Jet Set Willy 2021 Edition

[TobyLobster]

Similar to my Manic Miner 2021 Edition (viewtopic.php?f=74&t=22323) I've updated the original BBC Micro version of Jet Set Willy:

Improvements

* More colours on screen.
* More authentic colour choices.
* More tuneful.
* New font.
* Corrected room and sprite definitions.
* Arrows and ropes together again.
* Uses the RETURN key for jump.
* Watch Tower crash bug fixed.
* Arrow rendering bug fixed.
* Player start position fixed.
* Works on the Master.

https://github.com/TobyLobster/jsw2021/raw/main/JSW.ssd

I've written notes and published the source code here https://github.com/TobyLobster/jsw2021

[leenew]

Marvellous!

Lee.

[kieranhj]

I just quickly read your write up on GitHub - what a fantastic piece of work and really interesting to read about all the bugs, differences and fixes - clearly a labour of love. The increase of colours per room makes a huge difference - excellent touch! I look forward to playing this on my Master soon.

[lurkio]

Incredible!

[FourthStone]

Impressive effort, really enjoying the write up, top marks

I wholeheartedly approve of improving / correcting classics

[Richard Hallas]

This is a stupendous piece of work! Very well done indeed; the improvements are incredible – particularly the per-row palette changes, allowing a far more authentic use of colour.

Just three small observations…

1. In The Bathroom, the wall behind the toilet is white-on-black rather than yellow-on-blue. I understand why it has to change colour here, but I don't see why both colours have to change, since yellow is still in the palette definition. Why can't it go to yellow on black? That would make it a much less obvious change.

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).

3. The notes say, under Lives: "The remaining lives are shown by a line of Willy characters walking right. This is unlike the Spectrum where they are static, but apes Manic Miner instead." That's actually wrong. On the Spectrum, Manic Miner and JSW both behave in the same way, i.e. the lives march if the background music is playing, and are stationary if it isn't. It would be nice if this BBC version could mimic this behaviour.

That's really nit-picking, though. Overall, an incredible piece of work!

[TobyLobster]

Thanks. Re: Observations:

1. I thought the same thing until I tried it. Counter-intuitively yellow on black I think looks more obvious.

2. I've now fixed the rope behaviour as you suggest to match the Spectrum version.

3. I'd never noticed this, you're right! I've updated the marching Willy characters to mimic this behaviour, and updated the notes to correct this.

Thanks for these.

[0xC0DE]

Great work once again! I can't keep up with you

[Richard Hallas]

Thanks. Re: Observations:

1. I thought the same thing until I tried it. Counter-intuitively yellow on black I think looks more obvious.

How absolutely extraordinary! Yes, I completely agree now that I see it. Logically, it should be much better with yellow, yet it simply isn't. How can a single subtle colour-change be clearly more obvious than two less subtle changes? I don't understand… Weird. Anyway, I agree that you've made the right choice.

2. I've now fixed the rope behaviour as you suggest to match the Spectrum version.

3. I'd never noticed this, you're right! I've updated the marching Willy characters to mimic this behaviour, and updated the notes to correct this.

Thanks for these.

Wonderful! And fast work. Thank you!

By the way, perhaps I shouldn't ask, but… is there anything akin to the Spectrum's WRITETYPER mode?

[lurkio]

This, from your notes on Github, might be of interest to people if you'd be willing to share it..?:

I hacked away at the b2 emulator to allow playback of keyboard inputs from a text file. This allowed me to automatically play through the entire game to check that it was completable.

[TobyLobster]

By the way, perhaps I shouldn't ask, but… is there anything akin to the Spectrum's WRITETYPER mode?

Sadly no cheat mode, mostly because I'm out of memory. There's only 12 bytes free right now. Still, who needs a cheat mode ?

[TobyLobster]

might be of interest to people if you'd be willing to share it..?

Maybe, I'll have to think about that one. I'd want to get it in some kind of sensible order first.

[MatthewThompson]

I can only echo what has been posted previously, this is absolutely brilliant, when I first read there was an update, I thought I hope Moonlight Sontana has been added and it has !

Unfortunately and I don't know why - probably emulaitor/platform specific, the colours don't display properly using !BeebIT on RISC OS 5 machine, see attachment, the game all works and plays and sounds perfect, but it doesn't seem to like the new colours, there is like a colour band which moves down the screen until it gets to the correct colours but then the band goes down it again.

I haven't tried it yet on BeebEM on my PC, but I am pretty sure this won't happen on there.

I don't know if this can be fixed or not, but thought it was worth mentioning just in case but again a brilliant piece of work, any chance of a JSW II update too ?

[TobyLobster]

the colours don't display properly using !BeebIT on RISC OS 5 machine

This looks like an emulation issue with !BeebIT. Sorry I can't help with that.

[MatthewThompson]

the colours don't display properly using !BeebIT on RISC OS 5 machine

This looks like an emulation issue with !BeebIT. Sorry I can't help with that.

my thoughts exactly it was an emulator issue, no worries, thanks anyway and keep these brilliant updates coming !

[MatthewThompson]

Definitely emulator related as here it is running on !6502em on RISC OS.

[TobyLobster]

That one looks *almost* right - it seems to be changing the palette one pixel row too early, e.g. the bottom pixels of the green enemy is shown red.

