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Message: 5717

Author: Daniel

Date: 15/03/2006

Subject: Many different things from Daniel

 

Hello Everybody,

I would like to refer to a number of things various Group members
wrote about in recent weeks.

Please, do not be discouraged by the fact that the first part of
this message concerns the QF discussion. I hope that this will be my
final contribution to it (at this stage). Also, it should not spark
any more angry exchanges of thoughts, IMO.

Later on I refer to a number of other things and ask questions
addressed to various people, so please – read on! :-)

dunny291073 wrote:

On the contrary, Daniel has succeeded in changing my mind to some
extent about QF systems of gameplay.

Well, I'm very glad to hear it, and especially see you use the
expression "QF system of gameplay", which in itself sounds like a
recognition that there is a system there :-) .

I should say for my part that the whole discussion has made me aware
of other people's sensitivities, i.e. of the reluctance of a part of
JSW fans (and "lovers"?) towards the reliance on QF. I will keep it
in mind and take it into account when working on designing games
again, even though the "hardcore QF lovers" will probably remain my
main target audience :-) .

It is possible that my first "bow" towards people who do not like QF
will be the special edition of "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" (which I am
planning to do in a foreseeable future, but without specifying any
time perspective at this point). The idea I am leaning towards now
is: to make a "classic" version (that's a nice expression, thanks
for suggesting it, Carl!), in which there will be no QF in the new
rooms I am planning to add, plus I will also remove all QF puzzles
from the old rooms. I will also prepare an "advanced"
(or "extended", but it will probably be called "advanced") version
(which for me personally will be the "primary" version) relying
heavily on the use of QF.

dunny291073 wrote:

I would definitely like to see a game that was *hard* to complete,
*without* QFs in, but which rewards QF tricks with bonuses - secret
rooms, extra lives etc. Using your imagination, you could come up
with a very, very challenging game which can be played in the
classic mode, with extra incentive to sniff out hidden extras.

This sounds like a reasonable postulate. It is a pity a JSW game
cannot have TWO levels of completion – then we could have a basic
level, possible to reach without using any QF, and an additional
level relying on those.

In "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" the player can reach an erroneous ending
if he/she makes a mistake in the final stages of the game (during
the toilet run). In fact, you are very likely to make a mistake, so
I strongly suggest that your save a snapshot first!

dunny291073 wrote:

I'm about as far "INSIDER" into the speccy as you can get. (...) I write software that some of you may well use for your MM/JSW
gaming. (...) I feel that maybe an explanation of RZX and "rollback" in
particular may be necessary.

dunny291073, are you by any chance one of the people involved in
the development of the .rzx format? If so, I have to commend you for
this, because I think it's a very useful tool :-) .

Daniel wrote:

(...) is: the author has made it as challenging as possible.

Dr. Andrew Broad wrote:

As challenging as possible? Can you imagine Darth Melkor releasing
a special edition of Manic Scribbler where everything was
invisible and had white PAPER; maybe a JSW64 {V/W} version with
108 additional rooms including the Scribbler treatment for Manic
Miner 4, MM:TBOS, MM:Hobbit, Ma jolie and MM:N-AT? Ouch!

Okay, I must rephrase. What you have described sounds like utter
horror, indeed :-) . Let's say: "the author has made it rather
challenging" :-) .

Andrew wrote:

There's a difference between next-to-impossible and actually
impossible to complete. Unfortunately many gamma-released MM/JSW
games fall into the latter category (including the original JSW
without the Official Software Projects POKEs).

This makes me sad. If I had the power of convincing people, I would
be pestering every active JSW author to release fixed versions of
games which are impossible to complete because of bugs. I think that
if someone has put so much effort into creating a whole new game, it
is INCOMPREHENSIBLE (to use a word which shouldn't offend anyone)
that the person will not spend just a little more time on making the
product complete by eliminating grave errors.

Andrew wrote:

I disagree that the games with quirky features /require/ prior
knowledge. (...) Prior knowledge is a useful shortcut for many MM/JSW players, but
a willingness for thorough playtesting is a much more satisfying
way to gain knowledge of all the ins and outs of the game
mechanics. (...) My expectation is that I will be able to complete a 64-room JSW
game in under three hours of real time (…).

There you go. Get a JSW novice, someone who has never even heard the
expression "quirky features", and tell him (her) to complete one of
your 64-room games in under three hours of real time! :-)

You are right, of course, that games with QF do not /require/ prior
knowledge – one can acquire it by playing – but I would say that
this knowledge is more than a "useful shortcut" – it is "clear
necessity" in the real world. Unless you can have the world waiting
for you while you finish the task at hand, of course! :-)

Andrew wrote:

I use teleportation (WRITETYPER or POKE 33824) for exploration
purposes only (…)

POKE 33824, what?

Whenever I POKE in the Writetyper cheat (mainly for exploration-
purposes as well), I use POKE 34275,10. Is there any difference
between the two?

Andrew wrote:

And I gained another important skill which I plan to use for the
benefit of the MM/JSW community, but I'm going to keep it under my
hat until it's too late for anyone to beat me to implementing my
ambitious idea... 8-)

Well, this sounds very exciting, and very mysterious, too. Any hint
when we could see this idea materialise?

Igor wrote:

Don't want to look too curious, but nobody ever said anything
about "Mine Vehicle Department"... Don't you have any comments on
it?

I have not played "UMM" to completion yet (I will do it in due time;
I like following certain routines Dr. Broad's style :-) ), and
since you've asked us not to cheat or look at the game in JSWED, I
haven't seen "Mine Vehicle Department" yet. Expect my comments (as
well as possible other comments about the game) probably in two to
three months' time.

