jetsetdanny

Congratulations on releasing your first JSW game, Jet Set Willie! 👍 I was involved in playtesting the game, so I know it already and I can recommend it to everyone 🙂. In some ways it's different from other JSW games created so far, which is refreshing. A big thank you to Jet Set Willie for mentioning me in the credits 😁.

Thanks, Norman Sword! 👍

Thanks, Andy, I believe the Spectaculator recording will do for my purpose! 👍 In that one, you did *not* fail any keys as far as I can see, right?

Could someone please RZX-record (preferably using SPIN, but perhaps any compatible emulator would do) the loading sequence of JSWII? So that the person watching it would see the person who loaded the game "go through" the colour code? I would need this sequence for an improved video of both the walkthrough and speedrun of "JSWII" for the JSW Central YouTube channel. Any help would be appreciated!

I will be happy to playtest it, but it will be a few days before I'm able to get down to it. I'll do my best not to keep you waiting for too long 😉 .

Sounds great! 😁

Welcome to the forum, Mat! 😁 So you're feeling that buzz again, aren't you? 😉 That's great, I'm looking forward very much to your second game!

I have just tried to load an unmodified "JSW 2" using the colour code protection sheet from here and I don't seem to be able to do it. I input what I believe is correct values and nothing happens. Has anyone come across this problem before?

Thanks, Byron! I look forward to playing this version soon 🙂 .

Andrew Broad made the following comments on the Yahoo! Group when he reviewed JSWED back in November 2005: No Kamikaze ----------- An interesting name for what I would term "item-retention" if I could afford a wider window. 😉 "A sadistic game designer", eh? 😆 Bonus Room ---------- Did I read somewhere that the items in a Bonus Room don't count towards removing Maria? Sacrilege! It's really cool that the screen colour-cycles when you get an extra life, as in Manic Miner. Perhaps certain JSW games could give you an extra life after you've collected a certain number of items, or exceeded a certain score (to which points are awarded for collecting items and visiting rooms that you haven't visited before). There's a bug (or useful quirky feature?) whereby erroneous colour-attributes appear in the playing-area if you acquire too many lives. These colour-attributes behave as Water unless associated with a cell-class (but unlike Custom cells, they don't cause the Cell-Class 1 pixel-pattern to appear). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are no other references in the Group posts that would shed any light on the issue in question. However, there was also a comment of yours, Ian, in February 2017: Re: Patch to reset cells' FLASH-bits Andrew wrote: > (I encountered a bug in JSWED when setting "The Off Licence" to be a bonus-room: I ticked "Bonus room" in > "Room properties", but when I checked back there, it was unticked. When I playtested it, it /was/ a > bonus-room: the items gave me extra lives, without colour-cycling.) I have experienced a similar problem; reopening the Options->Room menu causes the Bonus room box to be unticked (after having ticked it previously). However, when I playtested it, it wasn't a bonus room (no extra lives and no colour-cycling). The reason I returned to the Room Options menu was to tick the 'No Kamikaze' option, in order to have both options switched on in the same room. I thought I would see what would happen if Willy collected all the items in a multi-item room, and then died before leaving the room! The result: many extra lives, which eventually spilled over beyond the status bar and caused corruption across the range of addresses #58xx-#5Fxx (including the attribute file for the entire screen, the primary and secondary attribute buffers for the playing area and the stack - the latter of which eventually led to a system reset!!)

🙂 That's quite possible. And John Elliott could actually confirm it if he stumbles upon your comment one day.

I fully agree with all of your comments, Ian 🙂 .

