IRF

Maria vs. Some Bastards is a beautiful game by Vidar Eriksen (Erix1). It uses a modified JSW48 game engine that has come to be known as 'Erix1 Mode'. Its first short demo version was released in October 2001. The game was gamma-released on 6th March 2003, with four bug-fixed revisions (called Rev B, C, D and E) released within the next few weeks.
A menu screen implemented by the BASIC loader allows the player to choose one of the three modes: Easy, Normal or Hard. According to the message which shows in the opening room, you need to collect 120 items to complete the game if you choose the Easy mode, 240 items if you choose the Normal mode and 246 items if you choose the Hard mode.
Daniel Gromann raised the question of the game question of the game’s completability on the Manic Miner Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group in June 2007, when he pointed out that Maria did not disappear after he had collected 251 items in the Hard mode.
In March 2012, Vidar Eriksen promised to look into the problem and check whether some ‘end-game corrections’ he had done in Rev D were not left out in Rev E. He mentioned that a Rev F might be necessary, but it did not materialise in the following years.
Ian Rushforth investigated the item-collecting code in Maria vs. Some Bastards and discovered the cause of the bug which made the game non-completable. He announced his findings on Manic Miner Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group in February 2019, offered a bug-fix for the problem and also showed the way to collect one of the items Daniel had not been able to reach.
After some further discussions, the Jet Set Willy Manic Miner Community Team produced a 2019 Bug-Fixed Edition of the game, with the following changes in relation to Rev E:
- Ian’s solution to the bug in the item-collecting code was applied.

- A way was provided to collect the rightmost item in the room "Stinking sewer" (27), which seems impossible to collect in Rev E.
- Three items located in the very same (non-)rooms which are used by the Softricks game engine (on which Erix1 Mode is based) to store the item table - which are thus invisible and unreachable in Rev E - were moved to other locations so that they became present in the game and collectable.
- As the total number of items possible to collect has now reached 256, the number required to complete the Hard mode was set to 256, with the corresponding changes in the BASIC loader and the message in “Master Bedroom”, where the game starts.
- An item placed in the same location as another item (as happens in “The Beach” in the original JSW) in the room “Afterliving” (46) was moved within the same room to make its collection more demanding and make the player use a route they might not use otherwise.
- A minor change to the layout of “Alien inferno 2" (49) was applied to force the player to press the special button in that room if they want to complete it without losing a life.
- The middle item in the room “Bubbles and Bob” (41) was moved to make its collection more meaningful.
- The up exit from "That slimy room" (11) was changed to itself instead of "The dungeon" (00), in order to prevent the protagonist from potentially getting perpetually stuck at the bottom-right corner of the latter room.
- The spellings of the room names “Flooding sewer” (15), “Seagull corner” (36) and “Deadly descent” (54) were corrected.
- A typo in the scrolly for Manic Mining Robot's Day Out, the ‘secret bonus crap game' attached to Maria vs. Some Bastards was corrected.
- Information about this being the 2019 Bug-Fixed Edition was added on the loading screen and in the REM statements in the BASIC loader.
- The Readme was also updated with the info that this is the 2019 Bug-Fixed Edition.
 
All of the above changes were applied to the actual game file by Ian Rushforth, after some deliberations with Andy Ford and Daniel Gromann.
We hope you will enjoy this Bug-Fixed Edition and the ability to complete Maria vs Some Bastards at long last. Have a go at it - it’s worth it! 🙂

"Times are tough for poor old Willy. Decades of excessive partying have taken their toll on his finances. Despite already having downsized his mansion in 'Jet Set Mini', he is finding it increasingly difficult to afford the cost of maintaining his home, and keeping his formidable housekeeper Maria in the style to which she has become accustomed!
 
And so, after dusting down his trusty hard hat, Miner Willy descends back into the subterranean realm where he first made his fortune 35 years ago. Emerging into the Central Cavern, he soon notices that things have changed somewhat since the last time he ventured down here..."
 
***********************************
 
'Manic Mixup' is a remix of Matthew Smith's classic ZX Spectrum 48K game 'Manic Miner', and is released in 2018, 35 years after the original game. It can be played on a real Spectrum, on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega/Vega+ or on a computer, games console or another device using a ZX Spectrum emulator.
 
The starting point for 'Manic Mixup' was an amalgamation of two projects by Dr Andrew Broad: his laterally-inverted version of 'Manic Miner' ('reniM cinaM') and Andrew's 2008 remix of 'Manic Miner'. Into this melting pot was poured a cluster of newly-designed special features, making 'Manic Mixup' quite unique amongst games based on the MM game engine.
 
Thematically, 'Manic Mixup' is a sequel to the authors' previous game 'Jet Set Mini', which was a modified version of 'Jet Set Willy' - that in itself being Matthew Smith's sequel to 'Manic Miner'. What a mixup!
 
