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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 5325
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 18/12/2005
Subject: strangel: andrew's first playtest
seeing as the special edition is due any day now, i have decided to
embark on my first serious playthrough of sendy's classic (but
certainly not /classic/) jsw128 game, strangel.
ever since its release in 2001, strangel has been my most admired
unofficial mm/jsw sequel other than my own, due to its ultrasurreal,
we-prettyish atmosphere, its heavy and innovative use of quirky
features (this was the jsw game that introduced invalid ramps
ttbomk), and as difficult a challenge as i've seen outside of the
broadsoft games.
today i started from scratch, and finished with 52 items after three
hours' effort in the real world (jsw-time only 8:30am due to heavy
use of snapshots and exploring the alternative paths ahead).
the rooms are very cleverly-designed, and the difficulty-gradient is
steep from the start, requiring many minutes just to clear a single
room of items! the rooms are also exceptionally well-put-together,
with hardly any unintended loopholes at all from what i've seen so
far.
the geography could prove to be a difficult factor, although the
paths i've taken so far seem to return me to the choice-points
better than those in another jsw128 game i could mention. but i've
still had to leave several loose-ends to be tied up later. and the
difficulty is such that it will probably take me four more sittings
to complete... even *with* john elliott's room-number patch! :-)
----------------------
room-specific comments
----------------------
i'm not going to comment on every single room, but i must say that
if a room is mundane in strangel, it would be exceptional in almost
any other game!
[0] "FEIN dish BRICK yarD": a prime example of clever room-design,
with quirky jumps through earth-cells. and i like that you get to
hide from the arrow in the water-cells!
_____it's taken me until today to realise that the title
means "fiendish"! :-)
[8] "NOToRI0US C - O - G": not as difficult as i remember after
typing strangel into my real spectrum, except for the philip-bee-
esque high jump over the bird! the hook-sprite looks good.
[18] "skY laRK!!": the atmosphere is strongly evocative of we
pretty's "SKYLIFE A V I A T I O N AVATAR". however, a nasty
infinite-death scenario is on the cards if you jump and land on the
invisible gap in the platform (the `harmless' fire-cells - harmless
my foot!).
[25] "in THE spotLITE": this is the room of which i had the fondest
memories from playing strangel on my real spectrum. with the
guardian-sprites resembling portholes that open and close, the
atmosphere is evocative of the spectrum platform-game _booty_.
_____is the player supposed to be able to take the top-left item by
jumping up from below, or should they have to wait until they have
the chance to walk on the top row via "It's a nOIse BeinG Noisy"
[44]?
[26] "the uNDERpaSs": having to walk along a long, low corridor
before an arrow comes is a design-pattern of which i hope to see
much more in the future.
[28] "cramped-STYLE": a very effective arrows-challenge reminiscent
of party willy's "The Devil's Intestines!" (which i wrote without
conscious knowledge of this room).
[34] "not Everyone's Cup Of T": if you jump into the right-exit of
this room (a natural thing to do because there's an earth-cell in
the way), there's a nasty infinite-death scenario in the next room
[35].
[35] "rHythm and blues Angus Steakhaus": i don't like it that down
is a one-way exit. you have to go down before you can get the bottom-
left item, but since it's clear to the seasoned player, on
entering "sisSy TOp" [39], that you won't be able to go back up if
you persist with this route, the player should have the option of
turning back immediately after going down into "sisSy TOp".
[42] "fay's CANceLLATI0n": this room should be upheld as one of the
most amazing and innovative jsw-rooms ever written, from the
wonderful pun (who's fay?) to the sheer quirkiness of the platforms:
air and ramp have the same colour-attribute, which creates the
springy-platforms effect, plus the ramp is `invalid' (it has a
direction-byte of 105).
_____invalid ramps are relatively uncharted territory, along with
the quirky features associated with ropes and superjump.
[63] "your WAy"
[64] "your WAy"
[65] "your WAy"
my way or the highway! :-)
[66] ""I wisH i hAd duCK fEeT"": a wonderfully atmospheric room with
an innovative design-pattern featuring harmless fire-cells, and it's
nice to see the feet from we pretty making an appearance! :-)
....*
...*|
..*|.
.*|..
*|...
|.... (where * are harmless fire-cells)
i'll have to remember this pattern if i ever want to write a
nightmare-on-elm-street-inspired room where your feet sink into the
stairs!
_____there's an infinite-death scenario if you jump right into "fILT
RAtE" [43] and walk back in here again - the upside-down willy
collides with you.
[78] "a place with no nAME": this room looks like it was drawn by a
sixteen-year-old (it reminds me of "The Cave" in party willy
JSW-MM_OLD.TAP) - which i suppose is a neat contrast to all the
sophisticated rooms in this game! ;-)
[90] "barrier 2": double-jumping out of the underside of a ramp is a
simple but much-underused jsw-trick.
[104] "X-es mark the sPOTS": "Xs" or even "X's" would be better
english, but i just love the design-pattern in the centre of the
screen that gives access to the conveyor:
..|..|..
<<|..|..
........
..-..-..
--....--
..-..-..
[105/106] "Trans "mog" riFicatION": some nice earth-cell quirky
features here, and the player-sprite certainly appeals to me as a
cat-lover. i hope igor makovsky - one of the scene's greatest
artists - won't be too offended if i say that i prefer this cat-
sprite to frosya. ;-)
[114] "Not Like All The Others": an artistic colour-scheme. i spent
ages trying to cross the top half from right to left, using my pause-
snapshot-timeframe technique, and it took me a long time to conclude
that it was impossible (and fortunately not necessary, although it
does create an intriguing air of mystique about the forbidden holy
ground in the top-left of this screen and top-right of "the PUSH"
[116] - much like the inner corners of rooms 54-57 of the original
jsw were for me as a child, before i discovered the amazing secret
of climbing that mysterious ladder in "West Bedroom" :-o ).
[116] "the PUSH": it's nice to see an invalid arrow, but it's
frustrating to have to search for the correct entry-position to jump
onto the trail it leaves, and be forced to take a one-way exit each
time you miss - thank goodness for instant snapshots!
--
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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