It's a good question! I'll start my reply with the contentious bit ;). I really don't think that it's called the 'Bonus Room', not 'Bonus Cavern', feature because it was designed with JSW-style gameplay in mind. I know you always make a point about the distinction between rooms and caverns, but I don't think it's universally accepted or applied. 'Room' is the most generic word for a screen in the game and I'm pretty sure that's why the feature is called the 'Bonus Room', without any deeper meaning to it. Moreover, the distinction between JSW-style and MM-style games (and also rooms) is blurred in JSW64. You can have a room with a portal which is the only way out, but you can also have a room with a portal that simply acts as a teleporter, because you can also exit this room through one or more "JSW-style" exits. JSW64 is a "place" where the distinction between rooms and caverns as per your definition is particularly vague. Anyway, I've carried out some testing in response to your query and the result is that there is an easy - although admittedly imperfect - solution to the problem you've envisaged. It's keeping the "No Kamikaze" option deactivated. Let's start from the basics for anyone interested. Both the "Bonus room" option and the "No Kamikaze" option can be activated or deactivated (ticked or unticked) in the following way: right-click "Rooms" (a menu appears), go to "Room options" (JSWED's manual mistakenly calls it "the Room properties screen" - this should be corrected as it's confusing) - another menu appears - go to "General", there they are. With the "No Kamikaze" option ticked, the game plays in the room in question as in MM, i.e. if you die after collecting an item, when you respawn, the item (or items) you collected before dying are restored and your item count is adjusted to what it was before collecting them. If you collect more than one item in such a room and then lose a life, you will have a net gain of at least one life (more if you have collected more items) and so there is a clear and present danger that the extra lives you keep gaining in such rooms (if there are many of them) could start to spill over beyond the bottom of the status bar. The easy solution to this is to have the "No Kamikaze" option deactivated. With this, the game plays as in JSW, so after you have collected an item, it's not there any more also after you lose a life. However, this doesn't affect the ability to leave the room via the portal - you collect an item, you die, the item is not there any more, but once you have collected all the other items in the room, the portal starts flashing. The program remembers that an item has been collected. I know, it eliminates the challenge of having to collect all the items in the room without losing a life. Oh well...

Updates on the JSW Central YouTube channel since the last video I mentioned in this thread (effectively, what follows is a list of videos posted on the channel since the beginning of this year until now): "Ma jolie" "Ma jolite" "Jet Set Willy: The Colossal Cave" "Jet Set Willy 5: ZX Heroes" "Manic Miner - Norman Sword's version" "Winer Milly" "AmAZiNG WiLLY" (v. 4) "JSW64: Dragon Jet Set Willy" "JSW64: Dragon Manic Miner" "A Bulgarian Requiem" "Manic Mixup" "Jet Set II" "Willy Comes Home" "Manic Miner: Neighbours - Allana Truman" (standard version) "Manic Miner: Neighbours - Allana Truman" (easy version) "JSW: The Sun Is No Longer Producing Heat" "WiLLY iN ThE MiRRoRVeRSE" (v. 3) "Terry The Turtle" (Yellow - Normal) "Terry The Turtle" (Cyan - Intermediate) "Terry The Turtle" (Red - Hard) "Terry The Turtle" (Vektor - Special Edition) "Escape of the Snails" Some comments: The videos of "Ma jolie", "Ma jolite" and "Manic Mixup" were made from RZX walkthroughs I had recorded in the past (I hard worked really hard on them back then and didn't see room for improvement). Similarly, the old recordings of "Terry The Turtle" (Cyan - Intermediate), "Terry The Turtle" (Red - Hard) and "Terry The Turtle" (Vektor - Special Edition) were used, because I considered them good enough - they could be improved, but since there is no clock in the game, there is no incentive to work on the improvement, either. As for "Terry The Turtle" (Yellow - Normal), a large part of it was re-recorded in order to showcase the collection of some items I had failed to collect in my initial walkthrough recorded back in February 2015. My walkthroughs of "AmAZiNG WiLLY" (v. 4), "WiLLY iN ThE MiRRoRVeRSE" (v. 3), "Jet Set Willy 5: ZX Heroes", "Willy Comes Home" and "Jet Set II" were presented publicly for the first time ever. I managed to complete: v. 4 of "AmAZiNG WiLLY" at 8:49 am in-game time; v. 3 of "WiLLY iN ThE MiRRoRVeRSE" at 8:53 am; "Jet Set Willy 5: ZX Heroes" at 7:57 am (7:02 am via the Secret Passage); "Jet Set II" at 7:56 am; "Willy Comes Home" at 8:57 am. I replayed and re-recorded the following games, achieving the following respective improvements: "Jet Set Willy: The Colossal Cave" - completion time improved from 8:32 am to 8:19 am. "Manic Miner - Norman Sword's version" - Bug-Byte version completion score improved from 38,873 pts. to 39,240 pts., Software Projects version completion score improved from 38,873 pts. to 39,250. "Winer Milly" - completion score improved from 8800 pts. to 9550 pts. "JSW64: Dragon Jet Set Willy" - completion time improved from 8:27 am to 8:18 am. "JSW64: Dragon Manic Miner" - completion time improved from 7:44 am to 7:40 am. "A Bulgarian Requiem" - completion time improved from 8:24 am to 8:18 am. "Manic Miner: Neighbours - Allana Truman" (standard version) - completion score improved from 27,159 pts. to 31,144 pts. "Manic Miner: Neighbours - Allana Truman" (easy version) - completion score improved from 30,703 pts. to 35,421 pts. "Escape of the Snails" - completion time improved from 8:59 am to 8:47 am. "JSW: The Sun Is No Longer Producing Heat" - the efficiency of my walkthrough has been improved, but it's difficult to quantitate it because there is no clock in the game. All of the newly-recorded RZX files can be downloaded from the games' respective pages on JSW Central.

