48k [File] Manic Panic

[IRF]

Thanks Norman!

I suppose it is possible to notice that an item has been collected (when playing on mute) by the fact that the score will have incremented, but that presupposes that you paid keen attention to what the accrued score was before the item was collected.  (Which isn't something the player is likely to be keeping a close eye on whilst simultaneously trying to dodge the numerous hazards!)  Anyway, aside from the functional purpose of the border flash (to highlight an item being collected if you're playing on mute), it is a nice visual addition to the game. 🙂

I haven't encountered any problems using S-D-F to toggle the border flash off (nor A-S-D for the interrupts).  However, I don't seem to be able to switch off the 'kicking up dust when landing' feature - i.e. the D-F-G key combination doesn't work for me.  That's the reason I mentioned it - I was wondering if it works for anybody else?  (It is possible that I am having emulator problems - in a similar way to how not all rooms in the original Jet Set Willy are always accessible via teleportation instigated by number key combos, depending on the emulator being used.)

In any case, I have checked whether the underfoot dust has any effect on gameplay - such as causing a fatal pixel collision with guardians - and it doesn't, so as Norman says it is purely an aesthetic feature (and another neat one at that! 😉)

[Norman Sword]

On 12/22/2020 at 4:17 PM, IRF said:

 

I haven't encountered any problems using S-D-F to toggle the border flash off (nor A-S-D for the interrupts).  However, I don't seem to be able to switch off the 'kicking up dust when landing' feature - i.e. the D-F-G key combination doesn't work for me.  That's the reason I mentioned it - I was wondering if it works for anybody else?  (It is possible that I am having emulator problems - in a similar way to how not all rooms in the original Jet Set Willy are always accessible via teleportation instigated by number key combos, depending on the emulator being used.)

 

In the distant past, I too had problems with keyboard scanning. Whole groups of keys would not be responsive when playing JSW or MM and the cheat was activated. This inability to scan the keys accurately meant the cheat actions on those games could not be fully implemented. I wrote a very small program to display the results of what the host machine sees when emulating a spectrum's keyboard. That program showed me that on the computer I was using at that time. The exact problem of scanning for D-F-G was also prevalent. (my present keyboard/computer does not exhibit the same problems) 

The above is the primary reason I tend to not ask for multiple key presses when writing a game. Because these key options, in Manic Panic, were not an important part of the game. I was only concerned with my own ability to change those in game options. When the routine was written. 

To check out if your emulation of the zx spectrum is having problems, it is probably worth running the emulation test program I wrote. The program I wrote was called      key_test.tap    It is available to members somewhere on this forum. It's under the heading "Emulator key scanning"

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The routine for drawing dust is added in a similar way to how keys are drawn. The game loop has already drawn and animated the conveyors, Willy, Sprites etc and has checked for collision. Then it adds dust, keys, portals. So collision with dust can never occur. 

 

 

[Spider]

Thanks Norman. 🙂

I do remember reading a long time ago half the problem on emulation was due to the way the PC keyboard was connected, being legacy IBM standards (both AT/ATX types and PS2) , Apple might not be effected earlier ones using ADB for their keyboards before everyone moved to USB.

To confuse the matter a bit more it is possible (but I've not checked) that different emulators could respond / cope in slightly different ways too.

I do think there's something in emulation settings that may help as some have a choice of Iss2 or Iss3 keyboard. I'm not aware of the difference having not had time to research it, although I do suspect its an internal ULA change with regard to how the databus is dealt with (maybe)

It should be noted that I've not researched the above, that is all "straight from the top of my head" , errors and omissions to be excused.

For convenience, he topic regarding the key scan can be found here

Back onto the main topic directly, I'm still highly impressed by this. I did have a vague thought the other day in perhaps a redesigned JSW or even in the original certain "below ground" rooms such as Wine Cellar / Abbey / Under The Drive" could facilitate the lighting effects.

[JianYang]

Could this just be the classic keyboard jamming?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-Key_Rollover#Key_jamming_and_ghosting

[MtM]

Managed to miss this thread for a bit folks, can I add my complete gratitude to Norman

for his superb work in Manic Panic too, it is just superb, so thank you Norman.

[jetsetdanny]

I have completed all six modes of Manic Panic. It was a great pleasure to play this game – familiar in many ways, and yet so different from the original Manic Miner 🙂. I like the design of the brand new rooms, especially “Test Station”, “Amazing Final Inspection”, “Particle Collision Chamber”, “Water Permeation” and “Control ONE”.

Thank you, Norman Sword, for this new part of Miner Willy’s universe! 👍 And for clearing the doubt of whether or not Willy turned off some of the robots in MM (did he? – I won’t offer any spoilers here 🤪).

