JSW for Camputers Lynx

[Richard Hallas]

Hi all,

I was browsing YouTube recently and came across a video that claimed to demo ALL the games ever published for the Camputers Lynx. Unfortunately it's in French, but never mind. It's broken into chapters and just shows a bitesized bit of gameplay for each game listed. (I'm really not convinced that it's actually complete, as claimed, not least because I know that there were at least three early Level 9 adventures for the machine, and I don't see any of them demoed here, but that's by the by…)

Anyway, to my great surprise, one of the included games is JSW! As published by Tynesoft rather than Software Projects (like the BBC versions), apparently. Until seeing this video, I'd no idea that there was a version of JSW for the Lynx. Indeed, I didn't know of any 'mainstream' games for it – but it turns out that there was a handful of 'big name' games for it, including, notably, Ultimate's Alien8, Melbourne House's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and Mined Out! by Quicksilva, plus a few other familiar lesser ones like Oh Mummy. But the highlight for me was seeing a version of JSW that I'd never previously known existed.

Here's the video, with playback starting at the JSW segment:

JSW for Camputers Lynx on YouTube

As you can see, it's an 'interesting' version: plenty colourful, with quite authentic Spectrum-like graphics, but with some weird differences, such as Willy changing colour in each room (including the hard-to-see blue on black combination), and with AWFUL stepped staircases like in the Commodore 64 version. There's also weird corruption in the lower part of the screen (maybe an emulator issue, maybe not) and the in-game music sounds awful (like it sounds when you've lost multiple lives in the Specturm version, but from the outset here).

A quick search revels that the archive containing the game tape file (and, separately, a disked version) can be found here, in a forum thread:

JSW for Camputers Lynx in tape and disk formats

I don't have a conveniently set up emulator to try these out myself, but I thought I should mention the subject here in case it's useful information. I doubt I'm the only JSW fan who previously had no idea there was a Lynx version. (Shame there doesn't appear to be Manic Miner too.) I previously thought the most obscure versions of JSW were those for Memotech and Einstein machines, but I really didn't know of ANY commercial software for the Lynx until the other day.

UPDATE:

Hm, further investigations suggest that some of the big-name titles (notably Alien8, and probably the Melbourne House adventures from the way they look) may well be modern conversions from the Spectrum originals. I'm not entirely sure. However, the JSW conversion does appear to be authentic, from back in the day…

Edited January 31 by Richard Hallas
https://www.retrowiki.es/viewtopic.php?style=4&t=200036256 provides information about new games that appear that they may be new conversions. Also, it seems highly unlikely that Ultimate would have supported such an obscure platform as the Lynx.

[jetsetdanny]

Thanks for this info, Richard!

It's weird and amazing at the same time that today there are people who port 30- or 40-year-old then-mainstream games from (what most people would call) an obsolete platform to an obscure and even more obsolete platform, equally old platform. What a wonderful - and bizarre - world! 😉  

[Richard Hallas]

31 minutes ago, jetsetdanny said:

Thanks for this info, Richard!

It's weird and amazing at the same time that today there are people who port 30- or 40-year-old then-mainstream games from (what most people would call) an obsolete platform to an obscure and even more obsolete platform, equally old platform. What a wonderful - and bizarre - world! 😉  

I agree – and it appears that that's what's probably happened with Alien8 and some other familiar titles.

But JSW? Surely that's authentic, isn't it? The scrolltext pictured in the video says that the Lynx port is by Tim Titchmarsh for Phoenixx Softwarre (note the double letters!), and it doesn't appear to be a straight port of any other existing version.

I've tried Googling Tim Titchmarsh in association with Phoenix/Phoenixx and Lynx, and I haven't found any results – which you'd imagine there probably would be if this were a modern conversion. But if it dates from 1984, it's obscure enough to not have been recorded online. Also, the forum poster who provided the tape (and credits the game to Tynesoft rather than Software Projects) refers to having gone through his "old" Lynx tapes and transferred them – and JSW was one of them. (Notably, the other possibly modern conversions, like Alien8, were not from this source.) He also mentions that the tapes are over 35 years old. This all certainly points to Lynx JSW being authentic from 1984.

Was it known about already by any members of this site, or is it new to all of us?

Whether it's really from 1984 or is a more modern conversion is immaterial in a sense, if it's a new platform that wasn't previously known either way; it's one more new version of JSW to catalogue either way. But it'd be quite nice to think that it's a new discovery of a previously unknown yet authentic 1984 conversion, as that'd make it one more platform for JSW to have appeared on back in the 80s.

[jetsetdanny]

I believe the various reasons you mention do point to it being 'back from the day'.

It's new to me. But that doesn't mean much, because I focus on the Spectrum games, and while I read information like you have presented here with interest and have a general idea of versions for other platforms, I don't try to keep track of them or have them 'catalogued' in my mind in any way.

But I'm sure others will tell if they've been aware of its existence before. In particular, Andy (Spider) is the person to say if he's seen it already, as he has presented versions for various platforms on these pages (including videos) and seems to be 'in the know' 😉 .

 

[Spider]

Must admit I had not heard of a version for this, at least not an "official" one.

Tynesoft did release as mentioned JSW for other machines: