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: 6473
Author: Daniel
Date: 25/09/2008
Subject: "strangel" - Daniel's review and RZX walkthrough
It is my pleasure to announce to the Group that an RZX walkthrough of
Sendy (Alex Cornhill)'s "strangel" can now be downloaded from The RZX
Archive (http://www.rzxarchive.co.uk/j.php#jetsetwillystrangel). It
features an efficient performance along what I believe to be an
optimal route. The game is completed with no loss of life and with a
toilet-time of 10.04 am.
It took me three days of intense playing (using every spare moment of
the day, including two weekend days, and a portion of each night) to
complete "strangel" for the first time. Then it took me two more days
of similar effort to RZX-record it to my satisfaction. I must say the
game is so good I just couldn't resist the temptation, I wanted so
badly first to confirm that it is really completable and then to see
how efficiently I could complete it.
I played after having read the text file included with the game and
with some help "from" JSWED in analysing some rooms, but without any
other outside help, such as reading messages about "strangel" posted
previously in the Group. Towards the end of my first run I got
seriously stuck with 11 items to go, four of them in the
cluster "Extra Lucid OUTlet", "ceci n'est pas une chambre" and "trICK
STEP", and five in the room "i nformation". At that point I finally
consulted the Group messages and found Andrew Broad's summary of his
full, six-part playtest of "strangel", which gave me the hints I
needed to figure out how to complete the game. Andrew's summary can
be found in messages # 5325, 5399, 5414, 5429, 5431 and 5460, with
Sendy's reply to some of his comments in message # 5328.
"Intriguingly" (that's a word Andrew uses *a lot* while
describing "strangel") I completed my first go at the game with a
toilet-time quite similar to (in fact, slightly worse than) Andrew's
(3:24 pm versus 3:06 pm) and I got stuck in very similar places
(although I had solved the "rope puzzle of room 34" earlier, but then
I didn't know how to enter "i nformation" on the right-hand side).
I feel there is little I can say in my review that would not be a
repetition of Andrew's comments, so I will just say I generally agree
with all he said, and particularly with the generous praise he gives
to the game. "strangel" is a fantastic work of JSW art, brightly
devised and "flairsomely executed", extremely interesting and
innovative from the technical point of view and impressive in the
sense of the graphics. Plus it has this weird atmosphere which is a
quality in itself. It shows what a great JSW author Sendy is, and
while I am at it, let me say (again) that I earnestly hope that she
will release more games soon. My permanent hope is for "Manic Person"
and "Role Reversal", which have been so close to completion for such
a long time. The Special Edition of "strangel", apparently also close
to completion a while ago already, would be fascinating to see and to
play now that I know the original edition. I am sure "Death TV" will
become another "classic" game as soon as it is released, and anything
else that comes from Sendy will be sure to stun us with new quality.
The last we knew of Sendy in the Group was that she was "playing and
editing on a regular basis" again (message # 6416 from 16 April this
year). I hope this continues, and it would be encouraging to know it
for sure, while eagerly awaiting the release of her new projects.
Shall we see them, Sendy? :-)
If I were to express some criticism of "strangel", I would say that
the geography of the game is really frustrating until you get a good
grasp of it. Ultimately it is not an obstacle for completing the game
efficiently (which I hope my RZX walkthrough proves) since you don't
have to pass through too many rooms already cleared of items if you
follow the right route, but until one starts to remember the exits
and interconnections between the rooms, one gets easily annoyed over
the complicated layout (well, this may not really be criticism who
says a game should be easy or that the layout should be easy?).
Also, purely as my individual preference, I am not really fond of the
font used. It is not easy to read, which combined with the
strangeness of many of the room-names and mixed upper- and lower-case
spelling makes it difficult to remember the names, which complicates
the problem of geography even further. The "font problem" abates in
JSWED. But using JSWED to crack the mysteries of some games can be
very misleading too, which I painfully found out while analysing,
with the colour attributes changed to my "standard" ones (black for
Air, blue for Earth, green for Water, yellow for Fire, red for
Conveyor and Magenta for Ramp) how to exit "Noted" in order to
enter "i nformation" on the right-hand side...
The unfair infinite-death scenarios which Andrew pointed out are
probably the only "objective" flaws which I can find in the game, but
then there are just a few of them, and in the snapshot-saving era of
emulated gaming they are not that much of a problem, either.
Now, just to highlight some points on the positive side, the invalid
ramp technology is very impressive and deserves further study and
development. The invalid arrow technology is great, too, and a number
of design patterns requiring the player to make difficult jumps
deserve to be reused in other games. Some of them will find their way
into "JSW: The 2009 Megamix", I'm sure...
The final sequence is fantastic. I was proud of the innovative
elements of the final sequence of "JSW: The 2005 Megamix", which I
had designed without ever playing "strangel", but I can now see how
primitive they are in the visual sense (while their technical value
still holds, I believe). I should really try and link the technical
with the visual in the final sequence of "JSW: The 2009 Megamix"
but now I won't be able to avoid drawing on some patterns set
by "strangel", I'm afraid...
So, to sum up, congratulations, Sendy, on this classic 2001
contribution of yours to the scene, and I look forward to enjoying
new fruits of your designing genius :-) .
Daniel
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