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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 5399
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 04/01/2006
Subject: strangel: andrew's second playtest
this message follows on from message 5325, and replies to message
5328.
---------------------
reply to message 5328
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Alexandra wrote:
>I give my permission to use my above quote. If the documentation
>> 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.
>
> Thank-you! Coming from you that is wonderful to hear, since
> Strangel was a direct response to finishing We Pretty. I even made
> the room above the starting room a cave as a nod to your games. Do
> you mind if I quote you on the above when I publish the game
> (which will be very soon, directly after Manic Person which I'm
> uploading later tonight - fingers crossed!)?
will still be in lower case, you may use it as it is. If the
documentation will be in sentence-case, please use the following
version:
>>>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 it took invalid-arrow technology to a new level), and as
difficult a challenge as I've seen outside of the Broadsoft games.
<<<
If using my original quote, please note the addition of ", and it
took invalid-arrow technology to a new level".
> I think after a while you can become so accustomed to theThat's a most intriguing way of putting it! I have trained myself to
> mechanics of JSW that you can see every possible outcome that the
> user can get from playing a given room or area, and that is what
> enables us to create (and solve) such tightly-controlled
> challenges. It's almost like having the game engine encoded in
> your brain! I think I've got that nailed now so my next frontier
> is of course graphics.
spot all possibilities, to the extent that I am probably as near to
100% infallible as humanly possible when I declare that it is or
isn't possible to get from one position in a room to another (I have
occasionally been known to say that it isn't possible when it is,
but that's called "having a brain-freeze").
Graphics are, of course, a matter of artistic talent. I'm never
going to be a Vidar Eriksen or Igor Makovsky in this department, but
I certainly have my moments when drawing 16x16-pixel sprites.
>> the geography could prove to be a difficult factor, although thePerhaps it is best left to the user to decide whether they want to
>> 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! :-)
>
> Should I apply the patch to the SE? I was tempted to but it would
> give the teleport-swicthes away awfully.
see the room-numbers or not. You could even have the BASIC loader
apply this patch at the option of the user, but perhaps you don't
want to make it that easy for them.
Personally, I applied the patch to a snapshot of the game using John
Elliott's HEXPAT utility, because, for all but the most linear or
familiar JSW games, I like to tick off the rooms I have item-
completed on a piece of paper as I play (and mark the rooms I wish
to comment on), and I don't like having to scan through the list for
every room-title.
> The invalid ramps in "trick step" behave like the stairs in C64
> JSW, so it would be nice to be able to use those again sometime.
> Using it globally over a whole game would be a nice touch.
Neat! I don't think I've seen that effect in any other JSW room.
I'll have to remember that the next time I write a JSW game with
ramps (Afrikaan will have vertical conveyors instead).
These kind of ramps have a direction of 2 (valid ramps have a
direction of 0 for '\' or 1 for '/').
There is a similar but less elegant invalid ramp in Goodnite
Luddite's "A SUNBURST NIGHT", which has a direction of 255.
The effects of directions 2-255 (in Offset 218 = DAh) are not yet
documented TTBOMK (even values are drawn as '\' and odd values
as '/', but the behaviour is still very much uncharted territory).
>> [78] "a place with no nAME": this room looks like it was drawn byAmbiguity? Like whether the item in "Watch Tower" is an apple or a
>> 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! ;-)
>
> It's always fascinating to hear opinions like this. I can see what
> you mean, but I would have never made the connection by my own
> accord. The ambiguity of 8x8 and 16x16px graphics and the
> atmospheres they produce really is what makes them so 'magical'
> to me.
bag of gold? Yes, the sprites in the original JSW are certainly open
to multiple interpretations! :-) I don't see this ambiguity in my
own games, but perhaps other people do...
>> [104] "X-es mark the sPOTS": "Xs" or even "X's" would be betterSPECSAISIE RoomJSW (or RoomMM) generates these diagrams, although
>> english, but i just love the design-pattern in the centre of the
>> screen that gives access to the conveyor:
>> ..|..|..
>> <<|..|..
>> ........
>> ..-..-..
>> --....--
>> ..-..-..
