Jet Set Willy 2021 Edition

[Richard Hallas]

No current plans to do JSW 2 or The Perils of Willy, but I won't rule it out

It would certainly be marvellous to see JSW II get the treatment that Manic Miner and JSW have already received on the BBC.

As for The Perils of Willy… that's a truly atrocious game in its original VIC-20 form, and has entirely different mechanics from the 'real' Willy games, so I'd suggest it isn't really worth porting from the VIC.

HOWEVER… in recent times, a talented guy called Allan Turvey has created a Spectrum port of The Perils of Willy based on a heavily modified version of the Manic Miner engine. (I actually had a hand in its creation myself.) Whilst it'll never be as good a game as the proper Matthew Smith ones, this new Spectrum edition is, in fact, half-decent and playable. So if a BBC port were ever done, I'd strongly suggest starting off with this version rather than the VIC-20 one. OK, it's not as authentic to the original… but the original's crap, and this version is considerably less so. Get the new Spectrum version from here:

https://highriser.itch.io/the-perils-of-willy

By the way, although the version online is for the 48K Spectrum and is available for free, anyone who donates for it is sent an enhanced version for the 128K Spectrum. So if a port's being considered, it's worth knowing that a superior Spectrum 128 version exists. (It has improved music and a few other enhancements.)

[Rob_hawk]

A fabulous achievement and what a striking difference. As someone just learning the art of BBC assembly about 4 decades too late I’m full of admiration reading your notes and delving (read lost in!) your disassembly.

[Beebson]

The programming of this game is finished already, but I want to point out one thing.

2. The one really obvious gameplay difference from the Spectrum is ropes that you shouldn't be allowed to ascend, but can. E.g. on The Beach and Under the Roof: Willy should only be able to ascend these ropes to a certain point and go no higher, but in the BBC version he can go right to the top and wrap around to the bottom of the screen. The original BBC version does this too, but it'd be nicer if it could behave like the Spectrum (and all other ports I've tried).

I don´t know if this behaviour happens in same rooms, but on MSX you can enter some rooms by ascending the rope, e.g. the swimming pool. It has the correct rope behaviour, but with the good timing, in some screens, you can enter the room above.

[lovebug]

I just tried this on the beeb, Wonderful