A MM variant to play tonight please...

[MtM]

I am hoping to get a bit of gaming done later for the first time in a long time.

 

Could someone please recommend a MM mod or variant to play tonight? Not the original, or Norman's

Manic Panic, or Spider's 10 level corona version from last year as I have played them all fairly

recently. What is the mod with 40 levels in it, if I remember there being one like that?

 

Anyway, if someone has a recommendation to download to play later that would be really good. If not

I will have a look myself.

[Spider]

Does it have to be a Spectrum version ?

If you can and its practical the extended level sets from Sam Coupe MM are excellent, the disc is sort of denied but...

The demo / limited / standard is or was on a magazine cover but iirc this does not include the extra levels, I built one from the compilation disc cutting out the unwanted stuff leaving a 'pure MM' disc, except its not got the correct scrolling (original) message nor the correct (again original) loading screen, those are on my todo list as I can't directly edit it with ZXBE.

Let me know if you have any issues with that 😉

 

If its a ZX version then have a look here > https://jswcentral.org/list.html#ListofMMgames

🙂

[JianYang]

There's a perpetual motion variant of MM. It's just like the original, but once Willy starts moving, he keeps moving until he walks into a wall. I found it in a collection of @jetsetdanny RZXs and extracted it from there, no idea where you can find the original. It's crazy how much harder MM becomes with this change. Highly recommended.

 

[jetsetdanny]

A list of games which I classify as "new games" using the original (or somewhat modified) Manic Miner game engine is here. These games (most of them, at least) are remakes of the original MM modified to the extent that I believe warrants classifying them as new games.

A list of games which I classify as "Versions and minor mods of the original Manic Miner" is here. 

Among them is the Perpetual Motion version that JianYang mentioned (thanks for mentioning it!).

Some MM games can also be found in the "Games using other engines" section or in the "JSW64" games section. These are games that play like MM, but use a different game engine.

You can go from all of these lists to the individual pages created for each game. On all pages there are download options, including the official releases (typically ZIPs with text files included, etc.) and something I call "Direct Game Download", which are game files only in TAP and TZX formats (in most cases). Hence you can download the Perpetual Motion variant and all of the other new games and variants there from their individual pages, without having to extract them from the RZX files.

I will refrain from recommending any particular game as I prefer to remain impartial and treasure and recommend them all 🙂 . I'm sure you it won't be difficult to find among them one (or more!) that will be enjoyable to play 🙂 .

I am not sure which "mod with 40 levels" you mean. It may be "Manic Pietro"  - it has two sets of caverns: 20 brand new ones and 20 original ones, so 40 in total.

[Norman Sword]

A variant with 40 levels --- How about Manic 40 Miner...  Designed as an editor . but still has 40 levels.

 

[jetsetdanny]

MtM, for reference, the thread concerning Norman Sword's "Manic 40 Miner" is here.

A couple of questions to Norman Sword:

1. In the beginning of that thread you said, "This is NOT meant to be a playable version. It was just a test routine."

Is this still the situation? From a quick look I've had it looks like there's no issue with playing the game. I haven't tried to play it to completion yet, so I don't know about its completability.

2. If I am not mistaken, the latest released version was v. 6c. Is this correct? Are you going to release any more versions in the foreseeable future?

3. I would be happy to add the game to the list of versions of MM on JSW Central, and create an individual page for it along with a description, screenshots, etc. Would you be OK with that? Is the time right for it? (meaning: it's unlikely there will be new versions released any time soon)

 

[MtM]

Thanks to everyone who replied, much appreciated.

 

I was looking really for a personal recommendation, but in the end I followed JSDanny's advice and link to the MM section

of his excellent website and had a go at MM2 and MM2! 😉

I will continue to explore that.

[jetsetdanny]

I'm glad JSW Central has been helpful, MtM! 🙂 This increases my motivation to continue working on it, which is what I've actually been doing over the last few days - details to be announced soon 😎

[Norman Sword]

Concerning Manic 40 miner.

 

On 8/8/2021 at 7:11 PM, jetsetdanny said:

A couple of questions to Norman Sword:

1. In the beginning of that thread you said, "This is NOT meant to be a playable version. It was just a test routine."

Is this still the situation? From a quick look I've had it looks like there's no issue with playing the game. I haven't tried to play it to completion yet, so I don't know about its completability.

2. If I am not mistaken, the latest released version was . Is this correct? Are you going to release any more versions in the foreseeable future?

3. I would be happy to add the game to the list of versions of MM on JSW Central, and create an individual page for it along with a description, screenshots, etc. Would you be OK with that? Is the time right for it? (meaning: it's unlikely there will be new versions released any time soon)

 

Response to the above questions about Manic 40 Miner

 

1) The version should be playable and finishable. I have/had no intention of creating a new version.  The data started as an amalgamation of two sets of data (I think that is stated in the scrolling message).  I then edited some of the screens and added a part editor..... The editor part, was what I was concentrating on, not the game part. Hence the statement it is a test routine.

2) No other versions are planned. It might actually be impossible to update.   This year and last, I have suffered more crashed and corrupted hard drives and ssd's than in the previous 30+ years combined. Around four drives I think! (without specifically checking)

3)  Ok ---- I have not seen the code for this version on any of my backup drives.  It is possible that all the code is on a dead drive. 


Addendum - I have checked ...  it appears I have the source code and the room source code/data.

Last version I have assembled is version 6c. No immediate plans to update. 

I concluded that editing the game in z80 with the code as well is not the ideal way to do it. 





 

 

 

Edited August 11, 2021 by Norman Sword
addendum.

[jetsetdanny]

Norman Sword,

Thank you for your response. I will create an individual web page for "Manic 40 Miner" in the near future, when time permits, after I have completed another update of JSW Central I am currently working on.

I have another question: would you say "Manic 40 Miner" fits more in the "Versions and minor mods of the original Manic Miner" section or in the "MM and JSW games using other game engines" section? On second thoughts, contrary to what I said before, I think it belongs in the latter one, as I imagine the code is thoroughly rewritten. I would appreciate your opinion on this.

"Jet Set Willy in Altered Reality" and "Manic Panic" are listed in the "Other game engines" section. I have no doubt this is correct. However, your "Manic Miner" version where you can swap between the Bug-Byte and Software Projects variants of the game is listed in the "Versions and minor mods of the original Manic Miner" section. It did give me some headache, because, on the one hand, it plays just like the original variants of MM, it does not aspire to be a new game as such, it only shows your technical mastery in combining both variants in one file and adding some extra elements. On the other hand, you said yourself that its game engine is "a source code rewrite from the first byte to the last", so from that point of view it should definitely be in the "Other game engines" section.

If yo have any strong views on this, please let me know - if necessary, I can move your "Manic Miner" version to the "Other games engines" section easily.