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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 4937
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 12/10/2005
Subject: Re: Writing article on MM/JSW scene - comments wanted!
h0l211 wrote:
>As far as I remember, I wasn't aware of the issue until I discovered
> - When Matthew Smith's whereabouts were unknown and you didn't know
> where he was - where did you imagine that he'd gone to?
the Spectrum-emulation scene on the Internet in 1996 - in
particular, the "Where is Matthew Smith?" Web-page
<http://www.carlylesmith.karoo.net/spectrum/matsmith/> - and read
about him living in Amsterdam.
I was amazed when I found him on the Internet in 1999 (through
comp.sys.sinclair), with his own website and email-address! I didn't
totally believe that he was the real Matthew Smith until 2001, when
he gave interviews to Channel 4's _Thumb Candy_ documentary and to
_Edge_ magazine.
> - What new versions of MM/JSW created by fans have you been mostI wasn't aware of the MM/JSW-editing scene until I searched the
> amazed by, and why?
Internet for Spectrum-related content in February 1996.
In late 1991, I managed to work out the Manic Miner and Jet Set
Willy room-formats for myself, and began work on my Manic Miner
Screen Editor (which enables rooms to be edited in ways that the
existing MM editors on the Internet did not support) and my Jet Set
Willy Screen Editor (which did not allow guardian-classes, sprites
or items to be edited, and has since been superseded by my Jet Set
Willy Construction Kit).
With MMSE, I wrote _Manic Miner: The Buddha of Suburbia_, and with
JSWSE a couple of half-finished JSW games, before I ever discovered
that other people were editing MM/JSW.
Of the MM/JSW games that I found on the Internet in 1996, I was
particularly impressed by Richard Hallas's _Join The Jet-Set!_. Not
only was the game edited far beyond what I had achieved myself using
JSWSE, it had /atmosphere/, such as the way it took rumours about
the original Jet Set Willy from a magazine and turned them into
reality!
Later on, I was most impressed by the technical innovations made by
John Elliott (his 128K Spectrum version of the JSW game-engine which
allows up to 256 rooms, and his JSW64 family of 128K Spectrum game-
engines with enhanced room-formats), by Geoff Eddy (who has changed
the JSW game-engine in several ways, including a mechanism for
calling special-effects routines in specific rooms), and by Vidar
Eriksen (who has hacked the MM and JSW game-engines extensively to
allow amazing graphics in his games, and other innovations such as
crumbling floors in JSW).
I admire many other of my fellow MM/JSW authors for their abilities
to make their games fun to play, their talents for making rooms
visually attractive, and their flair for imparting atmosphere.
> - Why do you care about Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy, in particular?Firstly, Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy have exquisite game-
> Why does this one particular game gather such a dedicated fanbase?
mechanics. There's an elegant simplicity to the controls (left,
right and jump). You know exactly how far you can walk to the edge
of a platform without falling off, and the pixel-based collision-
detection for guardians means you get to weave your way through them
at close range.
Secondly, the ability to edit is what keeps the MM/JSW scene moving
forwards. Because each room has its own block-graphics and 32x16
character-squares, the possibilities for new rooms are limited only
by our imaginations.
Thirdly, what makes these games particularly attractive to me is
that there are many quirks in the game-engines, such as the way that
if you jump through an isolated wall-block at the correct angle, you
go slap through the floor below! I love discovering these quirky
features, finding unintended loopholes in games, and deliberately
exploiting them in my own games.
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
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