jetsetdanny

;) B) There is no such database TTBOMK. For quite a while now I've been thinking of creating one and hosting it on JSW Central. I hope I will be able to do it one day, but it's a rather distant future, at the moment, as my spare time is very short and will probably remain so in the next couple of years. There are also the individual pages for all games to do first. However, I will get there one day, hopefully. I launched JSW Central some ten years after first mentioning the idea, so there B) . Now, your discovery of new (or perhaps forgotten, is it?) JSW games is really thrilling :). Congratulations on it, and the obvious question arises: When will we be able to download these games from TZX Vault? Oh, I can see there was an update in April this year, and "There is some more good news in the pipeline hopefully". I'm looking forward to it! :D

Bob Fossil's entry for the Spectrum Computing mini game competition. The info and download link are here, and there is already an RZX recording on the RZX Archive. It's great to see such a nice project! :)

Apparently it's using Nirvana Multicolor and AY sound, and the Pietro/Gandalf Engine as the base (whatever that is). It sounds interesting and promising. The info is here.

Thanks for this, Andy! :) That's Andy Noble's DOS version, isn't it?

Thanks for visiting this forum, MathUseMyth! :) And thanks for your answers and the link to JSW Central, Andy the Spider! :) I would just add that, according to this Wikipedia article, apparently the Software Projects initially "attempted to pass this bug off as an intentional feature to make the game more difficult" (a source reference is here) and then "rescinded this claim and issued a set of POKEs to correct the flaws" (two source references: here and here). The referenced article in Personal Computer Games states that "the good news is that Software Projects have just released details of how to correct both this bug and the famous bug sparked by entering the Attic". So it looks like there must have been some kind of release from SP, though I don't recall seeing the text of that release (on the internet; I wouldn't have had a chance to see it "live" back in the 1980s).

Yes, and I've grabbed it. Thanks for making Ligan aware of the problem in the first place, and for making sure I've got the right version :).

Thanks for the update, Ligan! It's really great that you have finalised this project! :D :thumbsup: (There are some great MM and JSW games which had almost-ready beta-releases, but have never made it to the stage of being declared final by their authors - what a shame!) As mentioned before, I will do an update of JSW Central and I will re-record the RZX walkthrough, but it will probably a few weeks before it happens (due to real-life strain).

Thanks, Ligan! :) I take it the game is gamma-released now. I will add it to the list of MM games on JSW Central when time permits (it could be a while, I'm very busy in real life right now). I will have to re-record my RZX walkthrough, too (that's OK, it'll be a pleasure :) ). I will credit the game to "LiganTM", according to your wish expressed previously. Could you please clarify whether the name of the game to be used 'officially' is "Manic Miner Hard", or "Manic Miner: Back to the Mine", or something else still? Thanks again! :thumbsup:

Well done, Ian, congratulations! :)

Links to "The Daily Mash" articles picked from a thread on WoS: Pope John Paul II 'completed Jet Set Willy' (this one's hilarious!) Man still knows where all the rooms are in Jet Set Willy (today's headline)

A new loading screen for 'Manic Miner' has been created (alongside many other new loading screens) by Andy Green. You can see and download it here.

A great find! :)

Two problems I see there: - *If* the game was originally created on the ZX Spectrum (like back in 1985 or something), it would be like re-converting something to the original platform from another one. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but you probably wouldn't end up with the original, but a variant of it :wacko: . - Since it was (probably still is?) released as a commercial product, converting it to anything could mean encroaching upon the copyright and provoking the copyright's holders anger :o .

The game now has an individual page on JSW Central. There is a link to the page on the main page of the 'Minor modifications of the original Jet Set Willy' section. Please let me know, Mysterion, if you would like any corrections to the information given over there :).

Thanks for your detailed commentary, Ian!

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it !:)

Thanks for this version, Andy! :)

Hello, Mysterion! Welcome to the forum, and thank you for uploading your Turbo versions of "JSW" and "MM". They are great stuff, they run really fast! :) I have just: 1. approved both files - they are now visible to all users (they weren't before, I believe - you can't quite 'stick them up yourself' without proper privileges); 2. moved the topic you created to the 'JSW' section - I believe this is a much more appropriate place for it than Chat. I will add info about your versions on JSW Central when I next update the site. A couple of questions: Are your versions based on Mark Woodmass's solution of speeding up the frame rate by replacing the slow LDIR instructions with a stack method to copy the screen data to the Spectrum's video RAM? Will it be OK to credit you as 'Scott Jensen (Mysterion)' on JSW Central? Will you be releasing any info about the technical side of your files (how you achieved the speeding up of the games), especially if your method is different from Mark Woodmass's? Once again, welcome and thanks for your valuable contribution! :)

I hope you invested that

Manic Miner fans may like this demo: Harder, Better, Manic, Miner by Gasman / Hooy-Program. The download links are here. You can also watch it on YouTube.

