JSW Central - Resource Centre for ZX Spectrum games based on Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines

Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines

II. Jet Set Willy (JSW48)

A. New games using Matthew Smith's original Jet Set Willy game engine for the 48K Spectrum and its modifications

44. Willy's New Mansion

Author and publisher: Daniel Gromann

Year: 2004

Special Edition: 2016

Language: English

Willy's New Mansion was Daniel Gromann's debut JSW game. It was created using JSWED 2.0.3 with the intention to "design a brand-new game that would keep the flavour and atmosphere of the original JSW". It featured 64 entirely redesigned rooms. Most of the guardian sprites came from the original JSW, while some were copied from the original MM, later JSW games designed by other authors, or were designed from scratch.

Game Premise: Twenty years have passed since Willy first stepped into his mansion and realized he had to clean it before Maria would let him enter the bedroom. He has embarked on countless adventures over those two decades: traveling extensively, journeying into space, battling vampires, computer bugs and the forces of darkness, and getting drunk. In the process, he died and came back to life thousands of times, and collected millions of mysteriously flickering items. In the end, Willy decided to get some rest and purchased a new mansion, featuring some elements eerily reminiscent of his original house. He looked forward to a few happy hours in his cozy upstairs bedroom. Alas, Maria stood in his way once again, ordering him to clean up the mansion before high noon! Thus, poor Willy must collect items scattered around the mansion and its surroundings, and he badly needs the player's help...

Daniel announced his intention to create a Special Edition of Willy's New Mansion in March 2006, citing several possible reasons for such editions: the opportunity to eliminate bugs and other problems, enrich the game with new elements or features, make full use of the possibilities offered by the game engine, and add improvements such as new rooms, enhancing graphics or adjusting guardian movements. However, it wasn't until the end of 2015 that Daniel started working on the Special Edition of Willy's New Mansion in earnest, with the first Release Candidate ready in April 2016. In the following months, Ian Rushforth made a significant contribution to the game's development related to code optimizations and additional features. The Special Edition of Willy's New Mansion was finally released in November 2016, twelve years to the day since the launch of the original edition.

The Special Edition features various improvements over the original edition, including the elimination of all unfair Multiple-Death Scenarios and some modifications to room layouts, cell patterns and item distribution. Furthermore, it includes two additional rooms and a host of novelties, such as a custom BASIC loader allowing the player to choose the time challenge level, a custom-made title screen, teleportation, a total of five in-game tunes, arrows of different colours and shapes and "global seamlessness" of the screens (where the PAPER colour of the playing area, the status bar and the border remains consistent within each room, but may vary between rooms).

Unlike in most other JSW games, in Willy's New Mansion time is a real factor that may prevent the player from completing the game successfully (a warning is given when time runs short with changes in its display colour). There are two Game Over screens (one for losing all lives and the other for running out of time), each followed by an additional Final Screen with a text message and music.

Patch Vectors (PVs) are applied in every single room of the game, producing a variety of effects including flashing and coloured screens, sound and border effects, messages and guardians printed on the screen, changes to Willy's or the guardians' colour, a moving platform which can carry Willy over obstacles, periodic reversal of the direction of the conveyors, gaps opening in walls, ramps going in both directions, etc. Some of the PVs were copied from Geoff Eddy's games, some come from his games but were modified, and many were created specifically for Willy's New Mansion.

The Special Edition of Willy's New Mansion is a complete, final product. In hindsight, the original edition could be considered a 'halfway product,' despite being a finished and fully completable game. Therefore, players who have not yet experienced Willy's New Mansion are encouraged to play the Special Edition, as it represents the definitive revision of the game.

Original Edition

Number of edited rooms: 64

Number of rooms accessible without cheating: 64

Number of rooms which need to be visited to complete the game: 64

Number of items to collect: 256

Bugfix needed after original release? NO

Spare lives at the start: 7

Completable without loss of life? YES

Starting time: 7:00 am

Best documented completion time with no loss of life: 8:49 am

Special Edition

Number of edited rooms: 66

Number of rooms accessible without cheating: 66

Number of rooms which need to be visited to complete the game: 66

Number of items to collect: 256

Bugfix needed after original release? NO

Spare lives at the start: 7

Completable without loss of life? YES

Starting time: 4:00 am (Easy), 5:00 am (Medium), 6:00 am (Hard), 7:00 am (Expert) - the level of the time limit challenge is chosen after the game has loaded.

Best documented completion time with no loss of life at the Expert level: 11:19 am

Download links

Homepage	The game's home page on JSW Corner

Official release	Special Edition ZIP file, including the game in TAP and TZX formats as well as the Original Edition in TAP and SNA formats

Direct game download	Game files of both the Original and Special Editions in TAP and TZX formats

World of Spectrum	The game's page on WoS (does not include the Special Edition yet)

Spectrum Computing	The game's page on Spectrum Computing (does not include the Special Edition yet)

Speccy Screenshot Maps	The map of the Original Edition on Speccy Screenshot Maps

RZX Archive	RZX walkthroughs of both the Original and Special Edition of the game


JSW Central	RZX walkthrough of the Original Edition of the game showing the best documented completion time