Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Manic Miner & Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group
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Message: 5891
Author: Daniel
Date: 08/08/2006
Subject: "Willy vs. The Vampire Lord SE" released!
I am pleased to announce the release of a Special Edition of Lee
Tatlock's 2001 JSW48 game "Willy vs. The Vampire Lord". The game has
been uploaded to the general area of the Group's File section and the
file ("Vampire-SE.zip") contains also the original edition and two
pertinent text files. Please read on for background information and a
general description.
1. Background Information
The original edition of Lee Tatlock's great, atmospheric game
contained a number of critical bugs which made it impossible to
complete (Andrew Broad noted the problem way back in message # 2643).
More than four years after the original release, impressed by the
quality of the game and wishing that players all over the world could
enjoy it to the full extent, I decided to try to prepare a Special
Edition of the game. I created it using John Elliott's excellent
editor JSWED v. 2.2.9.
I submitted a working version of the SE to Lee Tatlock (also known as
El Tatus), who told me in an e-mail on 28th March 2006:
"As for your idea to update and release my own re-working, I am more
than happy for this to happen. Let's face it, the original JSW by
crazy old Matt Smith was a work of gaming genius, and the fact that
fans still want more adventures from Willy just goes to show how good
it actually was. I am one of those people, and obviously you are of
like mind - so do as you will to evolve my version into a slicker
beast, and be sure to pop all the additional info and your details
into the instructions, it sounds like you've worked hard - admittedly
it was a bit of a mess.
"So, until Matthew Smith decides to do a follow up, the fans, being
us and legions more, will continue to play around with his original
creations, and with that in mind it seems only natural that my
version be modified, fixed and enjoyed in the same way."
Encouraged by these words of the author of "Willy vs. The Vampire
Lord", I continued the work and introduced some further modifications
to the game (mainly redesigning the title screen) until I decided it
was ready for release.
2. Changes in relation to the Original Edition
The playable part of the game was modified according to the "minimal
intervention necessary" rule, i.e. the changes concerned only things
which really needed changing, and the interference with the original
was kept down to a minimum. The main aim was to make the game
completable (bed-completable, according to Dr. Andrew Broad's
terminology), and to allow the player to enjoy all of the original
rooms. I guarantee that "Willy vs. The Vampire Lord SE" can be
completed without losing a single life (with just one quirky jump).
Three groups of "functional" changes were introduced:
- All the problems which made the game non-item-completable were
eliminated. In the original edition it was possible to collect 242
items (out of 256) without using the Writetyper cheat, plus some more
using it. However, the room "Aliens Prepare 4 Attack" crashed on
entry (due to a guardian set upon some Earth-cells), making the game
impossible to complete even using the Writetyper.
- The final sequence was modified so that the player can now see all
of the original rooms. This was the most serious modification. In the
original game, even after eliminating all of the problems to make the
game item-completable, if the player had passed the spot where Maria
used to be and started the "toilet-run", he/she would have simply got
stuck in the hole in "Dank Passage to the End". Since the toilet-run
is to the right, the player also wouldn't have seen the imposing
Vampire Lord in the next room to the left - to whom the title of the
game itself refers - or the following room "Onwards! To Your Next
Adventure!". So in the SE the final sequence was fixed so that the
player has to pass through both of these rooms, then through a simple
additional room created as a linker, and then finally makes
the "toilet-run", which ends in a place which seems to be very
appropriate for the ending (play and see what it is!).
- The game was made more player-friendly by eliminating most of the
unfair infinite-death scenarios (IDS), which occurred e.g. when the
player simply walked into the next room.
The only new quality introduced into the playable part of the SE was
teleportation. It was implemented using John Elliott's teleporter
extension. It allowed a satisfactory fixing of the final sequence,
and also an easy fixing of various IDS without making visible changes
to the rooms.
Other changes were of aesthetic nature, meant to highlight the fact
that the player had a Special Edition on his/her screen. The most
notable of them is the redesigned title screen, which is probably one
of the most-graphically-advanced title screens among the released
JSW48 games.
Please see the "Vampire SE" text file for details.
I hope that the opportunity to re-experience the "visual feast"
created by Lee Tatlock will be an enjoyable one for all of you, and
do not forget to let Lee know that you have enjoyed "Willy vs. The
Vampire Lord"! (his address is in both text files) :-)
Daniel
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