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Message: 5902
Author: andrewbroad
Date: 19/08/2006
Subject: Re: Henry's Hoard / Willy's Hoard / JGH-mode
Daniel wrote:
>The question is, how would we measure the "amount of modifications"?
> 3. Andrew wrote:
>
> > It's a controversial issue, whether Henry's Hoard should be
> > recognised as a JSW48 game, considering how heavily it is based
> > on the JSW game-engine and room-format.
> >
> > There are two main objections against recognising it as JSW:
> >
> > 1. It was never claimed to be a JSW game when it was released -
> > unlike every single game in the JSW, JSW128 and JSW64 categories.
> >
> > 2. The file-formats are so complicated that I never got round to
> > preparing the data-sheets to type Henry's Hoard into my real
> > Spectrum. In fact, the current revision of SPECSAISIE doesn't
> > even recognise HENRY85.TAP and HENRY86.TAP as valid TAP-files!
>
>
> Just out of curiosity, how does "Henry's Hoard" compare with Erix-1
> Mode games as far as the amount of modifications to the original
> game engine is concerned?
(a) the number of memory-locations whose values are different from
the original JSW, and which hold machine-code instructions as
opposed to 'data'?
N.B.1. Of course, corresponding memory-locations may not even have
the same addresses, if some code has been relocated.
N.B.2. If we define a game as consisting of a game-engine plus the
game-data, then the distinction between engine and data
is unclear.
(b) the number of patches applied, as identified by a technique
similar to program-slicing? This would be a higher-level measure,
but not necessarily a truer one.
> Should Erix-1 mode games turn out to be more different from theHa! If only it were that simple...
> original JSW than "HH", it would be seem fair to include "HH" in
> the JSW48 games category, with a separate type descriptor,
> wouldn't it?
> (in spite of the intention of the original authors, which was
> probably mainly motivated by legal issues, etc.).
> 4. Andrew wrote:I have never claimed this patch as a "mode" myself, as it is just a
>
> > The way I see it, increasing the number of rooms is just a
> > single patch, and does not therefore warrant an elaborated type-
> > descriptor. Having a symbol for every single patch would be a
> > bit over the top...
>
> I made my suggestion mainly because John Elliott recognises a "JGH
> Mode" (http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Jsw/taxonomy.html). In fact
> he also recognises an "Andrew Mode" whose main characteristic
> is "Sprite set in room definition" :-) .
single patch, and I have written many others. I would only call
it "Andrew Mode" if I bundled all these patches together in a single
game-engine. But, of course, I would rather pick and choose which
patches are appropriate to each individual game.
What's interesting about patching the JSW-engine to set the player's
sprite-page from Room-offset 237, and about J.G. Harston's patch for
extra rooms, is that these patches actually affect the room-format -
unlike most patches.
> Having said this, I must say I agree with your argument that aIt's certainly good to be alert to the fact that there are more than
> result of a single patch does not really merit to be considered a
> different mode of the game engine. The only thing with "JGH Mode"
> is that it makes the very significant difference of the possible
> number of rooms - but still...
64 rooms in a game, although whether this actually warrants an
elaborated type-descriptor (e.g. JSW48:JGH) is doubtful...
Meditate on this, I will.
> 5. Concerning the problem of Biggs vs. BigosI have replaced "A. Biggs" with "Andy Bigos" in the local copy of my
>
> I would think that the in-game scrolly (consistent in all known
> versions) is more reliable than outside sources (such as
> magazines). It seems more probable that the Crash review author
> made a mistake (probably later repeated by WoS) than that the
> author himself did not spot the typo in the consecutive editions
> of the game. I did a search in Google and there is an Andy Bigos
> who used to work at 3DLabs and (if it's the same person) later on
> worked with Computer Artworks Ltd. and co-programmed such games
> as "Evolva" (2000) and "The Thing" (2002). It sounds like it could
> be our guy :-) . Unfortunately, I coudn't find his e-mail address,
> and the only one I did find (from the 3DLabs days) is not valid
> any longer.
List of MM/JSW Games, although I'm barely over 50% convinced that
I'm not introducing a spelling-mistake.
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
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