jetsetdanny

Well done! :) It's interesting to follow this discussion, even though I am only a passive observer.

I have no problem with JSWED 2.3.7 on a computer with W7, fortunately :).

Great stuff, Norman Sword, thank you! :)

So that would save another byte, wouldn't it?

Now, this is not really a suggestion, it's a bug report, but I thought it might not be worth starting a new thread, especially one suggesting that JSWED doesn't work perfectly. After Windows 10 automatic update earlier this week (I think it was at the beginning of this week, or last weekend perhaps, so around the end of October 2017), JSWED 2.3.7 installled on my computer using Windows 10 stopped working. It launches so that its initial screen can be seen, but when I try to load a game it turns out to be frozen, it doesn't respond at all. I can't close it using its own X sign either. However, it can be closed down without any hassle using the Task Manager. That Windows 10 update was a big one, the computer had to shut down and restart several times before it was over. Interestingly, JSWED 2.2.9 installed on the same computer works just fine. But I've grown used to JSWED 2.3.7 so much by now that going back to 2.2.9 does not seem to be a viable option. Both v. 2.2.9 and v. 2.3.7 had been installed on this computer before the Windows 10 update in question. They had co-existed happily (or, at least, peacefully) before. Now only 2.2.9 works. I tried reinstalling the 2.3.7 version (without de-installing it first), but to no avail. I mean, it gets installed, but still doesn't work after I launch it. I have yet to try de-installing it first, and then re-installing, but somehow I have little hope this will help. Perhaps John Elliott could help out, though? Any assistance with having JSWED 2.3.7 work properly with Windows 10 after this recent update would be much appreciated :). Has anyone else had the same problem?

Yes, it's a really good one, Norman Sword, thank you! Now you will be really impressed by this :lol: : When creating the Sprite Selection Screen in "Jet Set Mixup", Ian set the attributes for the various numbers which are printed on the screen using a sequence of LD HL,&0000 - LD (&0000),HL instructions. So you have e.g. 21 41 41 22 a4 58, to set some attributes to BRIGHT blue. He went through most (or almost all) colours like this. Now, when working on a similar selection screen related to a project which is discussed elsewhere, I introduced the following optimisation: I grouped the colours, I introduced the first one (say, non-BRIGHT red, i.e. 02) using the same instruction, so 21 02 02 41 a4 58, and then I introduced the following colours using INC H and INC L instructions (24 2C), thus saving one byte with the definition of each new colour, with the exception of when I had to "jump" from the last non-BRIGHT colour to the first BRIGHT one, which had to be done using the LD HL,&0000 instruction once again. The total net saving was of 8 bytes, I believe. Not too impressive, but if it should happen that you just need one or two (or five) spare bytes in the vicinity, it could come in quite handy.

My quick take on it would be: if a site wants to respect the available/denied rules, it should not make available for download any "denied" titles. So even if one title within a compilation is denied, the whole compilation should not be available for download. However, for the sake of making available the titles which are not denied, my suggestion would be, if possible technically, to strip the compilation of the "denied" titles and leave only the "non-denied" ones within the file. I know this will be a modified file, but personally I don't care. My interest would be to be able to see / play the "non-denied" titles, not to see an unchanged tape. If such a modification of the compilation were not possible, my second suggestion would be to make available for download only the "non-denied" titles (especially the ones which may be of interest to the members of/ visitors to this forum), by extracting them out of the compilation. Should this be impossible to do, technically, I don't know - I suppose the users would have to look for these compilations elsewhere...

"comparsion" instead of "comparison" ^_^

It's an interesting comparison, Andy, thanks for putting it together :). There's a typo in the topic, you might want to correct it.

Absolutely!

Apparently this happens because frames 1 and 3 of the rightward animation are always used, and in the case of Willy they are exactly the same as far as graphics go (only moved within the 16-per-16-pixels sprite space), while in the case of the flying pig they are visibly different (wings up - wings down). So I guess you're right that Willy's running ability could be improved, although I couldn't suggest an exact solution at this moment.

