Manic Jet Set Willy.

[jetsetdanny]

When I took screenshots for the game's page on JSW Central, I was wondering if it would make sense to number them in the same way rooms in the original JSW are numbered (plus use a separate numbering for the MM caverns). I decided it did make sense, based on Norman Sword's previous comments (about the cheat being activated in the same room as in the original game, etc.), and I believe his above comment confirms it as well.

In practical terms, it probably wouldn't matter if I chose a different way of numbering/naming the screenshots (the numbers are not shown as such on the website, they are just "technical", to have some kind of filename for each PNG file), but it's good to know it was a sound choice 🙂 . 

[Spider]

Thanks Norman for the comprehensive reply.

I'm aware (but find it slightly confusing) in how JSW2 stores its data, but space limitations I suspect meant it had to be done like that to "squeeze it all in" as it was ported over from the Amstrad 'original' JSW2.

I've not looked at how you've stored your data in Manic JetSet Willy, figuring my reading of it would not really be up to par.

Its still as said a great achievement to squash both games into one.

You may or may not notice I did not ask if the border was still properly ( ? ) set to yellow to match the original JSW room, as its a bit of a pointless question. 🙂

Talking of actually squashing things...

The JSW16K is an amazing achievement really and is a neat game. I did wonder how practical or not it would be to do the same with Manic Miner, given the need to 'trim' various bits out as was done with JSW16K. The running of JSW16K all in contended memory does not really appear to hamper it that much either.

Food for thought. Not a suggestion really, but perhaps I will attempt to look at this in the future if its not been done by then...

[MtM]

It has occured to me if this game or others on this forum too are eligible to go on things like Spectrum Computing, to appear on the update there. I don't suppose it matters in a way but then again if they were seen by a larger audience then there is no harm in that is there? Andy I know you post there too, do things like this appear over there in the end do you know?

 

 

[jetsetdanny]

Yes, it should be sent to Spectrum Computing. I'll probably do it if no-one else does it in the next few weeks (or months). Right now I am concentrating on other MM/JSW-related things.

[Norman Sword]

A side track. The design of Nomen luni focuses on the crashed plane. Yet for some reason Matthew part obscured the design by flashing un needed graphics. So the next version of this screen I do, will be changed to this (picture below) which assigns nasty graphics to the un wanted flashing graphics on the right, and thus removes the flashing from those graphics. Which then forces the plane to take centre stage. 

[Spider]

On 2/2/2022 at 10:14 PM, MtM said:

It has occured to me if this game or others on this forum too are eligible to go on things like Spectrum Computing, to appear on the update there. I don't suppose it matters in a way but then again if they were seen by a larger audience then there is no harm in that is there? Andy I know you post there too, do things like this appear over there in the end do you know?

I think they tend to 'find' things here, although they do have a forum for submissions, I put that 'MM Two Chance Challenge' in there as now they prefer a separate topic for each submission rather than the older "202x new software" which was getting a bit large to manage, understandable.

On 2/3/2022 at 2:06 AM, jetsetdanny said:

Yes, it should be sent to Spectrum Computing. I'll probably do it if no-one else does it in the next few weeks (or months). Right now I am concentrating on other MM/JSW-related things.

It may be on their list but there's no harm in suggesting it. 🙂 And your 'fixed' files here too.

44 minutes ago, Norman Sword said:

A side track. The design of Nomen luni focuses on the crashed plane. Yet for some reason Matthew part obscured the design by flashing un needed graphics. So the next version of this screen I do, will be changed to this (picture below) which assigns nasty graphics to the un wanted flashing graphics on the right, and thus removes the flashing from those graphics. Which then forces the plane to take centre stage. 

That sounds like a good plan! 🙂

A random sidenote: The BBC version of this room is titled "Nomem Luni" (or similar) , an indication of the programmers attempts to get all the code into much less memory, Mode1 leaves not a lot on that machine free!

That does remind me actually to see in your version Norman, if the fall from Under The Roof is fatal or not, due to the bug in the original game. I strongly suspect it is not present!

For reference for anyone reading this, I'll quote part of Richard's (Skoolkid) notes as he has explained it quite well, minus the pokes and addresses which will not be valid in your version:

Quote

If Willy falls through the bottom of a room and there is a nasty at the top of the room in a direct line above him, he will die before he reaches the room below.

The only room affected by this bug is Under the Roof.

The problem lies in the section of code which sets the attribute bytes for the cells occupied by and below Willy's sprite.

