Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
Archive of the
Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group
messages
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Message: 5279
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 11/12/2005
Subject: Sendy and Daniel's Mind Control: Andrew's third playtest
I have completed Mind Control with a toilet-time of 3:27pm! It's the
first time I've ever completed a JSW128 game, and the spectacular
toilet-run just made my jaw drop!
(You can see the toilet-run of any JSW game using runtime POKE
34271,1 to make Maria disappear, or runtime POKE 34271,2 to start
running anywhere.)
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Room-by-Room Comments
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This completes the set of rooms on which I wish to comment.
[0] "Dream Bedroom": A garish colour-scheme.
[9] "The Pool Table": A very frustrating room to have to cross from
right to left, not even knowing if it's actually possible until you
do so.
[11] "Entrance to the House": Right is a one-way exit to "Scary
Dungeon" [97]. It makes little sense to go there from this point in
the map. It would be better just to give the player a Promised Land
view of that room, e.g.
|||||||||||||||||||||..||||||||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|||||||||||||*................|| |||||||||......||||...$.....||||
||||||||||||*..................| |||...||........|............|||
|||||||||||*...................| ||.....|........|.............||
||||||||||*....................| ||...........-..|....->>>-.....|
|||||||||*.....................| ||.............................|
...............................| |......../..................|..|
.............................|.| |......./......-...........|...|
.............................$.. |....../..................|...||
|||..|||||\................*.... ||..../..................|...|||
|||--||||||\..............*|.|.. |||../....*...-......||||......|
|||--|||||||\.....|..... |||./....***........|*.*.|.....|
|||--|||||---.....||||||||.....| |||.....*...*..|**|||..|
|$---------....................| |||---|||**|||||||||------|||..|
|----------..*................|| |$------|||------------------..|
||||||||||||||<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<||| |||||||||||$$|||||||||||||||||||
_____Entrance to the House______ _________Scary Dungeon__________
________________________________ (changes in Columns 1 & 2)
[15] "This looks like Crusoe's Corner!": A nice desert-island
atmosphere (with due credit to Richard Hallas), and I've always
fantasised about desert-islands with secret passages underneath
them, ever since I saw the video for 3D Construction Kit where a
treasure-chest contained a secret passage! :-)
[35] "Entrance to the Launching Pad": If you lose a life in this
room after starting the toilet-run, and you last entered at the
bottom-right, it's infinite death!
[54] "Playing with Yourself": I love the way that if you go down
from this room, a series of teleporters take you through various
nooks and crannies to collect some elusive items! I've seen this
design-pattern used in my own and Philip Bee's JSW games (albeit
with room-exits rather than teleporters), and I hope to see a lot
more of it in the future.
_____If you jump up into the room above after collecting the item at
(1,17) - a very natural thing to do if you miss the ILB - you are
forced to accept an infinite-death scenario or reset the game.
[65] "You chose falling": This title reminds me of an early room-
idea for We Pretty that I didn't use: "SHE CHOSE DOWN", which is a
quote from the film Labyrinth!
[66] "Our survey said... swinging": If you enter at the upper
right, it's an extremely unfair infinite-death scenario!
[68] "Name something your Willy does": Turning in mid-jump? ;-)
Entering this room via the rope in "The Devil's Workshop" [87] is a
one-way exit which could be made fair with the following screen-
layout:
||||||***||||||||||||||***||||||
||..............................
|.................$.............
|....--------------..........|..
|.........................../|||
|....$............-......../-...
|....-.........-........../-....
|..-.......-............./-.....
|......................./-......
|.......-............../-.......
|....-................/|||||||||
|....<<<<<<<<<<<<<<../||||||||||
-.................../||||||||||| <-
.................../-....|...... <- changes in Rows 13 to 15,
..|--|||||......../-....$|...... <- Columns 0 to 4
|||..|||||||||**||||||||||..|||| <-
_Name something your Willy does_
[71] "Almost a Kitchen Clone!": This room didn't by any chance
originate in Sendy's yet-to-be-released Role Reversal, did it?
Room 34 of Role Reversal bears a striking resemblance to this room.
[86] "Coming down toward Lake Surbiton": It's not for me to verify
the geographical accuracy of this room with respect to the real-
world Surbiton, but I have to commend you on the look of the
mountains.
[87] "The Devil's Workshop": A room which certainly lives up to its
name, with the vicious triumvirate of guardians at the bottom-
right! :-> The jump through the OILB to collect the embedded item is
a nice touch, as is the stationary rope, and the moving forcefield
guardians at the top-right.
[92] "Strange Forestlike Corner": An atmospheric room, and the way
you have to fall/jump off the rope on either side is very
innovative. A very clever room in terms of cellular construction.
[93] "Volcano Eruption": If you jump so as to take the upper right-
exit in Rows 1 to 3, and then jump as you walk through the wall back
into this room, you end up at the bottom-right of "Wow! It's so hot
in here!!!" [30], which could easily be prevented with an Earth-cell
at (0,31).
_____If you walk up the rope into Room 30 above, rather than jumping
right off the rope, then you miss the item and (unless you have a
recent snapshot to hand) have to take a detour through seven room-
exits to get back to this room and try again.
[101] "Invasion of Almost Willy Clones!": Infinite death if you WALK
in at the top-left (or if you jump from the far left edge of the
room to the right [71]). Surely a Water-cell at (10,31) isn't too
much to ask for?
[102] "The Large Slope": I have a conveyor-ramp just like this -
with a vertical guardian at the top - in We Pretty's
"INTHECHILLYSEETHEGUILDEDRISSOLES" [51].
[106] "Dangerous Rapids": The two Earth-Air-Fire combinations in
Row 1 are just screaming out for items in the Air-cells! (ditto re.
"The Underground River" [105]). Seeing as you've used up all 256
items, I suggest that you move the item in this room into one of
said Air-cells.
[110] "The Underground Torture Chamber": A delightful array of
quirky features.
--
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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