Please suggest a JSW editor.

[geoff]

Editors? Real JSW designers enter the codes directy in binary!

[jetsetdanny]

Jet Set Willie, I have no idea why you don't see the other rectangle, i.e. why JSWED does not allow you to move the rectangle defining the arrow placement (height) up and down. 

In the worst-case scenario, an arrow's height can also be defined in the Hex Editor, but it will be less comfortable to do than just dragging it around with your mouse.

[Jet Set Willie]

On 1/4/2023 at 3:49 AM, jetsetdanny said:

The easiest way for me to answer it is the following:

Please download the ZIP package of the Special Edition of "Willy's New Mansion", open the "Willy's New Mansion - Special Edition" text file and have a look at Section IX. "Technical notes". Things which are described there were pretty much all done using JSWED's Hex editor.

Similarly, you can download the ZIP package of the 48K Edition of "Madam Blavskja's Carnival Macabre" and have a look at the "Madam Blavskja's Carnival Macabre 48K Edition - Readme" text file, Section X. "Technical notes". Again, this was all done using by modifying the code by using JSWED's Hex editor.

Thank you, those "Technical notes" from Willy´s New Mansion were interesting to read! 🙂 Hopefully I can try some in the future. I will read Madam Blavskja´s Carnival Macabre´s Read Me later, I should try that game again, the last time was long time ago.

On 1/4/2023 at 3:55 AM, jetsetdanny said:

The JSW64 game engine was created by John Elliott as a development of the JSW 128 idea, using the extra memory of the 128K Spectrums in a different way. Whereas JSW128 can have up to 256 simple rooms, JSW64 can have up to 64 or 128 more sophisticated rooms.

So JSW64 is not an editor, it's a game engine (with six variants). Games using any of the variants of the JSW64 game engine can be created using JSWED 2.3.7.

Thank you again for the very good explanation! 🙂

 

On 1/4/2023 at 4:03 AM, jetsetdanny said:

Regarding JSWED crashing/other problems described:

This is something I can't really help with, because I haven't experienced the same problems, so I can't say what causes them or how they can be avoided.

In recent years (say, the last six or seven years, since I've worked on "Willy's New Mansion" SE and other projects), I don't recall JSWED ever crashing on me, or having any other kind of problematic behaviour. The only problem I do keep encountering - and it's irritating, because it consumes time (I have to restart the editor and reload the game file), but it's not critical (I am able to save the game before closing the editor) occurs when I work in the Hex editor (it stops accepting input from the keyboard; you can still save the game using the mouse), so it's not one of the problems you've encountered.

I have a *vague* memory of JSWED crashing when editing guardians (after choosing guardian sprites, I think it was), but it happened many years ago, and I haven't experienced such problem in recent years. I believe I had the habit of saving the game *before* editing a guardian, just to be on the safe side, not to lose progress if the game crashes. Again, it hasn't happened in my recent memory.

I've always worked on Windows (currently on Windows 10). What operating system are you using?

My operating system is Windows 11. I have learned to save almost nearly as often as it´s needed. 😉 I recently managed to add several guardians in one room, learning something how JSW engine works, but I did that on a separate small project. 🙂

On 1/4/2023 at 4:26 AM, jetsetdanny said:

Regarding "Safe restart places":

I've never used it. I've tried just now and indeed JSWED does not seem to allow this option to be applied in a regular JSW game, even though in the manual it says, "Note that if you turn this effect on, on a game which previously didn’t have it, it is essential to set up a valid restart position in every room, and to set the initial room again. Otherwise the game will crash on startup or when Willy loses a life." The words "if you turn this effect on, on a game which previously didn’t have it" imply that you CAN do such a thing; however, from a cursory glance, it doesn't seem possible.

If you want to see how this feature works, you will need to use Ian Collier's version of JSW then. I've attached it to this message. I've checked and indeed, it works in JSWED, in that you can choose the "Safe restart places" option and then you can set the position for Willy to respawn after death in every room.

