamix', where Dave is credited because the room 'April Showers' is included in these games. So, thank you for 'April Showers', Dave Nicholls, and sorry for misspelling your name over the years!

Krazyminer, it's great that you have joined this community, and thank you for the links to your webpages and the info you have produced and are hosting there :). In the last few years this community has been the central point for MM/JSW-related activity, and I hope it will stay this way for a looong time to come :). Previously, for about a decade, the MM & JSW Yahoo! Group was the main meeting place of the MM/JSW community. It is hardly active these days (apart from Ian [iRF], one of the most active members here, posting his amazing insights about the workings of the JSW game engine, in reference to old messages over there), but there is a lot of valuable info there in the over 7000 messages which have been posted so far. And, of course, if you are interested also in games which are remakes of MM and JSW for the ZX Spectrum (using the original game engines or the extended ones developed by John Elliott), I couldn't fail to encourage you to visit JSW Central :).

I tried Spectaculator. It seems to work in the same way as far as loading is concerned, i.e. I need to have a TAP file with the screen (my picture) data following the Screen Compressor data immediately within the structure of the TAP file, so that it loads and gets processed correctly. Otherwise, if I use a regular Screen Compressor build and try to drag and drop a screen file onto it to load it, nothing happens. Anyway, I have been able to process a couple of my loading screens (for micro-projects which will be made public in the near future) successfully. So thanks for Screen Compressor, Andy, it's a very useful tool! :thumbsup:

Andy, I've devised a successful workaround to solve the problem :D . It allows me to achieve exactly what I need, although it's not optimal in the sense of general usage of "Screen Compressor". I did this: Using ZX-Blockeditor, I created a new TAP file, which was your "Screen Compressor" with my picture attached after the last block of "Screen Compressor" data in the TAP file structure (my picture as BYTES ""SCREEN$ header plus Screen Data, 6912 bytes in length, starting at 16384). I ran this file in SPIN. Immediately after pressing "L" to load the screen, it loaded my picture and processed it, compressing it correctly. Then I was able to repeat the steps I had previously succeeded in doing, i.e. I saved the compressed screen, inserted it into a custom BASIC loader, and then loaded the whole game to see if it worked. It worked like a charm! :) So at this point I am able to use "Sreen Compressor" efficiently by creating new, individual TAP files of it for each project, by inserting my picture blocks into the "Screen Compressor" TAP file structure right after the last data block of the Compressor. This is perfectly enough for me, but it's not exactly the right way to use this otherwise excellent program; certainly not the normal way. I'll try using it the proper way in Spectaculator tomorrow (I don't have Spectaculator on this computer), just out of curiosity what Spectaculator will do. Anyway, thanks *a lot* for your help, I am very glad I am now able to use this whole technology of compressing pictures and loading them (used as loading screens) without the loading lines :D .

Andy - I am totally at a loss here. The "demo" file you uploaded looks like a final product *after* the compression and turning a picture from a 6912-byte-long SCREEN$ into a piece of code which gets loaded and then decompressed. I don't have a problem now with this whole part - I've managed to do it. My problem is that I cannot *load* a 6912-byte-long picture into Screen Compressor so that it processes it correctly. When I load a .scr picture, Screen Compressordoesn't process it correctly. The picture is displayed on the screen of the emulator and nothing happens. When I press the "Start or stop the virtual tape drive" button, something gets loaded, visibly corrupting my screen (the upper part of it only) and then - without my doing anything else - the Screen Compressor shows its screen with the results of the compression (from this point on, I was able to save the file successfully and put it into a working BASIC loader - hence I say that I don't have a problem with this whole part). I know that I wrote previously that I had solved Part 1 - loading the uncompressed picture into Screen Compressor - but I take it back. I did *not* solve this part yet. When I said I had solved it, I didn't realise that the corruption of the picture would perdure beyond the compression. So my problem now is how to load the file into Screen Compressor so that it processes it correctly. Now I know it should be a TAP file, not a .scr. So my question is about what structure this TAP file should have and what the BASIC loader should say. Obviously it cannot be a kind of file like the "demo" you uploaded above, because this demo is already processed by Screen Compressor, it's *after* the compression. And I need to know what a TAP file should look like *before* the compression - the file which I need to load into the Compressor. :)

Andy, thanks a lot for your help! :) I got Part 2 right, so to speak. I was able to save a compressed screen, then insert it into a "full" TAP file (with a loader, etc.) and run the whole thing. It works like a charm :) . However, I've still got a problem with Part 1. When I drag and drop a .scr file onto Spin, it shows my screen in SPIN's screen, but then nothing happens. So I tried pressing the "Start or stop the virtual tape drive" button in SPIN (at the lower left). When I do that, SPIN loads something (with the stripes and the sound) - I suspect it may be the "Screen Compressor" code itself - which corrupts the upper part of my screen. It is only after it has stopped loading that Screen Compressor shows the screen with the results of the compression (compressed size and savings). The compression works OK, I guess, but my screen had been corrupted because something was loaded onto its upper part. Any ideas? As for the SPIN's Tape browser, after my screen has been dragged and dropped and shows in SPIN's screen (and nothing happens), when I go to the Tape browser, the only tape it sees is the Screen Compressor itself.

Andy, OK, I've got the file loaded into Screen Compressor and processed. Now I've got the screen where it shows the total compressed size and the saving (how many bytes were saved). So now I want to save my compressed screen to the PC. How do I do it? This time I cannot drag and drop anything. When I press "S" it asks me for the file name, then, when I have input the name, it shows me a screen with info that "The screen is relocatable...", etc. and it says, "Start tape, then press any key". When I press a key, the program does what it would do on a real Spectrum - it shows the moving border stripes and makes the sound typical of data transmission. However... it doesn't save any file on the PC, AFAICT, it only saves whatever it does save virtually "within the emulator". So how do I save the processed (compressed) screen, please? :)

Andy, I've had a go at it, but I'm missing a key piece of information here, and so I'm unable to use this tool. How do I load and save files "within the emulation" on an emulator? Here's what I mean: I open an emulator. It is either ZX Spin or Spectaculator in my case. I load Screen Compressor. I see the menu, like in the screenshot on top of this page. I press "L" and I see the message "Load in your screen now...". And the program is waiting for my input. What should I do at this stage, either in Spin or Spectaculator? How do I load something into the emulated program? I can't figure it out. Your help on this will be appreciated :).

The official Software Projects POKEs in Hex: #EB47,00 - Removes a Fire cell from the Conservatory Roof #E9FD,52 - Fixes the 'Attic Bug' arrow #A4C7,0B - Moves the invisible item from the First Landing to The Hall #DE2C,04 - Changes an Earth cell in the Banyan Tree to a Water cell so the tree is climbable.

Thanks, Andy! I have corrected the typo.