Jet Set Willy

By Martyn Carroll Published 12 June, 2011

A miner miracle.

Asking a Miner Willy fan to choose between Manic Miner and its sequel, Jet Set Willy, is like asking a parent to pick their favourite child. The games, programmed by 8-bit whiz kid Matthew Smith, are both brilliant platformers that have captivated gamers ever since they debuted on the ZX Spectrum in the early eighties.

I'm a fan of both, but if I was forced to choose my favourite then it would be Jet Set Willy every time. It's probably my favourite game. It's certainly the one I have the fondest memories of playing as a child.

For me Manic Miner was just too difficult. There were 20 underground caverns to explore, but like a lot of early games they had to be completed in turn. In each one you had to collect the keys while avoiding the nasties and unlock the exit before your air supply ran out. It was intense; the difference between safety and certain death was often nothing more than the width of a pixel.

After playing Manic Miner for months I don't think I ever got past the fifth cavern, Eugene's Lair, with its killer toilets. It was only years later, watching a play-through video on the web that I actually saw the entire game. Amazingly, Smith hadn't stacked all of the best caverns at the beginning. It was the opposite in fact, with brilliantly clever screens like The Warehouse and Solar Power Generator appearing near the end.

1

Welcome to Willy's not-so-humble abode.

Smith seemed to design Jet Set Willy with mere mortals like myself in mind. Rather than having sequential screens the sequel, which took place in Willy's sprawling mansion, featured a 60-room map which you could freely explore.

There was an overall objective, of course. It involved collecting all of the flashing objects scattered around the house so Willy's housemaid Maria would allow him to retire for the evening. But the emphasis was on exploration, and discovering what lurked in the darkest recesses of the house was utterly compulsive.

I must admit that when I first played Jet Set Willy I had no idea about the size of the game. I was obviously challenged as a young gamer because I didn't suss out that you could jump through the staircases. So imagine me for a second, heading down the stairs in the First Landing, weaving through The Nightmare Room, then becoming horribly unstuck at the ridiculously difficult Banyan Tree.

2

The thoroughly evil Banyan Tree. One of the trickiest screens ever?

This went on for weeks, before one day – one glorious day – I accidentally jumped on the stairs in the First Landing and fell through to the other side. It was like standing in the lobby of a huge hotel and the manager handing me a skeleton key that unlocked every room.

A similar moment occurred when I discovered the secret passage in The Wine Cellar that leads to the Forgotten Abbey and beyond. I immediately assumed there were other secret screens and spent hours checking every room for possible hidden doorways. It didn't help that a friend at school claimed to have stumbled across an secret sub-basement full of weird and wonderful rooms.

But it was easy to be taken in due to the game's seemingly endless scope. Some scamp sent a letter into Your Spectrum magazine saying that if you stood on the bow of Willy's yacht at the strike of midnight (game time) you'd sail off to a mysterious desert island. I can only guess at how many readers were fooled by that rapture-like prediction.

Even publisher Software Projects added to the myths surrounding the game by announcing a secret 'feature'. Apparently, visiting The Attic would trigger a chain reaction where four screens would suddenly turn 'bad', instantly killing you if you tried to enter them.

It claimed that this was intended to make the game more difficult, yet hacking into the code unsurprisingly revealed that it was actually an unfortunate bug which corrupted those previously accessible screens.

There were other bugs too. Some messed up the placement of certain objects, making it impossible to collect all 83 of them and therefore complete the game. Software Projects issued a fix in the form of values which you 'poked' into memory before loading the game.

3

Willy can often be found fiddling on the roof.

For some, this required game patch (the first one ever?) took the shine off Jet Set Willy. In contrast, Manic Miner was a really tight and polished piece of code. At the very least it had been play-tested through to completion.

Bugs seemed to infest Jet Set Willy. Following its debut on the Spectrum, the game was ported to several other machines by different programmers and most of them managed to bugger up something or other. As with the Spectrum version, the Commodore 64, Dragon 32 and BBC Micro releases couldn't be finished either.

But I was never too bothered about the bugs. For me, Jet Set Willy was never about completing the game anyway. It was more about being invited to explore Willy's vast mansion, and by extension, Matthew Smith's alien brain. Bizarre screens such as The Nightmare Room, Nomen Luni and We Must Perform a Quirkafleeg were baffling and brilliant.

