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: 6695
Author: jetsetdanny
Date: 01/10/2010
Subject: "Jet Set Willy: The 2010 Megamix" BETA released!
I am delighted to announce the release of the Beta version of "Jet Set Willy: The 2010 Megamix", specially prepared for the members of this Group. May the struggle with the Hard Version or the pleasant walk through the Easy Version reinvigorate you and rekindle your interest in JSW if it has subsided over the years!
Before anything else, I would like to remind everyone that I am only a co-author of the game, as it incorporates a lot of material and ideas created by other authors (most notably 49 rooms designed by Paul Equinox Collins). Due credits are given in the scrolling message (as much as they could be fitted into it). At the time of the gamma release I will describe the credits in detail in the Group announcement. Of course they will also be given in even more detail in the text file included in the ZIP file of the gamma release.
Please do not spread the Beta version outside of the Group and do not archive it, unless you are a game- or room-completist. Please send me all your comments, bug reports and suggestions for improvement as soon as possible, preferably in the next two months. I would like to release the gamma version some time in December, before Christmas if possible.
Now, as a "producer's hype," let me mention some highlights of the game.
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* Non-gameplay, visual or technical highlights:
- An advanced title screen, partly designed manually (in JSWED Hex editor, but outside of the standard JSWED functions).
- An additional, "final" screen which shows if you lose all your lives, after Willy is crashed by the foot and before going back to the title screen.
- A title-screen and in-game tunes never before used in any released games.
- An additional, fourth tune (besides the title-screen, in-game and cheat-mode tunes), which plays when the final screen is displayed and which is the original JSW48 title-screen tune.
- 117 new rooms which do not appear in "JSW: The 2005 Megamix"
Most of them are newly designed, several are "historical" rooms transferred from versions of JSW for other platforms.
- An unusual "guardian display" effect in one of the rooms.
- Tributes to the games by Andrew Broad, Sendy (Alex Cornhill) and Richard Hallas, as well as to Darth Melkor's "Manic Scribbler".
- Full use of JSW128 memory.
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* Gameplay hightlights
(relating mainly to the Hard Version, which I consider "primus inter pares"):
- The largest game ever made in the sense of the number of rooms you *have to* pass through (or visit) to complete it.
The game has 256 edited rooms. You have to pass through / visit 248 rooms to complete the game successfully. If you pass through 251 rooms, you have completed the game, but you have failed
[the above numbers refer to technical rooms; in some cases two or three technical rooms correspond to one room on the game map they are near-clones created for technical purposes]
(Sendy's "where's woody" was the first (in fact: has been the only) game ever to have 256 edited rooms, but you don't need to visit all of them to complete the game (you can omit the whole "Love" sequence of 9 rooms which has no items, several rooms to the right of the "entrance hall" if you use the invisible teleporter, the whole sequence starting with "up the garden path" and some others).
- One of the most difficult games ever designed
with close to 100 rooms which I would describe as "difficult rooms of advance design" (akin to the rooms in Andrew Broad's games or "strangel") and some individual special challenges in other rooms.
- Challenges involving the invalid arrow technology, some combining it with the need of quirky jumps.
- New, innovative (TTBOMK) invalid ramps, producing amazing effects.
- A technical first, TTBOMK: having to use guardians to protect you from arrows!
- Other interesting challenges, including:
using ropes to pass through Earth-cells, moving on ropes to avoid Fire-cells (through which the ropes pass), effects resulting from setting the Air attributes to the same value as Conveyor and Ramp attributes (including invalid ramps), using the superjump and design patterns involving sticky conveyors.
- An extensive use of "traditional" quirky features.
- A lot of challenges involving dextrous jumping and correct timing, including some extreme, seemingly impossible challenges which call for pixel-perfect jumping at the right guardian cycle.
- A more extensive use of diagonal guardians than in any other game (AFAICT).
- An extremely advanced final sequence, which forms an integral part of the gameplay
During the toilet run the player has to be active and use the correct keys both to stop running / remain unmoving on the rope and to move forward (on conveyors), has to avoid moving guardians, use those ropes which are helpful and get away from those which are obstacles, hide behind Water-cells to outmanoeuvre arrows and use moving platforms to get over gaps and static guardians.
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* Improvements in relation to "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" or in the rooms which come from it:
- No more unfair infinite-death scenarios
- No more "linker rooms" (very simple ones created only to fill out the game layout)
- No more "trap rooms" (leading to infinite-fall scenarios)
- Enhanced room design in some rooms leading to increased difficulty (especially in the Hard Version)
- No quirky features in the Easy Version
- Improved graphics
- Some changes to the layout of the "old" parts of the game
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* Hard vs. Easy Version
The new rooms in the game were designed to be difficult. The Hard version was completed first. The Easy version was only created afterwards, by re-editing the Hard version. Thefore, the Hard version is "the first among equals".
The Hard version is intended to be an extreme challenge for the most dedicated players. Some parts of it are very easy, but some are forbiddingly difficult. You will probably get *very* frustrated as you progress through the latter, but then you should have a *huge* satisfaction when you complete the game successfully.
The Easy version should be easy enough and at the same time interesting enough for both beginners and "regular" players.
Warning: If you intend to play both versions, playing the Easy version first will probably be a spoiler and will deprive you of much of the joy related to the solving of the Hard version puzzles. On the other hand, if you are an inexperienced, but ambitious player who wants to master the world of the quirky features, it can be a significant help (showing you where to go, for example, if you cannot figure out a downwards jump through an innocent-looking block) I had that experience myself when years ago I first played Andrew Broad's "JSW: The Lord of the Rings", the first game I ever played which makes an extensive use of the quirky features.
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* Final comments on the BETA release
I believe that both the Easy and the Hard beta versions can be completed without losing a single life (especially if you save and reload snapshots :-) ). I haven't integrally tested the two actual files I am releasing (I couldn't force myself to do it after the endless playtesting of several pre-beta versions), but I think they should be free of critical bugs. Please play them to confirm it or prove me wrong.
I will be grateful for any critical comments or suggestions which may help to improve the game. And, most of all, if you have a go at it enjoy it!
I look forward to your reactions.
Daniel
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