The game is certainly a great technical achievement, with the many extensions it has in relation to the original MM, while still staying within the “traditional” 48K. Congratulations on writing all this new code, Norman Sword! 👍

It is really nice to be able to play on the whole screen.

The speed of the game is probably the highest I’ve seen in MM and JSW games. While this is clearly a technical achievement, I’ve got to say that I’m not particularly fond of the game running *so* fast (that's just my personal preference). The speed of JSW II is just about optimal for me. One particular problem in Manic Panic – pretty much the only problem I should like to mention – is that since the keys seem to react faster to keypresses – as if they were more sensitive – it is difficult to position Willy for jumps which require pixel-perfect positioning, especially the ones where one step makes all the difference between Willy's reaching another platform or falling through its edge. To play with such jumps in one fluid motion is very difficult, but even approaching an end of a platform to adopt such a position may be tricky – you press the key once to make one step, and Willy makes two steps and falls off the platform he’s currently on.

As mentioned before, this is pretty much the only critical thing I can say about Manic Panic, because generally I like it a lot. The levels are all fine, the effects allowed by the game engine, such as guardians passing through guardians or non-Air cells without collision, diagonal guardians, droplets, etc. are all great 😀.

The ability to play in six different modes is also cool 👍. I found the Lantern mode not really more difficult than the full-visibility modes, as the player can still see everything that’s going on, even though a part of the screen is blue. The Torch mode is definitely the most difficult one, but not extremely difficult if one uses Rollback (it’s been a *long* time since I tried to complete any game without using either Rollback or snapshots, and I judge the difficulty of any given game against playing in this way).

A little feature I particularly like is the fact that the boot that crashes Willy after losing the last life is actually a boot in the Trainer, Normal and Ace modes, and something which to me looks like a high-heeled women’s shoe in the Expert, Lantern and Torch modes. I am not sure if there is any ideology behind this choice 😉, but it’s a nice little detail.

A note to Norman Sword: I believe this *may* be a glitch – unless it’s intentional: when you enter the last room - “Control ONE” – the name of the room is not displayed for a short time, like it is in all of the other rooms, but the status bar shows the high score, the number of spare lives, the room number and the current score immediately after entering the room. I only know the room name because it shows in the attract mode (when the game goes through all of the rooms, showing glimpses of them).

If this is not intentional and if you should decide that it deserves fixing, *if* you release v. 1.6, you could also correct the spelling of the room names “Proto Plasmic Exchange” (it should be “Protoplasmic Exchange”, “protoplasm” is actually one word and so is the adjective derived from it) and “Reapers Harvest” (I believe there should be an apostrophe in there somewhere; if the vertical guardians are the reapers, so there’s more than one reaper, it should be “Reapers' Harvest” IMHO).

I have created an individual page for Manic Panic on JSW Central. It’s right here, featuring info about the game and a screenshot gallery, including pictures of all of the rooms taken when playing in the Expert and Lantern modes.

I did my best to write the info, drawing on the information provided by Norman Sword, to describe the game and its merits accurately (while keeping the description concise enough for the purposes of JSW Central). However, everything can be improved, so please let me know (Norman Sword in particular, but anyone else too!) if you have any comments or see any errors or omissions that should be corrected on that page on JSW Central.

My RZX recording of going through all of the 6 modes of the game is available on RZX Archive; you can also watch a YouTube video of it (which gives you the advantage of fast forwarding to any place that may particularly interest you; the video has had over 500 views already and there are some nice comments below it).

So, Norman Sword, thank you for this great game 👍, and I am very much looking forward to your future projects 🙂!

[Norman Sword]

I am very grateful that you took the the time to play through to completion (more than once)


The final cavern "Control ONE" does display the room name for 128 game cycles unless an item is collected. Since an item is next to the start position, it can be collected very soon after entering the room.

From your video the room name is seen for every final room, then the item is collected and it reverts to the status line.

The crushing boot onto the plinth does not follow any fixed pattern. It could just as easily have never changed for the duration of all your plays.

The speed is deliberate - hence "Manic Panic" - 

The control of Willy is exactly the same as Manic Miner. No change in method of key detection apart from using only the "A" register for all reads. 

Room/cavern name are just Tags added to a room/cavern. If I rename reapers Harvest to Reapears Harvest. it still fulfils it design criteria of giving the room/cavern a TAG.  Not something I plan to change.

So no plans on any form of update, due to not seeing any problems that need changing.


 

[Norman Sword]

No one seems to notice or did not bother commenting but the room "Amazing Final Inspection" does keep on drawing new Mazes on each appearance. 

[IRF]

I clearly failed to carry out a final inspection which would have revealed that fact.

[IRF]

Actually, it's only just occurred to me that drawing the maze must have been a far from trivial exercise, even putting aside the random nature of it every time it is drawn!