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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: 4798
Author: Daniel
Date: 10/05/2005
Subject: "Jet Set Willy: The 2005 Megamix" released!
Hello Everybody!
"Jet Set Willy: The 2005 Megamix" is officially released and ready to
be tackled! At this moment it can be downloaded from my folder
("Daniel Gromann") in the Files section; probably very soon it will
also be available for download from my website, kindly hosted by
Xabier Vazquez at http://xa.bi/jsw/ .
"Jet Set Willy: The 2005 Megamix" is a 128k engine game. It features
182 rooms in total, of which 131 can be accessed during the game and
51 belong to the final sequence, after the program has taken control
of Willy. The playing field is divided into two separate parts:
the "main" playing field with 93 rooms and 167 items to collect, and
the 1996 ZX Spectrum scene with 38 rooms and 89 items, and they are
linked by a teleporter. In total there are 256 items to collect. In
an ideal scenario, you should visit between 156 and 158 rooms to
complete the game successfully. Theoretically the game can be
finished without losing a single life. In a number of rooms you may
fall into multiple-death scenarios - I did not make a conscious
effort to eliminate those, since I perceive them as part of the game
and its challenge. There are also some rooms which are traps, which
may be unfair to the player, but I assume you will be saving
snapshots on the emulator anyway, so they won't do you that much harm.
The game is a mixture of very traditional rooms and newly-designed
screens, some of which require the player to take advantage of the
quirky features of the game engine. The most notable feature of the
game, as far as novelty in JSW designing is concerned, is the final
sequence, i.e. from the time the program has taken control of Willy
and carries him to the right at double speed (I'm not sure if it's
correct but I have the impression that it is called "the swordfish
routine").
It is probably the best-developed final sequence of all the games
created so far. It features 51 rooms (sketchy as most of them may
be), and the player has to pass through 30 of them in order to
complete the game successfully. AFTER the program has taken control
of Willy you STILL have to use the controls, limited as they are at
this point, in order to complete the game successfully. Depending on
how well you use the controls, you may:
- die hitting a stationary obstacle;
- get killed by moving guardians;
- fall into a multiple-death scenario;
- fall into an infinite-fall scenario;
- get stuck in a room without being able to move;
- reach the very end of the game, but without being able to complete
it (the wrong ending);
- complete the game successfully.
"Jet Set Willy: The 2005 Megamix" is a game which is based on
material created by various authors. I listed them in the first Club
announcement of the game, in my message # 4710 of March 15, 2005.
Detailed credits are given in the text file accompanying the game,
and will appear on my web pages as well. At this point I just want to
express my warm thanks to everyone involved, namely:
- Matthew Smith, for the original "Jet Set Willy".
- John Elliott, for the 128k game engine and for his excellent JSW
Editor, which was the only tool I used to create the game.
- Richard Hallas, Ian Collier, John Elliott, J. G. Harston (on behalf
of himself and Greg Heslington) and Adam Britton for explicitly
giving me permission to use the rooms and / or sprites they designed.
- Paul E. Collins, Rob Moseley and Darren McCowan for their indirect
permission to use the material they created.
- Andrew Broad, for the inspiration in using the quirky features of
the game engine, and for his special role in the development of JSW /
MM games.
- Xabier Vazquez, for hosting my JSW website.
- All the members of the Yahoo! JSW / MM Club - for sharing the
interest in and fascination for Miner Willy :-) :-) :-) .
A special mention is due to Michael, my son who has just turned
three - I hope he will forgive me all the time I failed to spend with
him because I was working on "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" :-) .
I also feel it is only right to let everyone know that the author who
provided the largest portion of the material I used is Paul E.
Collins. In my announcement of March 15 I listed him as Paul Howard,
since this name appeared in his unfinished "JSW '96 Remix".
Apparently at some point he was also known as "Equinox
Tetrachloride". I found out that he had changed his name a few years
ago, and so finally I gave him credits for his sizeable contribution
to "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" under his current name. His website can be
found at: http://cl4.org .
Well, that's all for now. Download "JSW: The 2005 Megamix", play and
enjoy! And let me know what you think, or just let me know that
you've had a go at it, even without any specific comments!
Daniel
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