Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
Archive of the
Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group
messages
|
|
|
|
|
Message: 5787
Author: Daniel
Date: 08/04/2006
Subject: Willy's behaviour on conveyors during the toilet-run
I was extremely upset by Andrew's message # 5784 and the suggestion
that:
1. "Jet Set Willy: The 2005 Megamix" is not toilet-completable;
2. A game can run differently on different emulators;
3. The emulator I normally use (ZX32) does not emulate ZX Spectrum
faithfully.
So I decided to investigate. I tested Willy's behaviour on conveyors
during the toilet-run on 15 different emulators. The result was that
Willy's behaviour was EXACTLY THE SAME on all of the emulators I
tried. I also found out, Andrew, that you usually play using the "P"
key for "Right", and "O" for "Left", isn't that true? :-)
Here's what I found out - and it's very interesting! :-)
I.
[For all of the features mentioned in this section please discard
the key "P" - I am NOT referring to it. If I mention the "Right"
key, I mean: "W", "R", "Y", "I" and the cursor key, and if I
say "there is no way" to do something, this may exclude holding "P".]
So here are the general rules of Willy's behaviour on conveyors
during the toilet-run:
- Willy runs smoothly over the left-, off- and sticky-conveyors.
There is no way to stop him there.
- Willy stops on a right-conveyor, at the edge of it. Then you can
nudge him rightwards by pressing the "Right" key - he goes to the
right step-by-step (or two-steps by two perhaps, because it's still
double speed). You can also turn Willy around - by pressing
the "Left" key - but you cannot move him to the left.
A right-conveyor IS a good way to stop Willy during the toilet-run
in order to introduce challenges which involve avoiding guardians.
- If Willy falls on a right-conveyor, the situation is exactly the
same as described above. Willy stops, but you can move him to the
right, step-by-step, by pressing the "Right" key.
- If Willy falls on an off-conveyor, he just continues to the right.
You can stop him if you hold the "Left" key before he hits the
ground.
- If Willy falls on a left- or sticky-conveyor, he gets stuck and
there is no way to move him on.
The above behaviour patterns are probably true also with conveyor-
ramps. I did not test this thoroughly, I have just checked that
Willy stops on a right-conveyor (and can be moved on with
the "Right" key).
II.
The peculiar behaviour of the key "P":
- Pressing "P" as the "Right" key indeed stops Willy during his
toilet-run anywhere /except/ on a sticky-conveyor. "P" is the
ONLY "Right" key that works in this way, as far as I can tell.
- When you hold "P" and press one of the "Left" keys, Willy turns
around (but won't go left).
- When you hold "P" and press one of the other "Right" keys, Willy
behaves similarly to being on a right-conveyor - he moves rightwards
every time you press another "Right" key (while holding "P").
The above shows, IMO, that pressing "P" during the toilet-run causes
EXACTLY the same effect as if Willy were on a right-conveyor.
Furthermore:
- If you are on a right-conveyor, pressing "P" does not make Willy
go right (that's why you may think he's stuck if don't try pressing
the other "Right" keys).
- If you stop Willy on a left-conveyor by pressing "P", he turns
around, gets stuck and cannot move on. The same is true for a left-
conveyor-ramp.
Andrew wrote:
> It has the same effect as holding the right-key while running overIf you hold the key "P", it doesn't matter whether you are running
> Water, except that it's involuntary and permanent.
over Water or Earth - the effect is the same. The other "Right" keys
have no effect at all, as explained above.
This whole thing is very interesting, because it means that "P" is a
very special key for the toilet-run. I was unaware of its peculiar
behaviour (which includes stopping Willy almost anywhere), because I
always play using "Q" for "Left" and "W" for right (and
usually "Space" for jumping). On the other hand Andrew apparently
uses "O" and "P" for left and right, respectively, and that's why he
wasn't aware of the "normal" behaviour of the other "Right" keys.
So, to sum up, I can say with relief that "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" IS
PERFECTLY TOILET-COMPLETABLE :-) . I would also kindly suggest that
placing a right-conveyor on the route of the toilet-run might be one
of the features to take into account for the Advanced Trainer (as
well as using "P" to stop Willy elsewhere).
"The Fucked Internet Resurrection" IS toilet-completable when you
use "P". On the other hand, "Fantasy World Willy" is still NOT
toilet-completable - as Andrew pointed out - because you get stuck
after falling on the left-conveyor in "The unsanitary reading spot!".
At this point I see no need for further experiments with various
emulators, as I think they all behave in the same way. However, if
somebody should want to experiment, I have uploaded two files into
my folder ("Daniel Gromann"), called "ConvExp1.z80"
and "ConvExp2.z80". The first one lets you see easily what happens
on all four kinds of conveyors plus when falling on a right- and
left-conveyor, and the other one lets you see what happens when you
fall on an off- and sticky-conveyor.
Also, for the sake of completeness, I should say I have tested the
above-mentioned phenomena on the following emulators:
- ZX32 v. 1.03.98.0211 and v. 2.00.04.04 (beta)
- Real Spectrum v. 0.97.26
- Warajevo v. 2.51
- Spectaculator 6.10
- X128 v. 0.94
- MESS 0.104
- ZXSpin v. 0.504
- Spec256 v. 1.2
- Multi-machine emulator v. 1.30b
- EmuZWin v.2.7
- Aspectrum 0.1.8
- Es.pectrum v. 06b
- GLECK 0.0.5
- YaSE 2 v. 0.4.1
- Z80 v. 4.00
So I think that the picture is clear and we know exactly how Willy
behaves on various types of conveyors during the toilet-run and how
the player can influence it. I guess that now it is up to you,
technically-minded ones, to explain WHY that happens and why "P"
plays such a special role... :-)
Daniel
|
|
|