Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 4038
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 01/04/2004
Subject: Manic Miner Room-Format updated / MM-to-JSW conversion
I've just updated my Manic Miner Room-Format to edit the description
of the fifth byte of a horizontal guardian (Offset 706, 713, 720 or
727).
Previously, it just said 0 for right, 7 for left - the only values
used in all released MM games AFAIK.
But I've just experimented with other values, and I conclude that it
is, in fact, the start-sprite of the horizontal guardian (Sprites 0-
3 facing right, 4-7 facing left).
Values greater than 7 cause the guardian to go through a quirky
stationary phase (the greater the value, the longer this lasts)
before setting off to the left.
My experimentation came about because I'm currently working on a
Java program (as part of SPECSAISIE) to convert Manic Miner rooms to
Jet Set Willy (in order to generate the new JSW:MM for the Party
Willy box-set), so I needed to know how to map all possible values
to the simple 0 or 1 of Jet Set Willy.
I've done pretty much everything except guardians and items. I'm in
the middle of coding up the conversion of MM horizontal guardians to
JSW horizontal guardians (each guardian in MM uses up one guardian-
class, which refers to the one sprite-page associated with the room
it's in).
I must say that when MMtoJSW converted only the blocks on the screen
and nothing else, it was quite a trippy experience to play the MM
caverns with the graphics of Rooms 0-19 of JSW! :-)
MMtoJSW is (unlike MirrorMM and MirrorJSW) only semi-automatic. By
hand will I be knocking holes in walls and setting the connections
from one room to the next, and deciding what to convert crumbling
floors to in each case!
I've just discovered that there is a hidden conveyor-animation not
only in "Amoebatrons' Revenge" [17] (which I intend to replace
manually with an off-conveyor), but also in "The Endorian Forest"
[9].
There's no fun like developing automatic transformations for MM and
JSW. :-)
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/mm_format.html
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