4

The desert island rumour would become reality in the sequel-cum-remake Jet Set Willy II.

As much as I love the game I don't think I'll ever try and finish it properly. Repeatedly trying (and failing) to grab objects from devious screens like The Banjan Tree or Conservatory Roof would surely drive me crazy. It would become tedious. It would become like Manic Miner.

Instead of trying to progress I'd prefer to regress; to wipe the game from my memory so that I could play it for the first time and explore afresh. From the beginning I'd head through the kitchens to the west wing, then up to the battlements on the roof before leaving the house and climbing the MegaTree. And when I'd done that, I'd probably wander over to Willy's yacht and wait until midnight. You know, just in case.

Picture of Martyn.

About Martyn Carroll

Martyn has been writing about video games since 1997. He launched Retro Gamer magazine in 2004 and has been typecast as a lover of rubbish old games ever since. His specialist subject is actually the Crabs novel of Guy N. Smith.

Read more articles from Martyn by visiting the Martyn Carroll archive page.

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Comments (67) Latest comment 11 months ago

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  • Adge #1 12 months ago

    Genuine magic.

  • JetSetWilly #2 12 months ago

    \o/

  • Dreamcast_Luvr #3 12 months ago

    Matthew Smith was a genius , should have been the British Miyamoto.

  • DDevil #4 12 months ago

    I always assumed that was his wife stopping him from going to bed.

    Also, they re-released JSW with at least some of the bugs fixed, and the kids moan about patches these days :-D
    Edited by DDevil at 12/06/11 @ 09:30

  • MiY4MOTO #5 12 months ago

    Quality game & a great read. Thanks.

    Also, wasn't it one of the first games to feature intrusive DRM with that damn murky colour chart?

    Not that anyone would have spent their dinner hour copying it out onto school graph paper for 'redistribution'. Ahem.

  • liveinabin #6 12 months ago

    There was something really intoxicating and mysterious about exploring that mansion. The endless dirge of 'If I was a rich man' (off key) coupled with the sparse darkness of the visuals and the myriad crazy, but well animated, dangers all gave JSW a delicious nightmare quality that I've not experienced since.

    Bloody stupid game to try and finish though, even with the fixed version, infinite lives POKEs and the 'writetyper' cheat codes, it was still impossible.

  • speccy #7 12 months ago

    Walkthrough video of Jet Set Willy: [link url=http://www.rzxarchive.co.uk/videos/jsw.php
    ]http://www.rzxarchive.co.uk/videos/jsw.php
    [/link]

    I always found this game too hard myself!

  • thedaveeyres #8 12 months ago

    Truly a marvel for the time, though mine came without the copy protection card and being too poor to afford another copy
    for weeks (and an incredulous computer shop guy refusing to replace it) I had to keep guessing the four colour code till I got it on. This only added to the
    mystique. Never bothered collecting the glasses usually, just nibbled about seeing how many rooms I could see. Magic stuff.

  • MinerWilly #9 12 months ago

    Im a huge fan of the series (hence the name !) . Miner Willy was a bigger star than Mario and it bugs me that todays younger gamers seem to think he was the original platform star here in Europe . The NES sold pitiful amounts in the UK and everybody was playing Jet Set Willy on their Speccys , commodores and Amstrads.
    He was in my mind the first gaming icon of home computer gaming (not counting pac man etc as they where arcade machines) , I have the 3 games mounted on my wall above the computer im typing on now as a homage to Matt Smith !
    I use the name MinerWilly as my PSN name online and its turned out to have been a great way of meeting older gamers from the early days of gaming . The young kids (yup Americans) say " Ha Ha " ," MinerWilly" "you have got a small dick" ! I dont even bother to tell them that would be Minor not Miner, bah bloody whippersnappers !

  • Loremipsum #10 12 months ago

    General_Ironfist would be a great name for a gay adult film star. His debut would of course be "Jet Set Willy". The premise of the movie could be about a guy...

  • jonsaan #11 12 months ago

    I loved MM more. Jet Set Willy just didn't do it for me really. I think it's because there were so many better games on the Spectrum. Rather than JSW itself. I just never had time for being frustrated on that scale.
    Edited by jonsaan at 12/06/11 @ 10:07

  • jonsaan #12 12 months ago

    I loved MM more. Jet Set Willy just didn't do it for me really. I think it's because there were so many btter games on the Spectrum. Rather than JSW itself. I just never had time for being frustrated on that scale.