>
> I always like those diagrams you seem to generate out of nowhere
> :). Are you using Specsaisie (I think I spelled that right!)?
ramps, conveyors, items &c. still have to be inserted by hand.
If it's a small diagram (as in the above example), I just draw it by
hand rather than redirecting the output of SPECSAISIE RoomJSW to a
text-file so I can copy & paste.
> I tried to get that running one day but I can't remember what II do care about making the installation-instructions as helpful as
> needed to run it that I didn't have.
possible, so please let me know of any difficulties you have. I'm
even thinking of installing Java and SPECSAISIE on a new PC so that
I can document the exact steps required.
> It really would benefit from a seperate jumping sprite. I guessThat would require a patch to the game-engine, regardless of whether
> that would be doable in JSW64 somehow.
it's JSW48, JSW128 or JSW64.
> I love promised lands and forbidden grounds because they blur theI would always give the player an incentive (e.g. an item) to visit
> distinction between display and gameplay, which is also the reason
> I like little areas which you can explore but are there just for
> atmospheric purposes, like a spare branch on a tree that you can
> walk on or something.
such areas, unless I was trying to lull the player into doing
something useless (as recently discussed in Daniel's review of Manic
Scribbler and Darth Melkor's reply thereto).
---------------
second playtest
---------------
[24] "NUULL--HAANDSHAAKEE!!": i like the design-pattern for jumping
up onto the platform next to the leftmost hg:
||***
.....
.....
.....
---..
***--
[45] "Noted": a unique room visually, with nice use of a fire-cell
to provide access to the room below (you can jump through the fire-
cell and fall through the adjacent platform).
[47] "Key bored": another unique room-design, and it's interesting
how you can pass the two black hgs either by jumping over them both
together, or by nestling in between them and hoping that you
remember the right hg's right boundary correctly!
[48] "leafy LANE": i remember my real spectrum crashing on me as i
struggled with this room in 2001. a rare exploitation of having to
use ramp-cells to `duck' under guardians, and it's intriguing how
the following pattern of fire-cells can only be passed from right to
left:
..//.* (these ramp-cells are purely decorative)
.../..
......
......
*..*..
||||||
[52-57] "nye eve ity": an innovative use of teleporters to
apparently change the screen-layout - this is the advantage of
having many more than 64 rooms at your disposal. but it would have
been nice to reward the player with an item at the end (it's easy to
forget about having collected the one under the ilb in "stolen
THUNDER!" [40], and to think "what was the point of going
through "nye eve ity"?).
[58] "EXTRA terrestRIAL gratIFicAtion": nice use of invalid-arrow
pairs to allow willy to jump up for the items. it's a shame we
haven't seen many more invalid arrows in the five years since
strangel, as strangel really took invalid-arrow technology (which
was introduced with one very simple example) to a new level.
_____the use of a blank white conveyor to hide the arrows themselves
is an elegant aesthetic touch, and the ghost ramp-cell (which
behaves as air) left by the invalid arrows is a cool quirk.
_____the ink-colour of air will be the ink-colour of any ghosts in
the room (other examples: ghosts left by the premature-crumbling bug
in manic miner, and ghost-conveyors - not supported by jswed, which
gives no way of extending conveyors beyond the bottom-right of the
screen).
[60] "Tricky lake": if you jump up off the top of the screen, it's
infinite death in "the ART of FLYING" [59]. clearly this room
should loop back to itself at the top, as it does at the bottom.
_____you also encounter infinite death by /walking/ out of this room
via the earth-cell at (12,30).
[72] "< DETATCHED >": is this spelling deliberately solecistic?
_____it's intriguing how you /can/ jump left out of this room, but
that you have to step back from the edge of the platform to do so!
[129] "Micro Climb It": some deceptive jumps are needed to cross this
room from right to left, and the stationary butler is a nice
aesthetic touch (stationary guardians can be horizontal or vertical,
but vertical makes the guardian-class more reusable as all guardian-
instances will stay in the columns you put them in - (start-)column
being an instance-datum).
phantom giZmos: 099 Tyme 09:43am
i estimate three further playtests.
--
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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