[MatthewThompson]

That one looks *almost* right - it seems to be changing the palette one pixel row too early, e.g. the bottom pixels of the green enemy is shown red.

I hadn't noticed that at all, but having a quick play round it does appear on a few screens, but I can live with it , doesn't spoil playing the game.

[TobyLobster]

Fixed a bug where the lives would not be redrawn on room exit if the music was not playing. (Same link in initial post).

[a1exh]

This is a breath taking technical masterpiece. Congratulations on improving this cult game on our platform. I enjoyed reading the technical diary of what was done. I played the spectrum version more than any other platform. I did play it on the Elk but it was a shadow of the spectrum in the visuals. Plus I do remember different mechanics. Great job.

[Michael Brown]

Excellent work!

BTW can the bug with the WATCH TOWER in the original BBC version not be fixed somehow?

regards,
Mick.

[jgharston]

BTW can the bug with the WATCH TOWER in the original BBC version not be fixed somehow?

Yes.

[jgharston]

A fewTwo points:
* The display seems a bit far right. Changing register_crtc_array+3 to 90 centres it on BeebEm and my Master
* I've spotted a small number of jsr/rts sequences that could be optimised to JMPs and the branch to the RTS moved to another nearby RTS.

I was going to complain about using the Spectrum font, but it actually seems perfect! It's so weird playing on the Master and it being so close to the original.

Now... (cracks knuckles).... to update my room editor!

Edit:
* *RUN JSW1 instead of *RUN "JSW1" looks "neater"
* You don't need to change PAGE, as *RUN takes over completely
* If you put LDA #0:TAY:JSR OSFIND at the start of the entry code, you can also get rid of CLOSE#0, and reduce the !BOOT down to the single line: *JSW1
* If the file addresses are correctly set to the I/O processor, it works with the Tube turned on. Which, if you move the CLOSE#0 to the machine code, means it also works if any Tube is turned on!

[Dave Footitt]

Just wanted to echo what others have said here - absolutely great job, well done that man

[melchett]

Stunning piece of work and it breathes new life into a classic game. Great to see the Beeb can match the Spectrum original (and surpass it in some respects).

I was always pleased back in the day that Dave Mann / Tynesoft managed to cram that into the BBC Micro and preserve so much of the Spectrum game.

And this takes that work to another level - the additional colours and graphic tweaks are gorgeous. The Jet Set Willy start screen and the pulsating cross in particular.

I always wondered if this game could be completed and apparently so (Watch Tower screen crash aside, I think I had the cassette version). The replay file show it is - I wondered if anyone managed it without cheating, quite some feat to do that given how timing sensitive some of it is.

Spectrum font is a great addition as is the switch to using Return to jump.

Fascinating write up too - how did you remove the OSWORD/OSWRCH/OSBYTE calls without compromising e.g. Master compatibility? Will look at the code when I have a weekend with some more free time.

A labour of love which we can all benefit from, thank you!

Andy

[TobyLobster]

how did you remove the OSWORD/OSWRCH/OSBYTE calls without compromising e.g. Master compatibility?

Thankfully the BBC Micro and Master share a lot of the same hardware, at least for what I needed. The specific calls I replaced control the keyboard, sound, etc and these work the same across the two machines. So as it turned out, no Master specific code was needed. An Electron version would require a lot more changes.

[Andrew_Waite]

Jet Set Willy 2021 is a triumph. Eliminating the sprite flicker, the use of the Spectrum fonts and the extra colours gives the game a whole extra dimension. Superb.

[MatthewThompson]

After speaking with the author of !BeebIT emulator on RISC OS and him spending time working on it, JSW2021 on Beebit now looks like this

So it was emulator specific problem and it looks and plays really well now. Thanks again for this update for JSW , have you considered JSW2 on the BBC from the Speccy version ? that would be brilliant to complete the updated set . Or maybe The Perils Of Willy could be ported from Vic20 to the BBC ? just thought .

[MatthewThompson]

Stunning piece of work and it breathes new life into a classic game. Great to see the Beeb can match the Spectrum original (and surpass it in some respects).

I was always pleased back in the day that Dave Mann / Tynesoft managed to cram that into the BBC Micro and preserve so much of the Spectrum game.

And this takes that work to another level - the additional colours and graphic tweaks are gorgeous. The Jet Set Willy start screen and the pulsating cross in particular.

I always wondered if this game could be completed and apparently so (Watch Tower screen crash aside, I think I had the cassette version). The replay file show it is - I wondered if anyone managed it without cheating, quite some feat to do that given how timing sensitive some of it is.

Spectrum font is a great addition as is the switch to using Return to jump.

Fascinating write up too - how did you remove the OSWORD/OSWRCH/OSBYTE calls without compromising e.g. Master compatibility? Will look at the code when I have a weekend with some more free time.

A labour of love which we can all benefit from, thank you!

Andy

I can't comment on the BBC version of JSW , but the Electron version could definitely be completed as I managed to do it, that was on cassette on the Electron, no cheats or save states or anything like that.

[TobyLobster]

After speaking with the author of !BeebIT emulator on RISC OS and him spending time working on it, JSW2021 on Beebit now looks like this

So it was emulator specific problem and it looks and plays really well now. Thanks again for this update for JSW , have you considered JSW2 on the BBC from the Speccy version ? that would be brilliant to complete the updated set . Or maybe The Perils Of Willy could be ported from Vic20 to the BBC ? just thought .

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