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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 5546
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 21/02/2006
Subject: Ultimate Manic Miner: Andrew's first impressions
UMM is at the back of a long, long queue of MM/JSW games waiting for
me to do a thorough gamma-play in chronological order, but I can't
let its release pass without posting something now.
I had a quick, casual go of UMM today, and it was enough to see that
the game deserves full marks for novelty, amazing graphics, and a
unique atmosphere.
It seems to be an excellent showcase of what can be achieved with
JSW64 with the extra cell-classes, cell-types, and guardian-types (I
must do a proper study of JSW64 guardians soon, having abandoned my
last JSWED-learning-cycle at the end of Chapter 13).
It's also nice to see some quirky features. So far I've had to jump
through an ILB, jump through some overhead Earth-cells, and hide
from an arrow by standing in a non-Air cell.
I had just got past "THE COLD ROOM" [27] before I had to quit the
game because I ran out of time in the real world (like I said, it
was only a casual go).
One downside of UMM (and, I guess, of JSW64) is the uncertainty.
Because there are so many cell-classes, it's hard to know what to
expect in terms of cell-behaviour, whether something is a guardian
or not, whether it is stand-onable or not.
The other downside of UMM is the lack of items, most of which seem
to be hidden inside portals, or to be extra-life items (not
necessary to fulfill the ending-condition if the sole aim is to
escape?). So I guess I'll miss the joy of being able to tick off
rooms as I clear them of items.
I read the PDF file before I played the game, and it's most
impressive! It's well illustrated in graphical terms, and I like the
Spectrum font. It's almost like the inlay of a professional product,
and more tempting to read than a text-file, I must admit.
Alexandra wrote:
>In the explanation that follows, when I refer to Willy being in a
> "THE COLD ROOM" - There's a small bug here I think, when I cross
> the LAST bubble on the coolant river, if I cross the hump of the
> bubble without holding down jump, I seem to die. This may be a new
> quirky feature involving ramps butted up to each other over fire
> blocks.
column, I mean the LEFT cell-column of his sprite.
---||||
.....>.
.......
../\/\.
***
ABCDEFG
Willy gets killed if he walks from column D to column C without
holding jump.
This is because the / ramp in column E is trying to dump him down
onto the Fire-cells, while the \ ramp in column D is trying to pull
him up.
Ramp D takes precedence in terms of the pixel-row at which Willy is
drawn, but Ramp E takes precedence in terms of moving him down a
cell-row when he walks off the left edge of the / ramp in column E.
It doesn't happen when Willy walks from column F to column E because
there's no / ramp in column G.
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
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