  • Trafford #13 12 months ago

    Best game ever. Once upon a time.

  • Vortex808 #14 12 months ago

    MM and JSW produced so many times where I would be mashing the keyboard of my trusty old C64 in frustration.

    Great article- thanks for the nostalgia fix. I mean 'retro' fix!

  • noom #15 12 months ago

    Have vague but fond memories of playing the Atari 800xl version of this. Some of my earliest gaming memories, alongside Spellbound and Panther :)

  • GamesConnoisseur #16 12 months ago

    Jet Set Willy, JSW, simply the most memorable, magical and time draining game for me when I was in my school years.

    I got handed the copy of pirated game on C90 as a swop of another C90 in the school playground, then determined to save my pocket money and bought the game proper. The piracy code to input was part of the appeal.

    Course the game required patching via poke to finish, but never see it as buggy mess, as the game started me on the powerful world of game changing and customisations of Pokes. I used to remember all the best Pokes off my heart and play the ever fanasticing world to my content.

    This defining moment for me during my youth would be perhaps be akin to those who played and loved Mario's games, Super Mario Bros and later games (JSW 1984.- SMB 1985). But JSW stays with me due to the style, humour and the poking game changing abilities.

  • paulf #17 12 months ago

    one of the titles that proves that games were much harder back in the day, although the guy doing the walkthrough video makes a mockery of that

  • Fur_Cough #18 12 months ago

    "Jet Set Willy is out now on Spectrum." Belies the magic. This was exploring a new world, in every sense.

  • skuzzbag #19 12 months ago

    I completed Manic Miner....

    but only with the help of two other friends (Jason and I can't remember who the other was) - we'd pile round Jases house after school and set to work on the game. It took us AGES to be honest (in 14 year old terms probably about a week), but late one night after I'd missed my tea we did it.

    I don't think I hung out with Jase or the other guy after that, it was just one of those moments in your life where everything comes together briefly and is ace.

    Jet Set Willy was another matter. I got to work to beat that game on my own but was thwarted by bugs and rumours that it couldn't be finished and eventually other games got in the way. Still, JSW was an undertaking and a half by Matthew and I remember at the time how impressed people were that he'd even attempted it.

    The fact that he was a bit of a hippy comes through in the design. I think it was in an interview in Crash that the interviewer said that he'd turned up barefoot! (Could be wrong about what magazine it was in).

  • iago71 #20 12 months ago

    God.... The memories. As others in this thread mention, the sense of excitment and wonderment when JSW came out was mind blowing. I remember using felt tips to colour in a grid with the piracy key on it for mates at school!!!! I played through it every night with a mate that lived in my street, we were both about 13/14 or so. Speccy after school pretty much defines that part of my life I would say.

    Having said that, for us, the Atari 2600 did precede that and that also holds great memories - Clocking Space Invaders and Defender were huge moments for us at the time, though I dont think they really are in the league of the Spectrum days :)

    It was incredible - In fact so many of the Speccy games of the time hold a massive place in my heart. Nice article. Cheers ....

    :)
    Edited by iago71 at 12/06/11 @ 11:19

  • YenooR #21 12 months ago

    I loved this game. Miner Willy and and Sabre Man were great spectrum characters.

  • cagian #22 12 months ago

    I loved Jet Set Willy. It was flawed, but still amazing. Someone should do a port for PSN & Live.

  • EmiliasHorse #23 12 months ago

    I had a BBC B when Bug Byte first released Manic Miner and I have to say I envied my best friend with his rubber key marvel. I have lost count of the versions I bought over the years (Including a WP7 version I picked up this year). I don't have the same love for Jet Set Willy, I dabbled and bimbled around but never came close to even collecting half of the items.

    A bit like Fairlight a game I love to remember liking but if truth be told didn't like it at all. Shame

  • Shinetop #24 12 months ago

    I've been staring at that front page picture for five minutes now and I still have no idea what's going on. A headless man in coattails is holding a champagne bottle and bending over forward to reveal the abomination of leather and buckle that is supposed to pass as shoes?

  • Sanxo #25 12 months ago

    I remember there was a place, down from the landing then _right_, then up where if you made a mistake you'd fall into the room below straight onto a bird I think. Since you started the next life entering the room as the same way as the last life, that would be game over pretty quickly, or more normally, pulling the plug out as you'd poked the infinite lives cheat.

