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using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
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Message: 6715
Author: jetsetdanny
Date: 29/12/2010
Subject: "Jet Set Willy: The 2010 Megamix" has been released!
I am delighted to announce the gamma release of "Jet Set Willy: The 2010 Megamix"!
The file (jsw_2010_megamix.zip) can be downloaded from my folder ("Daniel Gromann") in the Files section of this Group. Hopefully, it should soon appear on WoS as well.
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* Changes since the Beta version
- loading screen added;
- custom basic loader edited appropriately;
- several minor improvements and bugfixes applied in both versions;
- one critical bug removed from the Easy Version (from room 160 "The Inlet"), which made the Beta file impossible to complete;
- music and sprite authorship made more accurate in the scrolling message;
- a comprehensive text file enclosed in the ZIP package.
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* Game highlights
A. Non-gameplay, visual or technical highlights:
- The largest JSW 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 clones or near-clones created for technical purposes).
Sendy's "where's woody" was the first (in fact: has been the only) JSW game ever to have 256 edited rooms, but you do not 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).
- The first ever (and so far the only) JSW128 game to have a loading screen;
- An advanced title screen, partly designed manually (in JSWED Hex editor, outside of the standard JSWED functions);
- An additional, "final" screen which is displayed when you lose all your lives, after Willy is crashed by the foot and before going back to the title screen;
- A title-screen tune and an in-game tune never before used in any released game;
- 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;
- An unusual "guardian display" effect in one of the rooms;
- Tributes to games by Andrew Broad, Sendy (Alex Cornhill) and Richard Hallas, as well as to Darth Melkor's "Manic Scribbler";
- Full use of JSW128 memory.
B. Gameplay highlights (relating mainly to the Hard Version, which I consider "primus inter pares"):
- One of the most difficult games ever designed;
with close to 100 rooms which I would describe as "difficult rooms of advanced design" (akin to the rooms in Andrew Broad's games or Sendy's "strangel") and some individual special challenges in other rooms.
- The first ever use of a quirky feature of the game engine which allows Willy to drop down safely, after a jump through an overhead block, the height of over five blocks (as in for example "Snatch the Disk and Get Out!" [056], "Road to the Inaccessible Castle" [091] and "Ropeway to the Observatory" [106]);
This challenge was present in "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" already and Andrew Broad later called it "Daniel Gromann's overhead ILB" in his documents concerning the quirky features of the game engine (ILB standing for "innocent-looking block").
- Challenges involving 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 accuracy at the correct 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 and requires a lot of activity from the player - the best-developed final sequence of all JSW games created so far.
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. The player also has to make a choice at one point as to the route he/she is going to take ("the most fateful of all choices"); if they choose the wrong way, they will reach the very end of the game, but without being able to complete it (the wrong ending).
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* "JSW: The 2010 Megamix" vs. "JSW: The 2005 Megamix"
"JSW: The 2010 Megamix" is a complete, finished product. From today's perspective, "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" is only a halfway product (although it may not have looked that way at the time of its release, since it is a completable game).
I do not perceive the two as two different games, and I think they should not be listed as such. I believe that "JSW: The 2010 Megamix" should only be listed, with information that the first phase of its development was "JSW: The 2005 Megamix". That is why I have enclosed an additional ZIP with the original game and text file of "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" in the release of "JSW: The 2010 Megamix" - so that there is no more need to host "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" separately.
"JSW: The 2005 Megamix" has 182 edited rooms. "JSW: The 2010 Megamix" has 256 edited rooms, of which 139 are rooms from "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" (many of them modified) and 117 are new rooms, which do not appear in "JSW: The 2005 Megamix". On the other hand, there are 44 rooms which appear in "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" and do not appear in "JSW: The 2010 Megamix" any more (the seeming arithmetical incongruence between the above numbers is due to the fact that the room "No! Not the USR 0 Lines!" from "JSW: The 2005 Megamix" is used twice in "JSW: The 2010 Megamix"). I do not think it is any waste, since they are very simple rooms and they have been substituted by much more valuable rooms of advanced design.
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* Hard vs. Easy Version
The new rooms in the game were designed to be extremely difficult. The Hard Version was completed first. The Easy Version was only created afterwards, by re-editing the Hard Version. Therefore, 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 significant help (showing you where to go, for example, if you cannot figure out a downwards jump through an innocent-looking block.
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* Game credits
Please remember that I have used a lof of other people's material when creating "JSW: The 2010 Megamix". Please refer to the text file accompanying the game for detailed credits.
The fact that I am not the only author of the game should be noted wherever the game is hosted. As it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to enumerate every single person who has contributed to the creation of this game, my humble suggestion would be to describe the authorship as "Daniel Gromann, Paul Equinox Collins et al." - Paul's contribution is by far the largest as far as the rooms are concerned (49 of them), and the "et al." bit means there are other authors, too.
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Please download, enjoy and let me know you have played the game!
And a Happy New Year! May 2011 be good for all of you and for Miner Willy !
Daniel
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