"Terry The Turtle" - item completability?

[jetsetdanny]

“Terry The Turtle” (henceforth: “TTT”) is a JSW64 game by Steve Dixon (Jammajup, Purple Unicorn Software). It was released in 2013 in four versions: Yellow (Normal), Cyan (Intermediate), Red (Hard) and Vector (Special Edition).

The game showcases lots of beautiful, atmospheric rooms (divided into 8 thematic zones plus tribute screens to other video games). If features a lovely little turtle, Terry, as protagonist. After a major hurricane the turtles hatch to find the run across the beach to the ocean even more difficult as the whole island has been transformed by the bad weather. You have to help Terry on his way to deep sea.

I am currently preparing videos of the walkthroughs of all four versions of the game for the JSW Central YouTube channel, and I have run into the problem of whether or not it is possible to collect all items in each version. I would like to ask for your assistance to 'peer-review' my findings – if you’re interested and have some time to investigate, please read on.

According to the game's author, "flashing Terry Tokens award lives but do not have to be collected to complete the game, you just have get Terry to deep water". With the game's completion defined in this way, all four versions of the game are completable. None of them is either Maria- or toilet-completable, though.

The Red version is item-completable (I have been able to collect them all). The question remains if the Yellow, Cyan and Vektor versions are item-completable, i.e. if all items can be collected in each variant.

I don’t think this is the case. The reason I’m posting this message is to ask for help in either determining how the items I cannot collect can be collected (if that’s indeed the case) or else in confirming that it is impossible to collect some of the items in these versions.

I RZX-recorded my walkthroughs of the four versions of “TTT” back in 2015. The recordings have been hosted on the RZX Archive ever since and can be downloaded from there, together with a Readme where I list the items I don’t think are collectable in each version.

That description is flawed – I already know that some of the items it mentions as impossible to collect can indeed be collected. So please disregard it – an updated list is presented below.

I got in touch with Steve (Jammajup) back in 2015. He let me know how to solve some of the problems I had with collecting the items. He also said (in an e-mail), “I recall getting all possible items during play testing on all versions which had to be done but was a chore”.

Steve has posted videos of the completion of each version – you can watch them on his YouTube channel. However, in these videos he “simply showed shortest route to game end and not how to get all items”, so they’re not helpful in terms of providing solutions to the problem I’m facing.

For the JSW Central YouTube channel I plan to record videos showing the collection of all items that can be collected. So before I re-record the four game versions (or three of them, since the Red version is pretty much ready) I would like to be either able to collect all items in each version or to be sure that some items indeed cannot be collected.

 [A sidenote: The videos will show the collection of all of the items that can be collected, but not necessarily all of the rooms. My regular “ethos” when recording videos for the channel is to show the game completed as efficiently as possible without any unnecessary loss of life. It this means skipping some rooms that do not have to be visited, they are skipped. The only exception so far have been “Jet Set Willy II” and “Jet Set Willy II+” – since they can be completed without collecting all items, there are two recordings of each of them – one showing a completion with all items collected and no unnecessary loss of life, the other showing a speedrun with only the minimum amount of items collected necessary to trigger the toilet run and lives lost along the way to speed up the process.

In case of “TTT”, I could showcase various variants of completion of each version, from the quickest possible completion (without collecting all items and without visiting all rooms – just getting Terry to the deep sea as quickly as possible) to the most comprehensive one (collecting all items and showing all rooms). I have opted for a middle-of-the-road solution – I plan to showcase the collection of all items, but not necessarily all rooms if passing through them would involve a detour.

End of sidenote 😉 ].

So here are the items in each version I don’t see that it is possible to collect. Any feedback would be appreciated – both in the form of showing how an item/items in question can be collected after all, and in the form of confirming that you don’t see either how they could be collected.

 

I “TTT” Yellow

1.      “Hidden Chamber” (012)

Most of the items in this room can be collected after you arrive here via a teleporter from “*SECRET* Ancient Device” (094). However, I don’t see how you can collect the uppermost item marked below:

You can’t grab it from below or jump for it. You could only collect it arriving where it is from another room after entering from the room to the left or via teleportation. I believe there is no such teleporter or possibility of entrance from an adjacent room.

 

2.      Room "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124)

You can collect the two righmost items after entering from “U-852 Communications Room” (119), which is the room to the right, and you can collect some more items after arriving via teleportation from “U-852 Communications Room” onto the upper central platform, namely: you can grab 8 items without losing a life, and you can grab 4 more while losing one life. Please see the two attached RZX files to see what I mean.

There remain 62 items in this room which I believe cannot be collected, including 13 in the enclosure at the upper left and 49 items in the central part of the room, around the stationary guardians. Any idea if there is a way to reach at least some of them?

The problem is that “U-852 Communications Room” (119) is the ONLY room in the game which has an exit (left) leading to "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124). So you can only arrive in "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" from “U-852 Communications Room”, in a double way: via the regular left exit or via teleportation.

If you enter “U-852 Communications Room” in the regular way, you can collect the two rightmost items and that’s it, you can’t do anything else (as far as I can tell). It *looks* like you should be able to climb through the two walls to reach the right edge of the central part of the room. However, you can’t do even this, because the rightmost yellow 'door handle' (a conveyor cell) is one block too high – you cannot jump up high enough to reach it.

If you arrive via teleportation onto the upper central platform, you can collect the 12 items I mentioned above and do nothing else, because you either die smashing against the guardian below or you get teleported back to “U-852 Communications Room”.

And then, even IF the player somehow got to the central part of the room, to the right or left of the stationary guardians, they still couldn’t collect all of the items – like the ones that are high up in the air.