JETSETHK.z80 29.78 kB · 1 download

Thank you. I will yet have to try Ian´s JSW to learn about this. I have used my limited JSW time to trying to do things with JSWED. 🙂

 

EDIT: I was multi-quote-answering my own topic, at least it clearly looked like my own topic, but somehow my answer ended here! 😐 Moderators, please move this to my own JSWED topic, thank you. 🙂

Edited January 9, 2023 by Jet Set Willie

[Jet Set Willie]

On 1/6/2023 at 12:55 PM, geoff said:

Editors? Real JSW designers enter the codes directy in binary!

I´d love to enter the codes in binary, if I just could. 🙂 But as not being the "real" JSW designer 🙃, I love to use JSWED to have possibility to make some JSW screens. 🙂

On 1/7/2023 at 7:54 AM, jetsetdanny said:

Jet Set Willie, I have no idea why you don't see the other rectangle, i.e. why JSWED does not allow you to move the rectangle defining the arrow placement (height) up and down. 

In the worst-case scenario, an arrow's height can also be defined in the Hex Editor, but it will be less comfortable to do than just dragging it around with your mouse.

I managed to add few arrows to one screen, to test them, though, I am not sure why I don´t always see two rectangles. I will have to try this again later.

Rest of my answers appeared in wrong topic somehow, let´s wait until some moderator will move them here. 🙂

[Spider]

1 hour ago, Jet Set Willie said:

EDIT: I was multi-quote-answering my own topic, at least it clearly looked like my own topic, but somehow my answer ended here! 😐 Moderators, please move this to my own JSWED topic, thank you.

 

57 minutes ago, Jet Set Willie said:

Rest of my answers appeared in wrong topic somehow, let´s wait until some moderator will move them here. 🙂

Your post was teleported into your own topic. 🙂

[jetsetdanny]

Thanks for reading the "Technical notes" from the Special Edition of "Willy's New Mansion", Jet Set Willie! 😊

I suspect you may be the first person in the world (other than myself who wrote them and Ian [IRF] and Andy [Spider] who proof-read them while in development) to have read them 😁 .

Writing them was a hugely time-consuming, daunting task, but I am glad it was done, because I even use them myself from time to time when working on new projects. I hope they will actually be useful to you one day 🙂 .

[Jet Set Willie]

19 hours ago, Spider said:

 

Your post was teleported into your own topic. 🙂

Thank you, it was interesting to experience what Willy feels during teleporting! 🙂 Even just through my own post!

You are welcome, JetSetDanny, though I hope and think there are some others too. 🙂 I will read them again if I will ever do a more "complicated" sequel. 🙏

[Jet Set Willie]

I have managed to get the arrows work, seeing two rectangles. I think the problem was that I didn´t understand to change to another room and back again. I got the arrows work the way I want, JSWED limitations allowing. I will need to use JSWED64, though, to really get them work the way I want. But at the moment I want to stick with JSWED48K.

In JSWED48K, is it impossible to "connect" two or more ramps (one per room) in vertically neighbouring rooms, ie Willy could start from the bottom room ramp, walking to the top of the room, thus entering the upper room, then his walking will continue on upper room ramp?

It is fine in JSWED, but on ZX32 and Klive, when Willy enters the upper room, the upper room ramp is not shown properly. Instead, the upper room ramp character cell has turned to water character cell, thus Willy gets stuck there. I can move a bit left and right, and at first I can jump, but then jumping gets stuck and can just move a bit left or right in a narrow area.  

I could put an earth or water character cell to the bottom of the upper room ramp, that probably helps, haven´t tried yet, as I thought to ask first, as earth or water cell would look out of place there, as I have already defined them to different purposes.

[Spider]

Can you not position the lower ramp one block to the left or right to see if that works ?

See 'Ballroom' vs 'To the Kitchens' to see how they are 'joined' horizontally. 🙂

[Jet Set Willie]

I think I had calculated the lower ramp´s position correctly and moved it few times. Perhaps it needs just more of that. The ramp actually continued on the right from the bottom room, and there the "bottom right room ramp" was not positioned correctly either for walking from room to room. But like said, the upper room ramp was corrupted, as it´s character cell was turned to water character cell, preventing walking.

 

Edited January 14, 2023 by Jet Set Willie