All of the original caverns (and their perilous occupants) have had an overhaul in 'Manic Mixup', and the in-game music has been significantly enhanced. Furthermore, nearly all of the routines in the 'Manic Miner' game engine have been rewritten or redesigned for this project, for various reasons: to provide additional functionality (such as new sound and visual effects, and additional gameplay elements - including putting Willy's hard hat to good use!); to increase the efficiency of the code; and to fix various bugs in the original game engine.
 
However, the essence of this 8-bit, 48K game will be very familiar to devotees of 'Manic Miner'. We hope it gives you 'unalloyed pleasure'!
 
**********
 
UPDATE: A minor visual bug during the title screen sequence has just come to light, which crept in because of a tweak to the routine which plays the title tune ('The Blue Danube' by Johann Strauss II).
When a single note is played, only one piano key is supposed to be lit up (whereas two keys are highlighted simultaneously whenever a chord of two notes is played). The rewritten routine caused two adjacent piano keys to light up when a single note was played.
This bug during the title screen sequence has now been fixed, and the corrected game file re-uploaded. This change does not alter the gameplay of 'Manic Mixup' in any way.

For this special version of Matthew Smith's classic ZX Spectrum game 'Jet Set Willy', the Retro Factor has been doubled by the introduction of Mr Noseybonk - a recurring* character from the early 1980's BBC children's TV show 'Jigsaw' - as the main protagonist.
 
(* By 'recurring' I mean that he made regular appearances in the programme - but also that he formed the basis of recurring nightmares for a whole generation of British children!)
 
The title screen music for the project is an adaptation of the theme tune from 'Jigsaw', whilst Noseybonk's theme ('A Hippo Called Hubert' by Joe Griffiths) is collectively represented by the in-game music and the coda that plays during the 'Game Over' sequence.
 
My thanks go to Richard Hallas for inspiring the concept for this project during an email exchange last year, and for his 'A Miner Triad' document (http://hallas.net/Software/music.htm) with its very useful tone chart and general advice on scoring music for the 'Jet Set Willy' game engine. I would also like to thank Andy Ford (administrator of the host site jswmm.co.uk) for his assistance with compiling the BASIC loader, and Richard Dymond for his invaluable 'Jet Set Willy' disassembly (hexadecimal format available at http://skoolkid.gith...ly/index.html).
 
Enjoy - and don't have nightmares!!!
Ian Rushforth
 
UPDATE: One week after first releasing this game as 'Jet Set Willy - The Mr Noseybonk Version', a bug came to light which caused corruption of the scrolling message on the Title Screen, and which also caused ropes to behave in strange ways during play. I have corrected this error (caused by a single errant byte), and reissued the game as 'Jet Set Willy - The Mr Noseybonk Edition' (to distinguish it from the first, erroneous release). I also took the opportunity to address a couple of bugs that were present in the original game, namely that the item in the Swimming Pool was automatically collected upon entry (so you never got the opportunity to see it), and one of the items in the Conservatory Roof couldn't be collected without sacrificing a life. It is now possible to complete the game without loss of life.
 
FURTHER UPDATE: Sinclair ZX Vega support files added to the download folder.

"Willy has fallen on hard times. After living the high life for several years, he had frittered away his mining fortune, and found himself struggling with the upkeep of his sprawling mansion. So he had no choice but to downsize to a more modest pile.
 
Things settled down for a while, but then he made the mistake of inviting a few of his old friends over to his new gaff for a housewarming party: 'Just a few quiet drinks, nothing major...'
 
The morning after the night before, Willy wakes up in the bath with a throbbing hangover, to observe a disturbingly familiar scene. His house is trashed, all his friends have deserted him, an assortment of dangerous denizens have taken up residence - and his tyrannical housekeeper Maria won't let him go to bed until he's tidied up the place..."
 
***********************************
 
'Jet Set Mini' is a redesign of Matthew Smith's classic ZX Spectrum 48K game 'Jet Set Willy'. It can be played on a real Spectrum, on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega/Vega+ or on a computer, games console or another device using a ZX Spectrum emulator.
 
Willy's new abode in 'Jet Set Mini' is rather scaled down in comparison with his original mansion. But size isn't everything! Much of the code which was freed up by paring back the layout has been recycled, in order to insert a whole host of special effects into the game!
 
Many of these changes are implemented via tools known in the trade as 'Patch Vectors', which are called up on a room-specific basis. There are also a number of generic modifications and enhancements to the game engine. However, the essence of this 8-bit, 48K game will be very familiar to connoisseurs of 'Jet Set Willy'. We hope it gives you 'no small measure of pleasure'!

'Jet Set Mixup' is a redesign of Matthew Smith's classic ZX Spectrum 48K game 'Jet Set Willy'. It can be played on a real Spectrum, on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega/Vega+ or on a computer, game console or another device using a ZX Spectrum emulator.
 
The layout of 'Jet Set Mixup' is almost identical to that of 'Jet Set Willy', but most of the original guardians have gone on holiday, and have been replaced on duty by sprites from 'Manic Miner' and 'Jet Set Willy II'. Furthermore, the player is offered a choice of sprites with which they can play the game. We hope you enjoy this 'mixup'!