Good stuff, Ian! Congratulations on creating this solution :) .

Thanks for the disassembly, Ian, it's much appreciated! :)

I believe - based on information by Ian in a PM - that Andy published post #7000 on 15th September 2017. Please correct me if I'm wrong :) . If I'm right, congratulations on passing another milestone, Andy! :D

No, I meant "novelty", referring to Hacklevel 13, in singular. Yes, certainly there seems to be more than enough stuff to warrant introducing a new Hacklevel :). I am not sure if John Elliott has been following this thread and whether or not he would agree, and - more importantly - whether or not he would be willing and able time-wise to do something about it. I wonder if it would be appropriate to ask him directly?

Yes, I had to play the room several times to get the timing right to escape ;) .

Ian, these new inventions are fantastic! I really like them :)

Great stuff, Ian! :D It would merit to be called HL13 as far as I'm concerned. Perhaps John Elliott would be willing to update JSWED to introduce such a novelty? Attached is a test recording with the collection of the item in "Off Licence". The "Eugene" stays up on top of the screen after the collection (it goes down when Willy re-enters the room). test.rzx

Great stuff, Norman Sword, thanks for sharing it! Do you consider the file you have uploaded to be the final version, or is it still work in progress? When info about this version is placed (at some future point) on JSW Central, would you like it to be called "Manic Miner by Software Projects + BUG-BYTE" or something else?

Thanks for this interesting info, Norman Sword!

Welcome to the forum, Zoomerlon! It's cool that you've found your way here :D . It certainly sounds like a piece of classical music, but I've no idea what it is. I am sure others will know, though :).

I've had no experience with and have no knowledge of this code :( .

Thanks a lot for all the info, Ligan! :) My latest comments below are in green.

Thanks, Andy! :) .

As mentioned in my post above, I completed the game yesterday. It was a great pleasure to play it, because it is full of very smart arrangements of blocks (Cells), which make the way to complete many of the rooms not obvious at all. I mean, it is not immediately apparent which route the player should take, and when you just "dive into" a room without any reflection and try to solve it as you go, you find that you can't do it this way and you have to go back to the start of the room (which I was able to do thanks to using the Rollback feature in the ZX Spin emulator) and take another route. I really appreciated various arrangements which made me go back and think again about which route to take :). This is a great asset of the game, IMO, which makes it technically much more interesting than some of the other, earlier MM remakes mentioned in this thread. Some modifications to sprites and item shapes (and the title screen tune) are also good. The recording of my walkthrough can now be downloaded from the RZX Archive or viewed on its YouTube channel. However, I would strongly encourage everyone to play the game themselves first, before watching the recording, as it's really a lot of fun :). The game is more challenging than many other MM remakes, but at the same time not as hard as "Manic Scribbler", which I believe to be the hardest MM game ever created, or most of Andrew Broad's MM games. So Ligan, congratulations on this fine creation! :D (if it is indeed your work, as I believe it to be). I would like to add the game to the list of MM games on my JSW Central website and so I have some questions in order to make the information which will be placed there as correct as possible: - Is it OK to quote the name of the game as "Manic Miner Hard" (which would be my preference), or should it be just "MM Hard" (or perhaps "MMHard", as in the name of the Z80 file you uploaded)? - Could you please kindly confirm that you are the author of "Manic Miner Hard"? If so, would you like to be credited with anything else other than "Ligan"? (such as your real name or whatever else you prefer). If not, could you please let us know who the author is? - I believe that in Chronology I should mention 6th August 2017 as the date of the gamma-release of the game. Is this correct? Has the game been released somewhere else before here by any chance? I guess that would be all as far as JSW Central is concerned. I just want to say once again that I really enjoyed playing your game, that it was a lovely surprise to see this game appear out of the blue, and that I look forward to any further MM or JSW redesigns you may create. Is there any chance this will actually happen? :)