Igor wrote:

P.S. Daniel, how much time do you spend, writing such huge
messages??
Just interested =D

Well, I must admit they take me hours to write. But JSW is a great
passion for me, and if I feel very strongly about something, I
usually feel extreme need to share it with others. So I write, in
detriment of sleep, social activities and other things...

Phillip Bee wrote:

I still have several MM/JSW rooms in various games on
a computer over 200 miles away. Perhaps one day I'll try and
retrieve some of them... I could release some of my games for the
group, in a similar vein to Sendy.

This would be very nice, Phil. I feel it is a shame if any creative
effort is wasted, especially if it has to do with MM/JSW. And I
strongly believe that good use can be made of unfinished efforts
(also by other authors, with their permission of course) for the
benefit of the whole MM/JSW community.

Phil wrote:

If I were to ever get back into MM/JSW editing, I would most like
to complete a MM game which has over ten completed caverns and
possibly my most accomplished cavern to date, "AboutMessed". Two
people have been fortunate enough to play this. ;-) It also has an
innovative cavern which makes great use of crumbling blocks...

Well, what's holding you back? The distance of 200 miles? :-) That's
nothing in the modern world! Really, if you have "over ten completed
caverns", including some that you judge to be very good, it sounds
like a crying shame, almost a CRIME, not to finish the game! Please,
Phil, you know you can do it…

Andrew wrote:

I hope very much that this game will one day be gamma-released.

Yes, I hope so, too... Go ahead, Phil, do it for us!

Phil wrote:

I can remember using the original JSWED back in 1998/9 to create
two (unreleased) JSW 128 games - one of which featured non-Speccy
native rooms such as the other versions of JSW/JSW II from the
MSX, BBC, Dragon 32, C64 (edited because that version has more
than 32 horizontal character cells), etc.

I used renditions of rooms from the Dragon version, converted by
John Elliott, in "JSW: The 2005 Megamix", which is a game of which I
consider myself a compiler and co-author, not really /the/ author
(almost 50 rooms come from Paul Equinox Collins's
unfinished "JSW '96 Remix", and there are a number of other rooms by
other authors).

Since I am planning to create a SE of "The Megamix", adding, among
others, rooms from the BBC version (recently converted to the
Spectrum by John), I would be very interested in being able to add
rooms from the MSX and C64 versions as well. Phil, would you be
willing, perhaps, to contribute these rooms from your unfinished
games to "The Megamix SE"? All due credit will be given, of course
:-)

Sendy wrote (referring to Friday, March 10, 2006):

Spooky that you picked the day I fly out to the States from the UK
o_O

Sendy, how will your stay in the U.S. affect your MM/JSW editing?

Do you have any approximate timeline for the gamma-release of "Manic
Person"? And "Role Reversal"? And "Strangel SE"? And other stuff?

Andrew wrote:

I gave that up on 13th April 2003, when the motor on my Spectrum
+2's Datacorder burned out (I was typing in Still Stealin' at the
time).

Does this mean that your Spectrum +2 is still operational, but you
just don't have a working, appropriate tape recorder?

I am asking just out of curiosity, not suggesting at all that you
should go back to the original hardware :-) .

John Elliott wrote:

I've finally got tired of waiting and pushed JSWED 2.3.0 out of
the door. (...) I've just uploaded JSWED 2.3.1 to the usual place.

Andrew Broad wrote:

I'm so excited by this new development of v2.3.0 :-))) (...) I must commend John Elliott for his amazing contributions to the
field of MM/JSW, which has so many new directions to go in now! :
)))

Yes, the release of JSWED 2.3 and the possibility of editing JSW2
(and MM128) games is a fantastic development! It will be some time
before I can learn it and use it fully, but I am very excited
already. Thank you so much, John!

Igor wrote (concerning Herve Ast's "Willy in Transatlantic Cruise"):

Plus: interesting fact. While Willy is exploring all these
beautiful underwater cities and caverns, he can rather simply got
up to his "titanic" and it will be on the same place as it was
before (though, actually, when Willy will got to the surface, he
won't even see his ship - it will be miles away from him). I
suppose, that you have to insert a special plot in the "history of
the game" that this ship is out of fuel or something and it can't
move anymore.

As you can see by some of the rooms, the ship is anchored. This
explains why it is not moving, I suppose. Now, I'm not sure how the
anchor's chain is long enough to reach the ocean floor in the middle
of the ocean, but does it really matter? :-)

Igor wrote:

Plus there are a few interesting ways of collecting items.
Especially, on the upper room from the "huge... or big... or
something crystal" - where there are three symbols of planets in
the middle.

It's true, I also thought that these jumps for the items were very
interesting, they do catch the player's (and designer's) attention.

Igor wrote:

Landscape of MARS looks nice, MARS ATTACK is very impressive!
(Very nice flying saucer sprite, btw. I've seen it in Daniel's and
Sendy's last game, right at the beginning)

The flying saucer seen at the beginning (and end) of "JSW: Mind
Control" was of course designed by Herve, and it first appeared in
his excellent "Jet Set Willy in Paris".

I had the honour of playtesting "Willy in Transatlantic Cruise", but
I have not published a proper review of it so far. However, I must
say that among many other things I admire Herve's ability to create
clusters of rooms which go beyond the main theme of the game, and
yet seem quite natural; it seems quite right that they are there. So
it was the flying saucer and the Vega sequence in "JSW in Paris",
and now we have the iceberg, the underwater world, and Atlantis and
Mars in "Willy in T.C.". Very nice :-) .

Daniel

 

 

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