Or am I missing something???

 

II “TTT” Cyan

I believe 11 items cannot be collected in this version. This number includes:

- the uppermost item in the room "Hidden Chamber" (012);

- 10 items in the enclosure at the upper left of "U-852 Secret Load & Kill Screen" (124).

Again, am I missing something here?

 

III “TTT” Red

The Red version is the only one which is item-completable. This is ironic, given that it’s supposed to be the hardest one.

 

IV Vektor

I believe 63 items cannot be collected in this version. This number includes:

- 62 items in the room "U-852 SECRET LOAD & KILL SCREEN" (124) – the same ones that cannot be collected in the Yellow version.

- 1 item (either one) in the room "STYX - THE RIVER OF HATE" (068):

When you are falling down from "DESCENTION" (069), you can collect either one or the other item; you cannot collect them both, because they are two blocks apart. Then there is no way to go back and fall down again in order to collect the remaining item.

So for the last time, am I missing anything here?

Your feedback will be greatly appreciated 🙂 .

TTT U-852 1.rzx TTT U-852 2.rzx

[MtM]

Just a guess Danny, are there any hidden platforms / invisible platforms that might be present?

[IRF]

Or is there some way to activate a Superjump?

[jetsetdanny]

Thank you for your thoughts. I believe the answer is 'no' to both questions.

I've checked the rooms in question in JSWED, changing the attributes of all cells to certain default colours I always use for these occasions (blue on blue for Earth, green on green for Water, etc.), which rules out any hidden platforms.

I also checked the guardians. I believe there are no switches in the game. I am pretty sure there aren't any custom code modifications, either - my understanding is that the game was designed using JSWED's GUI without any 'fancy' stuff.

[MtM]

Is there a precendent set any in any other mods of JSW whereby just for decorative purposes for example

items or platforms have been  put in inaccessible areas, tempting players to think 'How do I get to there?'

when really it has been impossible?

[jetsetdanny]

Platforms - yes. These are the so-called "Forbidden Hallowed Grounds". Please see this thread for more info.

Items - no. If items were put in really inaccessible areas in a regular JSW game, the game would be incompletable, because you couldn't collect these items if you couldn't reach them. Hence you couldn't make Maria disappear or reach the bed to trigger the toilet run.

This basic problem does not occur in "Terry The Turtle", because this game is not Maria-, bed- or toilet-completable - there is no Maria, no bed and no toilet run, so the fact that not all items can be collected does not matter. As defined by the author, "flashing Terry Tokens (...) do not have to be collected to complete the game, you just have to get Terry to deep water".

 

 

[jetsetdanny]

Hello Everyone,

I am bumping this topic to see if there may be any suggestions as to the item collection issues described in it. 

Since posting here, I sent the game's author, Steve, two e-mails drawing his attention to my questions, but he hasn't responded (while my e-mails didn't bounce, either). 

I'm planning to present the four videos of "Terry The Turtle" on the JSW Central YouTube channel in May (starting about four weeks from now). If I don't solve the mystery by then, I will just re-record the walkthroughs as best I can, collecting those items I know how to collect and leaving the problematic ones in place.

I certainly want my walkthroughs not to miss any collectable items, so if you should like to help make sure their quality is not compromised, please have a look at the problem described in this thread to see if you can come up with any definitive answers! 🙂 

 

[Spider]

Hopefully he might respond 🙂 That would be very helpful but if not then your plan sounds quite good.

[IRF]

I have interrogated the code for the Yellow Edition.

I looked at all the rightward exits from the rooms (at Offsets #EA in each pair of pages across the four banks of room data), but I couldn't find and trace of a room exit that would lead into the Forbidden Holy Grounds at the top left of either the Hidden Chamber or the Secret Load and Kill Screen.

I then scrutinised the teleport code (which took a while as I had to re-learn where the teleport data is stored in JSW64, and what format it is stored in), in case any teleporters (other than the ones you already know about) could provide access to those unobtainable items. But alas, no such luck.

***

I didn't investigate the uncollectable items in the Cyan Edition because, based on your description, they just seem to be a subsection of the uncollectable ones from the Yellow Edition?

***

I didn't check out the Vector Edition either, but if you say that there is no way to be able to drop down into Styx twice during the same game (presumably because the linear nature of the route doesn't allow for that?), then I can't see how you can collect both items (unless a gust of wind can blow Terry sideways as he descends - or I suppose it might be a sea current given the nature of the setting - or unless he can take a fat pill to expand his sprite across four columns!)

***

So in summary, I couldn't find a way to obtain any of the 'Forbidden Holy Items', but at least hopefully I have put your mind at rest that you haven't 'missed a trick' in that regard!?

[Of course, there is always the JSW64 Cheat Mode...]

[IRF]

Using the JSW64 Cheat Mode, I managed to collect all the items in Hidden Chamber, and all except for two of the items in the Secret Load and Kill Screen.

 

 

The problematic items in the latter are sandwiched in a single column between two static guardians in the middle of the screen.

It seems that when you touch a guardian whilst the Forcefield is activated, the game engine doesn't draw Terry as usual, in anticipation of his demise - it's just the death that is curtailed. So you have to wander around invisibly until you are clear of all guardians, and then the Terry sprite reappears.

But this means that Terry's INK attribute (I guess item detection in this game is based on green INK, not white?) is never drawn over those two items, in order to allow them to be collected.

I did try moving Terry to be positioned over those two items and then switching off the forcefield, but then death occurred before the collection.

 

Edited April 30 by IRF