Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group
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Message: 2005
Author: ewgf2
Date: 25/02/2001
Subject: Regarding the JSW rewrites - part 1
There are many discussions on this board
regarding various
attributes of JSW/MM rewrites, but it
seems to me that one
subject I've only seen
mentioned once is of extreme importance;
a games general
playability and accessability with regard to
it's
difficulty.
As someone else said, one of the main reasons the
original JSW
was so well recieved was because it
allowed the player to visit
so many of the rooms to
allow him (or her if you're pedantic!)
to see a
large part of the game. And yet many of the
remakes
seem to make it as hard and as demanding as possible
to see
even a small area of the game. From a
technical point of view
that is very impressive, plus no
doubt the true JSW fanatics
enjoy the challenge, but
to the casual player such as myself
I don't
really wish to have to know all of the quirks of
the
JSW engine before I can attempt the latest
rewrite.
I've been using Spectrum's since 1983 (up to 1996 when
I bought
a PC and began using emulators) and
played and bought MM, JSW
and JSW 2. I completed the
first two because quite apart from the
sheer
playabilty (which they still retain) and the great
grahics
and sound (nowadays the sound is rubbish, though the
graphics still
retain a certain atmosphere) they also
hooked me and let me see
what I was missing - Manic
Miner showed all of the screens on
the title page
and Jetset Willy allowed you to see most of
the
screens without having to collect all of the objects.
Jetset
Willy felt like a 'journey' as you explored the
mansion, giving
the illusion of freedom and being able
to go where you like. Most
of the rewrites feel
more like puzzles, with every screen being
a new
challenge, relying on memory and knowledge of JSW's
quirks.
To me it's not the same thing at all. Also, I don't
know whether
it's because I'm older, or because I
have access to so many other
games or whatever, but
I don't feel the same compulsion towards
any one
game as I did back in the early/mid
1980's.
What I'm saying, basically, is that whilst I certainly
respect
those of you who build JSW rewrites to be difficult
and/or
challenging, I do miss the feeling of freedom that the
original
JSW gave. The reason I never really tried to complete
JSW2
was because of that awful infinite death flaw (at
least JSW 1's
infinite death routines were avoidable
if you knew where they
were) but I still enjoyed
exploring it. With most of the latest
JSW rewrites I
just don't have the patience to explore vary
far.
Please consider what I say, and don't think I'm
critising; some
of the rewrites are very good but I just
would like to play them
without having to complete
them just to see all of the screens.
By all means
put some difficult parts in, but please leave
large
areas of screens easily accessible, even if their
objects are
very difficult to get.
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