In view of lack of any further feedback that would contradict what has been established so far, I published the videos of walkthroughs of the four versions of "Terry The Turtle" on the JSW Central YouTube channel. Here they are: Yellow (Normal) Cyan (Intermediate) Red (Hard) Vektor (Special Edition) There is one correction I need to add, though, to what I wrote before. There is one uncollectable item in the Yellow and Cyan versions that I failed to mention. It's in the room "Shell Shock!" (023). I am pretty sure it cannot be collected, because, first, there is no way to get where it is to grab it, and, more importantly, the player gets trapped in that section of the map, so even if they could reach it and collect the item, they would have to desist from it in order not to get trapped. So my final verdict on the collectability of the items in "Terry The Turtle" is as follows: Yellow version: It is possible to collect 93 out of 157 items. 89 items can be collected without loss of life. Four more can be collected if you deliberately sacrifice one life in the room "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124). The uncollectable items are: the uppermost item in "Hidden Chamber" (012), the item in "Shell Shock!" (023) and 62 items in "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124) (including 13 items in the enclosure at the upper left and 49 items in the central part of the room). Cyan version: It is possible to collect 61 out of 73 items, all of them without loss of life. The uncollectable items are: the uppermost item in "Hidden Chamber" (012), the item in "Shell Shock!" (023) and 10 items in the enclosure at the upper left in "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124). Red version: It is possible to collect all 48 items, without loss of life. This is the only version that is item-completable. Vektor version: It is possible to collect 72 out of 135 items (even though the message on the status bar suggests there are 68 items to collect). In fact, 68 items can be collected without loss of life. Four more can be collected if you deliberately sacrifice one life in the room "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124). The uncollectable items are: one item (either one) in the room "STYX - THE RIVER OF HATE" (068) (when the player falls down from "DESCENTION" [069], they can collect either one or the other item; later on, there is no way to go back and fall down again in order to collect the other item) and 62 items in "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124) (including 13 items in the enclosure at the upper left and 49 items in the central part of the room).

I have just added "Manic Miner: The Lost Levels" and "Manic Miner: The Lost Levels DS" (as one entry) to the list of MM games on JSW Central. I have also created a separate page for the game with a complete screenshot gallery of both variants of the game. You can also download my RZX walkthroughs of both variants, showing the completion of "Manic Miner: The Lost Levels" with a score of 35,787 points upon the first re-entry into the first cavern, and the completion of "Manic Miner: The Lost Levels DS" with a score of 35,376 points (I will make videos of them for the JSW Central YouTube channel once it seems certain that Byron will not make new versions of the game. JSW Central is still missing "Manic Miner: Deeper and Down". I hope to add it there, with a dedicated page, in the near future.

