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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 5354
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 27/12/2005
Subject: Re: Can existing editors handle modified room-formats?
This is a reply to Message 4859.
Daniel wrote:
>That would have required special hardware which I don't have.
> a) You actually /typed/ the games into a real Spectrum? That must
> have taken an enormous number of man-hours for each game! Isn't it
> possible to transfer a .tap file to tape using the computer's sound
> card, and then just load it into a real Spectrum?
I came painfully close to automatically transferring data from my
real Spectrum to the Mac (in order to convert my games and editors
to emulator-format) by means of a lead from the Spectrum's sound-
output port to the Mac's sound-input port, but sadly the quality
just wasn't adequate. So I typed some of my games into the Mac by
hand (with the two computers on the same desk), while Richard Hallas
kindly transferred others from audio cassette to TAP format.
> What do you mean exactly, "up to 1998"? Do you mean you have nowYes. On my Merged List of MM/JSW Games I have now played entries
> got to the games released back in 1998?
1 to 17, with the exceptions of 10 (Spaceman Willy), 13 (Dr. Jet Set
Willy) and 14 (Jet Set Willy 128k).
Toilet-times:
Jet Set Willy........................... 8:33am
Jet Set Willy: Spectrum Computing....... 8:19am* (bed-completable)
Join the Jet-Set!....................... 9:47am
Jet Set Willy III....................... 9:20am
The Continuing Adventures............... 9:29am*
The Deadly Mission...................... 9:51am*
Willy's Holiday.........................10:07am*
Willy's New Hat......................... 8:01am
Jet-Set Willy in Space.................. 9:40am
---
* my fixed version
Next to play (after completion of playtesting-duties for forthcoming
releases):
10. Spaceman Willy
13. Dr. Jet Set Willy
14. Jet Set Willy 128k
7. The Continuing Adventures (Special Edition)
18. Manic Miner 5: Lost Peligros del LSD
...
>> Write MM:Outside, aiming for a 2005 release. I'm planning to doShort spoken-word tracks before some of the songs.
>> as a JSW64:MM game in order to use some JSW64 features and to
>> have slightly more than 20 rooms (the "segues" will have JSW-
>> connections rather than items and portals).
>
> What are the "segues"?
>> 5. Write the patches for (48K) JSW that I need for Afrikaan:I suppose it will, although I don't like to think of it as such. I
>> vertical conveyors, vertical and horizontal lifts, possibly
>> arbitrary POKEs that are applied when you enter a room and undone
>> when you leave it (address in Offsets 238/239, value in Offset
>> 237), and possibly enable left and right controls in the middle
>> of a jump or fall.
>>
>> 6. Write Afrikaan (using a modified version of my JSW
>> Construction Kit to accommodate the above patches).
>
> When you apply those patches, will that create a new kind of
> modified JSW engine, similar to Geoff Mode ("Andrew Mode", I
> guess)?
prefer to think of it as several patches, each of which can be
applied individually to any JSW game.
JSWED recognises JSW:LOTR's modification to the room-format (the
player's sprite-page is specified in Offset 237, as in JSW128 and
Geoff Mode) as "Andrew Mode", but what's it going to call it when I
modify the room-format in other ways?
> In such case, will it be possible to edit such a game (includingVertical conveyors will replace ramps in the room-format, so all an
> the new features) using your JSW Construction Kit?
editor has to do is draw them straight up rather than diagonally.
Getting the JSW engine to draw ramps straight up is the easy part:
POKE 36271,62: POKE 36272,-32 (8DAF: 3E E0)
I might write Afrikaan using a modified variant of JSW CK which
draws the VCs straight up, but I probably won't release it because
this could lead to a combinatorial explosion of JSW CK variants
(e.g. a variant for ramps and a variant for VCs; a variant to handle
a modified guardian-class format... all possible combinations would
have to be released, unless perhaps I wrote a SPECSAISIE function to
generate the JSW CK TAP-files automatically).
VCs could be edited with JSW CK as it stands, if the user is
prepared to visualise the ramps as though they're going straight up,
rather than diagonally as in the existing editor.
JSWED, on the other hand, does not currently allow ramps (or
conveyors for that matter) to wrap around the sides of the screen,
so that would restrict the ability to edit VCs.
I'm not sure about editing lifts in existing editors yet, because I
have yet to decide how a guardian will be identified as being a lift.
It might simply be a matter of having a regular horizontal or
vertical guardian with a `magic' colour-attribute or sprite-page (or
setting an unused bit in the guardian-class format), or they could
be whole new guardian-types.
> Would you collaborate with John Elliott so that this kind of gameI would now prefer to help make JSWED at least as good as JSW CK in
> could be edited in future versions of JSWED as well?
all aspects, than to release any more versions of JSW CK (unless I
wish to do so for my own satisfaction, having identified various
areas of improvement for JSW CK).
Because JSWED is PC-hosted, it doesn't have the limited-memory
constraints of JSW CK and other Spectrum-hosted editors, so it's
feasible to accommodate all variants of the room-format without
needing to duplicate the whole editor for each variant, or to have
separate programs to handle different aspects (I already had to
split JSW CK into two parts due to running out of 128K memory).
--
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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