Thanks for the recordings, Ian! :)

Thanks for your explanations, Ian!

Sorry, I misnamed the file. I called it 'After Rewrite alternative item collection.rzx', while it should have been called 'Before Rewrite alternative item collection.rzx'. I've corrected it now and re-uploaded the (same) file (with a changed name).

Ian, attached below is an RZX recording with the items you've mentioned collected in a different way than in my first recording. Please let me know if this is what you wanted to see :). TBH, I'm not quite sure what you mean about the rightmost item in "Emergency Generator". It just sits on the floor, so there's no quirky manoeuvre involved in collecting it, it's just necessary to outmanoeuvre Esmerelda. In the attached recording I got to the vicinity of the item in a different way than in the previous one, but I'm not sure if this is the way you wanted the item to be collected. EDIT: File name changed Before Rewrite alternative item collection.rzx

I would agree that an argument could be made for the validity of a game being completed using WRITETYPER. After all, it's something that is there, so one may argue there is no reason why it shouldn't be used. I agree with this. However: On JSW Central, I mention the highest documented scores in MM games / best completion times in JSW games (where pertinent). The condition is that they should be achieved without cheating (by which I mean using the WRITETYPER or POKing / modifying the game) and (in case of JSW games) without unnecesary loss of life (if an item can be collected without loss of life, it *must* be collected without loss of life; kamikazing some items could yield a significant time gain). I could envisage (but it's hypothetical at the moment, because I have no time for this, JSW Central needs other kind of development first) having four categories for best completion times in JSW: - No unnecessary loss of life, no use of WRITETYPER; - No unnecessary loss of life, but the use of WRITETYPER permitted; - Lose as many lives as you want, but no use of WRITETYPER; - Lose as many lives as you want plus the use of WRITETYPER permitted. The last category should produce the best completion times. However, I would NEVER even consider telling the players they should not perform some manoeuvres which are possible to do in an unmodified game file. As explained above, for me it's a kind of designer-versus-player game. If the designer made some mistake and left some unintentional loopholes, it is perfectly OK for the player to exploit them, because they are there. Although being a little bit of a designer myself, I have a strictly player-centred perspective on these matters. The player loads a game and plays it. He doesn't have to know - and in many, many cases doesn't know - *anything* about the designer, who he/she was, what his/her intentions were, nothing. They may not even know the designer's name. All they get is a product, a game, which they face and need to solve. Whatever can be done in an unmodified game is perfectly valid. Now, how does WRITETYPER fit in here? It is something that can be done in an unmodified game, so yes, I would agree that in a sense it is perfectly valid. However, it introduces a new quality into the way the game is played, one that can affect the completion time significantly. It is for that reason that best completion times achieved using WRITETYPER (where possible) and not using it cannot be classified together - because we are talking about two different ways of playing the game. It's a bit like if the designer places a cheat menu up front in the game (which does happen in some hacked versions of the original JSW) and provides, e.g. invulnerability to guardians. It is an option which the designer has provided in an unmodified product (from the point of view of the player, let's say I'm taking about an original game, not a hacked version), so in that sense it's perfectly valid to use. However, *obviously* playing the same game with invulnerability to guardians and without it are two very different modes of playing the game. Therefore, if the best completion times were to be discussed, there would *have to* be two separate categories for these two modes of playing the game. It's exactly the same with WRITETYPER. Please note that an additional thing is that cheats such as WRITETYPER are perfectly definable in whether they have been used or not. However, if one started speculating about the author's intentions, you would get into a grey area of uncertainty. Did the author really intend it this way or not? And even if he did, and failed, as mentioned before - I believe it's his problem, not the player's, because it's not about the author's intentions, but about what can - or cannot - be done in the finished product, which is the game the player loads into his emulator / Vega / real hardware / GBA / whatever. One more point: it's interesting that MM has a built-in cheat which allows the player to explore the game / practise playing each room easily, but the use of which prevents the appearance of the swordfish sign at the game's completion. In a sense it's a shame that Matthew Smith didn't implement something similar in JSW (which would be really easy to do with a simple check, I think) which would be: if WRITETYPER has been used, Maria doesn't disappear even if all items have been collected (or she does disappear, but the toilet run doesn't start upon reaching the bed - no "true" ending).