Jet Set Willy: Role Reversal release imminent

[Jet Set Willie]

I haven´t got much time lately. After my last post I had time to change Maria a bit, but she´s in very unfinished state now.

[erix1]

 

Hi Sendy, long time...  😀
I went through my JSW-file-archive and found a RR-loading screen (colorful and naïve looking piece) + other things we did in collaboration (Including a couple of animations for Strangel). There´s a basic-routine there as well, seemingly dealing with an intended day/night-mode for RR(?) (It´s been a long time, so I don´t really remember the details). I´ve attached a zip-file with the content, so you can have a look-through and see if you find anything useful (or if you can make sense of it…)

If you want to spread the “Maria-hackulator” please feel free to do so (I vaguely remember that it´s not the most intuitive piece of software though.).

Erix1s_rr-stuff.zip

[Sendy The Endless]

Hi Erix1, so nice to see you here! I've already finalized the files, including a plea for your return in the readme lol. I literally just uploaded them, but no doubt this calls for a Special Edition version of JSW: RR in the near future, with your loading art and possibly the day/night mode!

You've also done the JSW modding scene a solid by releasing the Hackulator. I'm anticipating a wave of new Erix-1 mode games : )

I'm just off to announce the release of JSW: RR now! It HAS been a long time, hasn't it? I prefer not to think about it : ))

I hope you stick around, and I'm excited to download the zip-file and look through it.

[Sendy The Endless]

Erix1, do you still have the Hackulator tool? Unfortunately I lost it in a hard-drive crash. If you still have it and will upload it, it would truely be a red-letter day for the JSW community! 🥳

[jetsetdanny]

Erix1, welcome to the forum! 🙂 It's really great that you have joined it! 😁

Thank you for your outstanding contributions to the MM/JSW scene! "Manic Miner Mythologies: Eugene - Lord of the Bathroom" and "Maria vs. Some Bastards" are truly amazing games!

1.

Regarding the former, while re-recording it to make a JSW Central YouTube video very recently, I realised it has a problem in that the title screen is displayed only for a split second and then the game starts immediately, as if ENTER has been pressed. I believe your intention was to display the title screen 'normally', as it says on the title screen "PRESS ENTER TO START", so the program is supposed to wait for the player to press ENTER before proceeding to start the gameplay.

In my video linked above I actually stopped the start of the game "artificially" to allow the viewers to appreciate your title screen.

The question arises though: would you consider releasing a fixed version where the game would not launch 'automatically', but allow the player to savour the title screen?

2.

Regarding the latter, I trust you are aware that back in 2019 this forum's team (with the leading role of Ian Rushforth - IRF), frustrated at the prolonged impossibility to complete "MVSB", released a bug-fixed, completable version of your beautiful game. We did try to contact you back then to ask for your 'blessing' for the project, but were not successful. So I would like to kindly ask you now to confirm you are fine with this release. It was a labour of love, a lot of effort went into analysing the game and coming up with solutions that would not distort the original Rev. E in any way or take away from it, only add to it. It was also a delight to record it for the JSW Central YouTube channel.

If you could "officially" approve of this effort, it would be greatly appreciated!

Finally, I will second Sendy's request for releasing Hackulator if you still have it. This would give people a chance to create more Erix1-mode JSW games! 🙂 

[IRF]

I've had a quick go at Role Reversal.  Made it as far as The Newsagents before losing my last life.

I recognised some of the features from Erix1 mode (such as the message that gets printed in the top four character rows of the opening room, at the start of the game).

Thanks for the credit in the readme, Sendy! 🙂

Danny's loading screen looks cool.  (I tried to look at Erix's alternative loading screen out of curiosity, but couldn't get it to open - maybe someone could post a screenshot of it on here?)

When free time allows, I'll have a proper go at RR, and see if I can earn Maria a night's rest!

[jetsetdanny]

Ian,

I'm glad you like the loading screen I created for "JSW: RR" 🙂 .

Erix1's loading screen looks like that:

[IRF]

"1=day, 2=night" It sounds like the idea at one point was that you would press a button during the loading process, and depending on what you chose, the BASIC loader stepped in to change the program data. (I haven't looked into what changes would have been made - dark versus light background, perhaps?)

Edited March 12, 2023 by IRF

[Sendy The Endless]

4 hours ago, IRF said:

"1=day, 2=night" It sounds like the idea at one point was that you would press a button during the loading process, and depending on what you chose, the BASIC loader stepped in to change the program data. (I haven't looked into what changes would have been made - dark versus light background, perhaps?)

Yes, it was going to change the background colour of the "outside" areas of the map, either to black, or various purples and dark reds (for a sunset effect). I don't remember which.

Daniel was very helpful in making the credits in the Readme file, but I believe your work was essential to his work on my game, to make it finishable!

It's common for authors to underestimate the difficulty of their games, so while I class the game as difficult, it may in fact be "almost impossible", so feel free to use tools/cheats if it helps ; )

I've been playing it a lot, and am hoping to one day complete the whole game in a video on Youtube (with live commentary), certain parts take a lot of practice but get easier when you have a reliable method.

Erix1's alternate title screen for Strangel is also awesome - it fits the mood of the game so well, and I'd completely forgotten about it. I'd also forgotten that I was planning an "easy mode" of Strangel, lol. I'll probably use this screen for Strangel 2, which is an idea I've been mulling over in my head for a while now!

 

[erix1]

14 hours ago, IRF said:

I've had a quick go at Role Reversal.  Made it as far as The Newsagents before losing my last life.

I recognised some of the features from Erix1 mode (such as the message that gets printed in the top four character rows of the opening room, at the start of the game).

Thanks for the credit in the readme, Sendy! 🙂

Danny's loading screen looks cool.  (I tried to look at Erix's alternative loading screen out of curiosity, but couldn't get it to open - maybe someone could post a screenshot of it on here?)

When free time allows, I'll have a proper go at RR, and see if I can earn Maria a night's rest!

Hi Danny,
Glad you like my Miner Willy-games. It took a few days to develop them, but I loved every second of it (I wish my everyday  job would give me that much pleasure...). 

1. Huh? It's always been like that? I just tested it with the Mac-version of Fuse, and it indeed skips the intro. (Seems like in this recording it does not, though:

Anyways, no doubt a bi-product of some reckless hacking done by me, many many years ago. Testing was never my strong suit. I'll have a look at it. 

2. Yes, I'm aware of the bug-fixed, completable version of MVSB (I saw the award ceremony from Manchester play expo 2019 with Matthew Smith and all… Made me giggle like a Japanese schoolgirl). I think you did a wonderful job – treating it with more respect than it probably deserves. I'm flattered and honoured you put in the hours to fix my mistakes, and what I'm concerned, this is now the official version. In other words: It's very officially approved!

3. I still have the Hackulator, and will release it as soon as I have written a necessary manual that explains how to use it. Loading it for the first time after many years made me realize not every function is all that self-explanatory (and that's an understatement).