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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 3193
Author: i_eat_teh_babiez
Date: 21/12/2002
Subject: summary of my willy hacks, for zx digest
1)
first i made "willy to the rescue", a conversion of the original
JSW48.
in this game willy has to rescue his friend, who is trapped inside
the lost pyramid of xojad (if i remember correctly ;). the whole
thing was a bit of a let down since you never get to see willy's
friend and i also ran out of rooms to build the pyramid properly
with (see the map in the photos section). however it had some OK
rooms and showed a little of what i am capable of. the game was
written in one week.
2)
next came "where's woody", a re-approach of the same idea above,
only set in a series of caverns and underworlds in, below, and on
top of a mountain in some moorlands. oh and this time it's 128k so
we have 256 rooms and diagonal baddies.
this time you do get to find and save woody, however the excessive
amount of rooms make this almost impossible. collecting the magic
flashing objects in the game are said to give willy 'flying powers'
to cross a chasm so he can reach woody. that is exactly what
happens, thanks to the piece of code which makes willy rush to the
bog at the end of the game.
locations include: moorlands, caves, clifftops, a jack and the
beanstalk style interlude, a tower of babel, sewers, a vast
underground alien colony, a golden palace, a mine, and various
surreal places.
a future edition is planned, where i will reduce the playing area
vastly, to make it more approachable, and keeping only the best bits.
3)
the next released game was "strangel"
this is another 128k game although it is of a reasonable size. it's
set in willy's dreams where he is an angel struggling to keep the
balance of good and evil intact. he does this by collecting flashing
items, naturally. i'm very proud of the unique atmosphere of the
rooms, composed mainly of light colours as the willy sprite has been
hacked to be black (it since became a feature of JSWED v2).
the rooms in strangel all have very illogical connections, and are
littered with instances where you have to exploit known bugs
(or 'quirky features') in the game engine to get past. this
experimental approach adds a strong puzzle element to the gameplay,
and was directly inspired by playing broadsoft's "we pretty". it's
also extremely difficult like we pretty.
i pioneered the technique of using invalid arrows (arrows placed so
that they cause a glitch on the screen) to create features in the
room such as moving platforms. invalid ramps, conveyors, and other
trickery produce some other unique effects, such as a room where
willy appears to be fitting, and a room with C64-style steps!
strangel will probably be re-edited later on, to be slightly easier,
so that more people can enjoy it.
4)
what i'm developing at the moment is "death TV", in which willy
enters a futuristic gameshow risking his life for the big cash prize.
it is divided up into seperate 'worlds' with a theme, such as
nightmare world, slime world, water world, etc... each which can be
tackled in any order the player fancies. being another JSW128 game,
the graphics are quite rich, and i've tried to get a slightly arcade
feeling with it.
like strangel it's got the quirky features element, however, it's
considerably less surreal, with the rooms attempting to describe
real places (for example, in water world, willy travels through a
changing room, a swimming pool, some pipes, a shipwreck, etc).
a demo is due to be released at the end of the year, however only a
couple of worlds will be complete.
5)
finally, i have a MM game in the works. it doesn't have any real
tricks up it's sleve, apart from what i believe are reasonably well
designed caverns, which should keep you occupied. it is currently
half finished. you can see the existing rooms in the photos section
(arcane design folder).
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