The-Red-Bayron Posted April 25 Report Share Posted April 25 After watching Manic Miner Ports by RetroGamerDiaries I wondered if it would be possible to convert these levels back into the original Spectrum format. The levels are from the Oric-1, Dragon 32, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro and the Gameboy Advance releases and tries to replicate them as close as the original 48K game mechanic allows. Here is the screen from the Dragon 32 against the Spectrum conversion, one of the limitations is that the level Guards all need to be the same sprite, so they are all Penguins. Here is the screen from the Gameboy Advance against the Spectrum conversion, the level Guards can’t move over other objects, so the Seal is above the conveyor. The Space Shuttle level from the Oric-1 uses the lever to remove a section of wall and The Meteor Storm level from the BBC Micro has a beam effect that I wasn't able to replicate. As with the original version there are only 20 levels, but apart from that all the gameplay is identical to the original. As far as I have tested the usual pokes and the 6031769 boot will work. This is the gameplay order and where all the levels came from. Level Title System Level 01 Not Central Cavern Oric-1 Level 28 02 The Dragon Users Bonus Dragon 32 Level 21 03 The End Of The World Oric-1 Level 22 04 Flunky Punky Munkie Gameboy Advance Level 1 05 The Catacombs Gameboy Advance Level 4 06 Mummy Daddy Gameboy Advance Level 7 07 Nightmare Before Last Night Gameboy Advance Level 10 08 Helium House on the Highlands Gameboy Advance Level 13 09 Metropolis Bingo Gameboy Advance Level 16 10 Eugene’s Other Lair Gameboy Advance Level 19 11 Tokyo Uh Oh Gameboy Advance Level 22 12 Jester Under the Bed Gameboy Advance Level 25 13 Clockwork Satsuma Gameboy Advance Level 28 14 The Space Shuttle Oric-1 Level 23 15 The End Dragon 32 Level 22 16 The Meteor Storm BBC Micro Level 19 17 The Channel Tunnel Oric-1 Level 27 18 At The Centre Of The Earth Oric-1 Level 21 19 The Final BBC Barrier BBC Micro Level 20 20 This, folks, is the Last Cavern Amstrad CPC Level 20 While making The Lost Levels I found out that there was a port for the Nintendo DS that includes all the Oric-1 levels that I hadn’t converted along with some of the ones that I have already done (typical) but missing most of the Gameboy Advance versions. So there are 2 versions, it’s a compromise. This follows the DS level order the levels that are missing from my first attempt are highlighted. Level Title System Level 01 Home at Last? Oric-1 Level 17 02 The Airlock Oric-1 Level 24 03 The End of the World Oric-1 Level 22 04 The Hall of the Mountain Kong Oric-1 Level 20 05 Back to Work Oric-1 Level 18 06 The Dragon Users Bonus Dragon 32 Level 21 07 Not Central Cavern Oric-1 Level 28 08 Down the Pit Oric-1 Level 19 09 Metropolis Bingo Gameboy Advance Level 16 10 At The Centre Of The Earth Oric-1 Level 21 11 Eddie’s Forest Nintendo DS Level 11 12 In a Deep Dark Hole Oric-1 Level 26 13 The Channel Tunnel Oric-1 Level 27 14 Tokyo Uh Oh Gameboy Advance Level 22 15 The Space Shuttle Oric-1 Level 23 16 Where's the Hyperspace Button? Oric-1 Level 25 17 The Meteor Storm BBC Micro Level 19 18 The End Dragon 32 Level 22 19 The Final BBC Barrier BBC Micro Level 20 20 This, folks, is the Last Cavern Amstrad CPC Level 20 Both versions are intended to give the experience of what these versions could have been like if they had been coded for the spectrum and try to follow the originals as closely as possible. This is my first attempt at something like this and there are some things and people to mention. This version was made using the JSWED v2.3.7 by John Elliott, and a big thanks to John for his support with some of the questions that I had when first using the editor. The loading Screen was created in Multipaint by Tero Heikkinen. All the levels were tested on original hardware from Cassette and 3” Disk as well as the ZX Spin v 0.666 and ZXBaremulator version 3.2 emulators. The .tap and .tzx files were assembled in BASin release 14b. Labels for Cassette and Disk were created in LibreOffice Impress. One Final Credit: A big thanks to Daniel Gromann at JSW Central for testing all the levels, all the advice about the gameplay. It would not be possible without his support. For me this was just a bit of tinkering to just see if it was possible and It was a great learning experience putting these levels together. I’m thrilled to see it made available to anyone that wants to give it a go. All the best, Byron Lost Levels DS.zip Lost Levels.zip JianYang, jetsetdanny and Spider 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider Posted April 25 Report Share Posted April 25 Thank you. That's impressive. 🙂 I did look closely at the other two level sets for the Sam Coupe with a thought to porting those over, as in either one "40 cavern" game or perhaps two separate ones but it is still very much on the back-burner. jetsetdanny 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Red-Bayron Posted April 25 Author Report Share Posted April 25 Hi Spider, Many thanks, this is the first time that I have tried to do something like this so it's great to get some feedback 👍 If it is OK with you I will have a look for the Sam Coupe version and maybe give that a go at converting it ❗ ❗ All the best, B Spider 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider Posted April 25 Report Share Posted April 25 Yes no issues. The initial problems I thought about were the extra features aka trampolines or like "vacuum decent" but it would be possible to work around those. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Red-Bayron Posted April 25 Author Report Share Posted April 25 Hi Spider, I have found this video "SAM Coupé Longplay - Manic Miner - The Deeper Caverns" it looks very interesting and yes I would need a workaround for the trampolines or vacuum descents. All the best jetsetdanny and Spider 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider Posted April 25 Report Share Posted April 25 There are videos here of those caverns too. The 'full' game itself is denied (afaik) however there are a few variants, some don't have the extra caverns and some do, plus the freebie 'demo' one that only contains a couple of caverns. The actual 'layout' is very similar in the code itself. jetsetdanny 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The-Red-Bayron Posted April 26 Author Report Share Posted April 26 Hi Spider, Many thanks I have found the videos. Do you know if it still OK to convert the game for the Spectrum? I have already started on the first level. JianYang 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jetsetdanny Posted April 26 Report Share Posted April 26 Welcome to the forum, Byron! 🙂 Thank you for creating the two versions of "Manic Miner: The Lost Levels" and releasing them here - it's greatly appreciated! 👍 Thank you also for mentioning myself and JSW Central 🙂 . You seem to be a fast worker, with a conversion of the SAM Coupé levels already underway! That's impressive. I couldn't give you any legal advice as such, but I generally don't think anyone should be after you for converting them to the ZX Spectrum (and making the conversion public, of course). One thing to possibly consider regarding this project would be whether using one of the 128K JSW64 game engines could help overcome at least some of the problems related to the game engine differences. Furthermore, since there are more than one set of caverns in the SAM Coupé version (three IIRC? - is is the original set and two additional ones???), they could all be put together in the same game file - if you considered it a good idea, of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IRF Posted April 27 Report Share Posted April 27 The patch vector feature of the JSW64 game engine could maybe help you to achieve the special effects in some caverns referred to above (trampolines, vacuum descents)? Spider and jetsetdanny 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spider Posted April 27 Report Share Posted April 27 I've not played it for a while, if I recall: The trampoline effect is similar to Dynamite Dan What I called the 'vaccum descent' , its sort of a fast downward drop compared to normal speed when you're over a certain floor tile. I think this 'feature' could be ignored possibly without detriment. jetsetdanny 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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