Madam Blavskja's Carnival Macabre 48K

[jetsetdanny]

Eighteen years ago to the day, Adban de Corcy (in real life: Fabián Álvarez López) released a beautiful Jet Set Willy game called “Madam Blavskja’s Carnival Macabre”. It was the third part of his “Gothic trilogy”, after "Willy's Afterlife" and "A Bulgarian Requiem".

 

The story:

This time Willy feels completely lost. He had managed to escape from his vampiric uncle, Jetza Setov Willovsky, and all apparently was going fine, when the car broke down. As far as he knew, he was somewhere right in the middle of Europe, and there was no gas station anywhere to be seen. So, he saw some lights, and when he arrived there, he discovered he was in a Carnival. And now, he can't find the exit, and he can't return to his mansion, because he cannot escape the Carnival Macabre!

 

This lovely, atmospheric game uses a 128K Jet Set Willy game engine (known as JSW128). Ever since I first played it, I felt distressed and upset that the owners of 48K Spectrums and the users of emulators which only emulate 48K machines could not enjoy this fine adventure 😉. I also felt that it should be possible to fit the game into 48K, especially since it does not use any features that would be hard to reproduce in the JSW48 game engine, such as diagonal guardians.

 

I undertook this challenge late last year and today I am very pleased to announce the upcoming release of “Madam Blavskja’s Carnival Macabre 48K” 😀 . It is Fabián’s game transferred to the classic 48K Jet Set Willy game engine (modified in various ways to fit in more code and data), with some enhancements. The player can choose to play either the original game, or a version with several additional rooms. There is also a custom-made title screen, an additional Game Completed screen and new music…

 

The game will be released this month, perhaps next weekend if all goes well.

 

Fabián has provided a real treat which will be included in the ZIP package: a description of the rooms (which was not included with the original edition of the game) and some current comments. I am very grateful to him for his support for this 48K Edition of his game!

 

I would also like to thank Ian Rushforth for his valuable involvement in this project, including (but not limited to) the new title-screen tune and various technical, code-related contributions and support.

 

So please watch this space in the near future! The release announcement will be here before this month is over…

[Spider]

Huge congrats! :)

[jetsetdanny]

Thank you, Andy! :)

[IRF]

I'll save my congratulations until it's released! ;-)

[jetsetdanny]

I am pleased to announce the release of the 48K Edition of “Madam Blavskja’s Carnival Macabre” .

 

First of all, my warm thanks once again to Fabián Álvarez López (Adban de Corcy) for the original 128K edition of the game and for his support for the release of this version. 

 

I would also like to extend special thanks to Ian Rushforth for his valuable cooperation and numerous contributions to the project.

 

 

You can download the game from its page on JSW Central.

 

 

You can also visit the game's *very* rudimentary home page on JSW Corner and download it from there. The same ZIP file is hosted on both websites.

 

 

The package contains:

 

- The official release file of "Madam Blavskja's Carnival Macabre 48K Edition" in the TAP format;

 

- The official release file of "Madam Blavskja's Carnival Macabre 48K Edition" in the TZX format (created by saving the TAP file as a complex tape file);

 

- The Readme;

 

- A ZXK file which makes it possible to play the game on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega/Vega+;

 

- The Readme written by Fabián Álvarez López especially for the 48K Edition of the game;

 

- A ZIP with the release files of the original 128K edition of the game;

 

- A ZIP with bugfixed files of the original 128K edition (please see Section IX of the Readme for their description);

 

- A ZIP with some early screenshots of the game, from the time when Fabián was still working on it as a 48K before upgrading it to 128K.

 

 

The Readme (which counts over 90 pages when pasted to a Word document using Calibri 11 and single spacing) contains detailed credits and describes every aspect of the game, including descriptions and annotated disassemblies of various technical solutions used in it, some of them applied in a JSW game for the very first time.

 

I hope you will enjoy this atmospheric adventure, created by Fabián and presented here, with some enhancements and an option to play either the original game or with five extra rooms, in 48K.

 

Please let me know you've had a go at “Madam Blavskja’s Carnival Macabre 48K" - here or by e-mail. Fabián's e-mail addresses can also be found at the end of the Readme - do let him know if you have enjoyed the game!

 

Daniel

[IRF]

Congratulations, Danny!

And Fabian, it's a great game!

[Spider]

Congrats! :) :)

[jetsetdanny]

Thanks, guys! :)

 

And congratulations to you, Ian, because you've been an important part of it! 

[Korzy_iz_Adb]

Thanks to all of you!

 

Now, would you please go and try "Röddenwald"?

[jetsetdanny]

I have started playing (or should I say: playtesting?) "Röddenwald". I am making an RZX recording of my test.