Richard, John Elliott described the music format used in the JSW128 game engine here. I believe it is exactly the same in the JSW64 game engine. Furthermore, JSWED's manual is attached. It discusses using JSWED's Music Editor in section 7.11 (the original music player can be replaced by the one from SoundTracker, which is one of the options to modify the music). jswed.pdf

Personally, I'm not fond of this idea. It would contradict (what I feel is) the original premise behind the whole project, i.e. presenting (all of) the MM levels that were 'lost' for the ZX Spectrum (because they only existed on other platforms). If only some ('the best') levels were chosen, the ones that were left behind would continue 'lost' in a sense... Furthermore, choosing the 'best' levels would have to lead to some arbitrary and possibly controversial choices regarding which rooms to include, and which to leave out. That's just my personal feeling about it 🙂 .

Yes, to quote from JSWED's manual: "Bonus Room If this is ticked, each item collected gives Willy an extra life." If I understand correctly, if this option is ticked in JSWED's GUI, each item collected in the room where this option is ticked will give Willy an extra life. So if there are e.g. 5 items in this room, Willy will receive 5 extra lives if he collects all of the items. This would be one way of doing things. Other things could be done, too, but would have to involve manual modification of the game engine (e.g. using JSWED's Hex Editor). I'm not sure the question quoted above is directed at me or @The-Red-Bayron. I don't have a strong opinion here. I do think adding extra lives along the way could be used, by all means, but it's Byron's call if and how to modify the game further.

Using the JSW64 game engine, it is possible (and easy) to add extra lives. I would just caution against adding too many of them, in order to avoid what happens e.g. in "Terry The Turtle", where it is actually necessary to lose lives during the gameplay to prevent potential game corruption. Initially, the player has 7 visible spare lives, with 4 more appearing as extras are gained. With the 15th spare life acquired, flickering begins on the bottom left turtle icon. Subsequent extra lives cause flickering on additional turtles. Once the life count exceeds 28, room name display is affected, with letters disappearing starting from the left. Having more than 28 lives can slow down or crash the game due to issues like paths blocked by "rogue" cells. Therefore, it is advisable (especially if you're playing using Rollback or saving/loading snapshots and do not normally lose lives) to repeatedly commit suicide throughout the game, especially when the life count approaches 28.

Paolo has let me know that he had launched a new retrogaming channel a few days ago. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/@ARetroGamesLook Among the videos he has created and posted there so far, there are: A "Full Game Runplay" of "Manic Miner" A "Full Game Runplay" of "Jet Set Willy" The two "WILLY, 48k about a Legend" trailers mentioned in my previous post are also on that new channel. I have updated the links in my previous post and I will repeat them here, also adding a third trailer Paolo has created: Enjoy! 🙂

This has been mentioned before in other topics (most notably, in the one about JSW's 35th birthday party at Manchester PLAY Expo, where it had its UK premiere), but it hasn't had its own thread on this forum AFAICT, so here's one. "WILLY, 48k about a Legend" is a documentary about "Manic Miner" and "Jet Set Willy" by Paolo Santagostino. Some useful links: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwpzmsqlvTHCMzzil-cHugw https://vimeo.com/santagostino http://www.retrogamingplanet.it/intervista/intervista-a-paolo-santagostino-willy-amarcord-a-8-bit/ (in Italian) https://www.gamescenes.org/2019/03/doc-paolo-santagostinos-willy-48k-about-a-legend-2019.html Recently, Paolo has prepared two clips to celebrate JSW's 40th Anniversary: It's JET SET WILLY 40th ANNIVERSARY - The Banyan Trailer It's JET SET WILLY 40th ANNIVERSARY - The Mega Trailer Enjoy! 🙂

Something related to this download was updated 10 hours ago, but I don't see what. The file is still the same, isn't it?

Yes, the linear nature of the route doesn't allow for dropping down into Styx twice during the same game AFAICT. The question would be whether there isn't some kind of exit somewhere which allows Terry to go back to an earlier part of the route and drop down into Styx again. However, I couldn't find any such exit, and the layout of the map doesn't suggest there is one.

Ian, thank you SO MUCH for analysing this issue! Indeed, you have put my mind at rest that I haven't missed anything. And the timing has been very helpful as I will soon set out to re-record the first file in question (the Yellow version). I also congratulate you on collecting the last remaining items in the Cheat mode 👍. This is not pertinent to my YouTube videos (as I don't use any cheat modes in them), but a testament to your tenacity in pursuing the specified goal 😉.