jetsetdanny Posted December 31, 2023 Report Share Posted December 31, 2023 2023 has been an exceptional year for the MM and JSW games for the ZX Spectrum 🙂. It saw the release of several brand-new games: "WiLLY iN ThE MiRRoRVeRSE" v. 2 was released by Carl Paterson on 10th February (this being the first public release of the game). The release of updated v. 3 followed on 8th December. "Jet Set Willy: Role Reversal" was released by Sendy (Alex Cornhill) on 11th March. "Manic Person" was released by Sendy (Alex Cornhill) on 7th October. "León Willy" was released by Pedro Magallares Ocaña on 10th November. "JeT SeT JnR aNd ThE CuRsE oF ThE PhArAoH" v. 2 was released by Carl Paterson on 22nd December (this being the first public release of the game). Furthermore, "Manic Miner 40th Anniversary Tribute" ("MM40th") was released by Bob The Polar Bear on 24th August. It could be debated whether it should be considered an entirely new game or a continuation of his project whose earlier 'incarnations' are "Manic-4-Noobs" ("M4N") and "MANIC-minor" ("M-m"). 2023 also witnessed some releases of new versions of games originally released in previous years: "Manic Jet Set Willy" v. 3.00 was released by Norman Sword on 1st January and v. 3.01 followed on 7th January. "AmAZiNG WiLLY" v. 3 was released by Carl Paterson on 22nd January and v. 4 followed on 2nd December. Furthermore, a minigame called "Jet Set Willy: Key Code Edition", based on the original "JSW", was released by Andy Ford on 24th/25th March. Finally, bug-fixed versions of "Manic Miner 128" (one based on the Software Projects edition of "Manic Miner" – originally created by Mihai Novitchi, the other one based on the Bug-Byte edition of "Manic Miner" – originally created by Bob Fossil) were released by Bob Fossil on 5th/6th May. I should also note that Sendy's "Strangel 2" is in its beta stage and, as a playtester, I can say it's an incredible game (using the JSW64 V game engine), which brings JSW gaming to a whole new level. The game has not been released yet, but it was effectively created in 2023. I do hope it will be released in 2024 (with some additional enhancements that I will be happy to contribute to as much as possible). I also believe that Jet Set Willie's first JSW game is also in its beta stage, also created this year which is just about to end, but I'm not sure how much info I can disclose about it - perhaps Willie will comment on it if he so wishes. All of these developments show that the MM/JSW-editing scene is still very much alive 😁. I just wish there was more feedback from the players - typically, except for some initial reactions after the game's release there is hardly any info if anyone has actually completed the game. There have been some exceptions, but, generally speaking, what I would call "solid feedback" has been scarce, which is a pity, because, as noted in some of the older Readmes, "the biggest gratification and encouragement for anyone designing free games is to know that someone else has played them!" Happy 2024 to Everyone! 😊 SymbolShift, Spider, MtM and 1 other 2 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider Posted January 1 Report Share Posted January 1 On 12/31/2023 at 6:01 PM, jetsetdanny said: I just wish there was more feedback from the players - typically, except for some initial reactions after the game's release there is hardly any info if anyone has actually completed the game. There have been some exceptions, but, generally speaking, what I would call "solid feedback" has been scarce, which is a pity, because, as noted in some of the older Readmes, "the biggest gratification and encouragement for anyone designing free games is to know that someone else has played them!" I do agree with you here. I am quite guilty of this too sorry 😞 But on the whole feedback and thoughts (good or bad) are appreciated in general. León Willy has a low download count here for some reason currently, however I tend to not judge by that because its available elsewhere and no doubt some other sites will also host it and other files too. jetsetdanny 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SymbolShift Posted January 2 Report Share Posted January 2 An exceptional year indeed! It's possible the lack of feedback is due to such a busy release year? I know that I have a backlog of games to check out, I've just not got around to playing yet. Either way, top-hats off to a great 2023 with some amazing games released. Congrats and thank you to all involved. jetsetdanny 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetsetdanny Posted January 3 Author Report Share Posted January 3 On 1/2/2024 at 8:15 PM, SymbolShift said: An exceptional year indeed! It's possible the lack of feedback is due to such a busy release year? I know that I have a backlog of games to check out, I've just not got around to playing yet. Either way, top-hats off to a great 2023 with some amazing games released. Congrats and thank you to all involved. The players have been swamped by the authors' prolificacy? This could be it... 😉 Spider and MtM 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtM Posted February 22 Report Share Posted February 22 Sorry a bit late to this party. Thanks for the round up Danny and a belated Happy New Year to everyone on the forums. I am for some reason listening to Christmas music as I type if that helps? 😉 For me personally there is so little free time that even downloading and playing a game to any kind of degree is something of a luxury. Also, a lot of games as I have 'moaned' about before are so hard for me anyway I don't get too far into them, and just have the time to spend getting good enough to progress on them. The originals weren't like that and that is a big reason why I liked them, difficult to finish maybe, but not to play and make progress. Just my thoughts. However I can only marvel at the efforts of the above, they are brilliant all of them, I have seen them if not played them for any great period of time. Perhaps that is just modern life, easy come easy go ... pity if you have sweat blood over something. Hopefully when I retire I can live out my old age finally playing all these games ... Spider and jetsetdanny 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetsetdanny Posted February 23 Author Report Share Posted February 23 17 hours ago, MtM said: For me personally there is so little free time that even downloading and playing a game to any kind of degree is something of a luxury. Also, a lot of games as I have 'moaned' about before are so hard for me anyway I don't get too far into them, and just have the time to spend getting good enough to progress on them. This is one of the main reasons I *always* play using Rollback. It allows me to progress efficiently through games while solving them "relatively honestly", i.e. without using an Infinite Lives- or any other POKEs. If I were to try completing a game with only seven lives (or even 20, or 50), I probably wouldn't be able to do it at all, and if I really had to do it, I would have to spend weeks and possibly months training to achieve it. I would consider that an utter waste of time - and that's referring to my otherwise beloved JSW and MM games. Spider 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetsetdanny Posted February 23 Author Report Share Posted February 23 18 hours ago, MtM said: Hopefully when I retire I can live out my old age finally playing all these games ... Hear! Hear! Spider 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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