Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
      using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines

 

 

	Previous message		Next message
	Previous in thread		Next in thread

 

 

Message: 5902

Author: andrewbroad

Date: 19/08/2006

Subject: Re: Henry's Hoard / Willy's Hoard / JGH-mode

 

Daniel wrote:

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?

The question is, how would we measure the "amount of modifications"?

(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 the
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.).

Ha! If only it were that simple...

4. Andrew wrote:

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" :-) .

I have never claimed this patch as a "mode" myself, as it is just a
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 a
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...

It's certainly good to be alert to the fact that there are more than
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. Bigos

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.

I have replaced "A. Biggs" with "Andy Bigos" in the local copy of my
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/

 

 

	Previous message	Back to the Yahoo! Archive home page	Next message
	Previous in thread		Next in thread