Craig Rothwell´s JSW for 64bit Windows?

[Jet Set Willie]

Hi! 🙂

I used to play Andy Noble´s PC version, until I got Craig Rothwell´s update with all the JSW games and ´level select´ menu. I played that for a long time. 😊

I thought to refresh my memories by downloading Craig´s version, just to notice it won´t work on my 64bit Windows 11. 😟

Is there some patch available somewhere?

[Spider]

  

Welcome 🙂

Yes I recall it well, I had the CD back then. It was quite good to combine them all with a map too, I think I even tried to modify some of the snapshots.

There is an inbuilt cheat but memory fades on what it is.

 

I'm not sure given the way its built how you could easily run it in a 64bit environment because of the libraries (iirc, I've not looked as I write) , apart from either a virtual install of say 95/98 (unsure if it will run properly on XP32, it probably will) or via DosBox which although I've found the latter a pain myself its quite good. 🙂

[jetsetdanny]

IIRC, Craig Rothwell's game runs in DOS. I believe it won't run on a newer system unless you use a DOS emulator like DosBox. I was able to run it successfully on a modern PC a couple of years ago and I believe I used DosBox then. Give it a try, it's free 😉 .

[Spider]

On 12/15/2022 at 4:30 AM, jetsetdanny said:

IIRC, Craig Rothwell's game runs in DOS. I believe it won't run on a newer system unless you use a DOS emulator like DosBox. I was able to run it successfully on a modern PC a couple of years ago and I believe I used DosBox then. Give it a try, it's free 😉 .

Out of interest Danny, do you know if anyone actually completed the whole thing ? 🙂 ... I think many moons back I may of tried to make it easier by editing the snapshots for a few things but I can't recall.

I'll have to dig out the inbuilt cheat.

[jetsetdanny]

No, I'm not aware of anyone reporting completing it, but of course it doesn't mean anything other that I haven't heard of such thing. Since I focus on ZX Spectrum games, the only interesting element of Craig Rothwell's game for me is "Manic Miner 7", which, as I understand, is complete in the DOS version. Craig started writing it as a Spectrum game and it is listed as such on JSW Central, even though that's controversial - it's really an unfinished project as far as Spectrum goes, with only 5 edited caverns (the rest are original MM caverns). It shouldn't really be listed as a complete, gamma-released game, but it is for historical reasons, as it appeared in this capacity on older lists of MM games for the Spectrum.

In any case, Craig's DOS game features, as I understand, a complete version of "Manic Miner 7". I once had a look at it to see if it would make sense to try to transfer/ port it back to the Spectrum. I decided then that it would be hard, because it has elements that go beyond what the regular MM game engine on the Spectrum can do. I also seem to remember that I was surprised because the first caverns in the DOS version were different from the edited caverns in the Spectrum version, as if Craig started creating the game anew (or modified it significantly) in DOS. 

I believe "Manic Miner 7" is an interesting MM game and certainly one that would be recommendable for people who are interested. In my case, I have a huge amount of plans related to JSW and MM games for the Spectrum and little time to carry them out, so I won't be playing the DOS "Manic Miner 7" in the foreseeable future.

The other games included in Craig's package of games are not that interesting, I think, because they are just DOS versions of various JSW and possibly (I can't remember off the top of my head what's included) also MM games (mods) that were in existence when Craig created his set of games. Still, IIRC from the description, the challenge was to complete them all one by one, so if there is some kind of final prize at the end for completing them all, it could be a nice challenge for people who are interested and have enough time to dedicate to this quest 🙂 .

[Spider]

Thanks Danny. 🙂

Sadly given the way the game is , its not practical to do it as some kind of save snapshot as you progress, at least not without difficulty. I daresay such a tool would exist for MS-DOS however or failing that for Win9x (as it can run iirc in a full screen under that with appropriate libraries)

Your comments on MM7 are interesting I had forgotten all about that I'm ashamed to say!

[Spider]

I'm beginning to wonder if it would actually run in a X64 environment with some suitable libraries, I'd have to research this.

[Jet Set Willie]

Thank you everybody! Thanks Danny for the Dosbox link! Z: prompt felt strange as I couldn´t change it but a quick look at manual and Craig´s game start working!

It was great to play those games again! Also nice to watch DOS screen once again, even it´s not "real". Thank you! 🙂

 

[Jet Set Willie]

Btw, has anybody seriously thought to make 128K versions of those JSW games, keeping those old games as they are, just adding AY arrangements of those tunes from Craig´s game? One in-game tune per game. AY has just three channels and misses a lot of features, but still it can produce a nice echo sound, etc.. Those tunes are great and will need AY arrangements.

[Spider]

I can't recall if there is any form of 'save' in that file at all, to save progress. I think not but memory fades a bit, its a long time but I can still see the "map" where you moved between each game.