If Willy is below the level of the floor, HL (which holds the address of the cell in the attribute buffer) is eventually incremented so that it points to the cell in the ceiling above Willy in the attribute buffer. Then the routine is called to actually set the attribute byte for the cell, detects the nasty there, and kills Willy. 😮

 

[jetsetdanny]

On 2/4/2022 at 10:48 AM, Norman Sword said:

A side track. The design of Nomen luni focuses on the crashed plane. Yet for some reason Matthew part obscured the design by flashing un needed graphics. So the next version of this screen I do, will be changed to this (picture below) which assigns nasty graphics to the un wanted flashing graphics on the right, and thus removes the flashing from those graphics. Which then forces the plane to take centre stage. 

A good idea. I never realised the room was meant to present a crashed plane until I read about it many years after playing the game on the original hardware 😄 LOL.

[Metalmickey]

On 1/10/2022 at 5:37 PM, Spider said:

Thank you for the comprehensive explanation and your findings! @jetsetdanny

@Norman Sword , one thing I did mean to ask about actually, you mentioned the Attic Bug and said that with the previous to last version I'd not found it. I'm assuming this is still there to be discovered ? , I'd guess its not also going to corrupt the game fatally. 🙂

Again before I forget! , Conservatory Roof: Thank you for the small re-arrangement of the 'roof' to allow items to be collected without fatalities, as you said Matthew would of likely rectified this had it been noted at the time. I did actually take a look at JSW1 and JSW2 on at least half a dozen different machines to see how they dealt with this screen, my conclusion here was (there's a topic somewhere but its ancient) the majority either left JSW1 'as is' or used the JSW2 layout for the items/fire cells, the latter I did in the 'bug fixed' edition. I ought to redo that really as I'm much more versed in the intracies of it since then but I'll probably wait for @Metalmickey to see what he has planned for his "As manufacturer intended" variant first.

Hi, just spotted this, somewhat late in the day... not sure what i can bring to the table, my main reason for making contributions to this site was down to an idea of what the original JSW would have looked like with all of the bugs fixed and what the remaining four rooms might have looked like were they not overwritten by the DOS code .. when doing the 'As Manufacturer Intended' project i really only wanted to make the bare minimal alterations just to ensure playability and perhaps completability (is that a word??) without life loss, so looking at  Conservatory Roof i wanted to retain all four fire cells and perhaps one or two additional additions to the green area to ensure the items can be collected but at least some element of challenge in there ... of as well as colouring in the conveyor

Having looked at the RZX i'm super impressed at the development of this game .. Norman Sword has commented that an ASM is available on this site somewhere .. as someone who is still learning assembly i'd be keen to know where i can find it ... in short, excellent work to all those involved!!

[jetsetdanny]

On 2/12/2022 at 3:06 PM, Metalmickey said:

Hi, just spotted this, somewhat late in the day...

It is never too late for things related to MM/JSW! Sometimes it takes people years to discover some things or, for example, to come back to the scene / their own projects.

It's good to see you "actively back" Metalmickey (after some months, I think, rather than years! LOL)

  

On 2/12/2022 at 3:06 PM, Metalmickey said:

when doing the 'As Manufacturer Intended' project i really only wanted to make the bare minimal alterations just to ensure playability and perhaps completability (is that a word??) without life loss

I am not a native English speaker, but I would claim that "completability" is a word. It seems not to be recognised by some of the major dictionaries yet, but you can find it e.g. in the Wiktionary and in Your Dictionary. Both define it as "the condition of being completable". 

Cambridge Dictionary does not have a definition of "completability" yet, AFAICT, but e.g. it defines "readability" as "the quality of being easy and enjoyable to read". So it should probably define "completability" one day as "the quality of being possible to complete", or something to that effect. I trust this day is not far away, and in any case I do use the word in my posts and game Readmes 🙂 .

 

[IRF]

On 2/4/2022 at 3:48 PM, Norman Sword said:

A side track. The design of Nomen luni focuses on the crashed plane. Yet for some reason Matthew part obscured the design by flashing un needed graphics. So the next version of this screen I do, will be changed to this (picture below) which assigns nasty graphics to the un wanted flashing graphics on the right, and thus removes the flashing from those graphics. Which then forces the plane to take centre stage. 

My interpretation was that those random flashing block at the bottom right represented bits of debris that had come off the plane upon impact.

On 2/6/2022 at 6:21 AM, jetsetdanny said:

I never realised the room was meant to present a crashed plane until I read about it many years after playing the game on the original hardware 😄 LOL.

And of course the front half of the plane can be seen in the room below (Under the Roof) - with the propellors and nose of the plane intact, which rather shoots my above theory down in flames!! 😆