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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 5387
Author: Daniel
Date: 02/01/2006
Subject: Amazing new quirky feature ??? !!!
I have discovered an amazing thing happening in one of the rooms of
Sendy's and mine "Jet Set Willy: Mind Control", which I think must
be a new, truly esoteric quirky feature of the game engine - or a
bug, perhaps? I did not consider it something that needed to be
removed from the game before the final release; in fact, I think
it's quite cool. But I am not sure how to explain in perhaps those
of you who have technical knowledge like John, Andrew and the
others could look into it.
I actually thought I was experiencing hallucinations :-) , because I
saw it happen two or three times, and then I couldn't repeat it any
more. Before writing this message I played around a bit, though, and
I think I have at least established how to repeat the phenomenon.
Go to "Fresh air ain't always good 4 U" (096). Exit to the right so
that you jump through an innocent-looking block (ILB) in the
adjacent room (you need to start the jump in "Fresh air ain't always
good 4 U" standing with your legs outstretched, to the right of
the "4", with your left leg practically in line with the vertical
line in "4"). Save a snaphot, because a badly-positioned jump will
result in a multiple-death scenario! As you jump, hold the "Right"
key - if you don't, you will experience a repeated-death scenario
in "Playing with Yourself", where you will fall after going through
the ILB in "A Little Room with a View".
In "Playing with Yourself" (054), walk right dropping onto the
platform below you, save a snapshot, and then make another classic
jump through an innocent-looking block - in this case, the leftmost
cyan-and-green Earth-cell sustaining the blue-and-yellow platform on
which an item is sitting. The jump must be perfect or you will be
trapped on that platform. After a successful jump, hold the "Right"
key so that you can stand still on the conveyor and wait for the
proper time to jump over the red flowerlike metal trap and the
horizontal guardian moving on the left side of the platform on which
you landed.
Exit the room to the left, into "The Pool Table" (009) and... YOU
WILL BE TRANSPORTED IMMEDIATELY teleported, sort of - INTO THE
ROOM ABOVE (which is "Fresh air ain't always good 4 U"), and appear
at the bottom of the room, in its central part, next to the
entrance/exit downwards as if you had just entered this room from
below!
This should happen immediately after you enter "The Pool Table". If
it doesn't, move left or right or jump and you should be
teleported immediately.
The trick doesn't seem to work if you jump through the ILB in "A
Little Room with a View", but don't jump through the ILB in "Playing
with Yourself". It's hard to tell whether it would work the other
way round, because you can only get on the platform from which you
perform the jump in "Playing with Yourself" after entering the room
from above, after jumping through the ILB in "A Little Room with a
View".
At first I thought that this weird phenomenon had something to do
with the rope in "The Pool Table" and that it was an effect similar
to the bug (feature?) which causes Willy to be caught by the rope no
matter where he is in the room when an arrow hits the rope (first
seen in the room "Into the sky" in Richard Hallas's "Join the Jet-
Set!", TTBOMK) or when the rope hits a Fire-cell (as in "Money For
Old Rope" in Phillip Bee's "Jet-Set Willy Ivy"). But after further
investigation I am inclined to associate it more with jumps through
ILBs, because I see no connection with the rope whatsoever.
Can anyone explain why it happens? And if it is some kind of quirky
feature of the game engine, could it be exploited consciously? If my
speculations that it is related to jumps through ILBs are right (and
they are just wild guesses), it would open incredible possibilities
like having to perform a certain action in order to be carried into
a secret room, or something like this.
Daniel
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