    I think they fixed for that for JSWII.

    Also, Nightmare Room > Banyan Tree.

    Also also Quirkifleeg.

    Also also also the Hunchback rip-off around the same place. Some bad blood between Bug-Byte and Smith?

  • technicianTed #26 12 months ago

    Cracking game and just as evil and difficult in places as my namesake technician ted.
    I think as with most people it was all about exploring the mansion and just trying to reach rooms you'd never got to before.
    I don't think many of us actually got close to completing it back then(even if the bug didn't allow it).

    It certainly had that touch of magic that manic miner and several other classics had back then.
    Edited by technicianTed at 12/06/11 @ 11:59

  • Tyronne #27 12 months ago

    One the true milestones of gaming is jet set willy and I can still hear the theme tune of `if I was a rich man` playing in my head (and no doubt will continue to play there for the rest of the day) . Funny thing is, what I remember most about the game is that once it was out, Matt Smith vanished off the gaming scene and there were rumours of willy vs the vat man but they came to nothing...until Smith appeared online in a interviews in the late 1990`s and screens appeared of the third game that never was `the mega tree`.
    Sad thing is, you show this game to a young gamer now and they turn their noses up at it but I am glad I was there when it mattered.

  • jimmyhill11 #28 12 months ago

    This was the game that lead to my love of games, but it was also the game in which I first found out about cheating...

    Another really ace game released around the same time was Pyjamarama, which had a remarkably similar premise but was more polished if a little less whaky

  • work4EK #29 12 months ago

    Never played these? Go to this website and have a go! And also play with practically every Spectrum game ever!

    <a href="http://www.zxspectrum.net/
    ">http://www.zxspectrum.net/
    </a>

    Manic Miner in '1983' section

    Jet Set Willy in '1984' section

    Edited by work4EK at 12/06/11 @ 12:37

  • grayn #30 12 months ago

    @shinetop - he's got his head down the toilet, being sick! I remember asking exactly the same question when I was 6 and we had just got the game - I think I had concluded he was the plumber and was trying to fix it...

  • StooMonster #31 12 months ago

    My first job at Software Projects was converting Jet Set Willy to the Commodore 64. They had me working in-house and two contractors racing to finish first, SP were desperate to get it done and had been let down by other contractors.

    I'd barely got the data across into my dev system (from Matts Trash-80 into my Apple II kit) when one of the contractors finished the conversion first, and that was the one released. My version would've been slightly different, rather than a direct conversion I was planning to make Miner Willy a bit more rounded and multi-coloured like Mario and "upscale" the graphics to use full resolution of the C64.

    So I went off to work with Matt to work on the MegaTree game. Ah... the olden days.

  • Sanxo #32 12 months ago

    @StooMonster

    This intrigues me. What was the typical dev environment at that time?

    At the time of JSW I had no conception of a compiler, let alone a cross-compiler and although I knew that there were things such as assembly language and machine code but they were pretty much magic to me at the time. I just thought that you had to program Spectrum games with a Spectrum; anything else was witchcraft, basically.

  • Lunastra78 #33 12 months ago

    Manic Miner was the first game I ever played, on my dads Spectrum 48K.I still remember it fondly.

    Love these retro articles. Hope you do one on Uninvited/Shadowgate/Deja Vu. Those were my first encounter with adventure/horror games.
    Edited by Lunastra78 at 12/06/11 @ 15:43

  • hilts #34 12 months ago

    More great C64 memories! How about looking at the 'Monty Mole' series ?

  • SvennoJ #35 12 months ago

    I grew up with Jet Set Willy 2 on MSX. The game was pure magic right from the start up screen with the Escher triangle playing Fur Elise in 3 tone midi. It was hard, but rewarded exploration. I had most of the map burned into my mind, without ever seeing an actual map of the mansion.
    My favorites were to go up to the rocket, fly into space, then beam down to the alien planet or go to the front of the house and climb the giant tree.
    I never knew there was an ending, the only ending I knew was the giant foot coming from the ceiling to squash you.

  • MinerWilly #36 12 months ago

    @StooMonster , wow you actually worked at Software Projects , im so jealous mate . I live in Liverpool and have often wondered where exactly the Bear Brand Complex is in Woolton ! Looking at the cassette box cover right now and it says
    Software Projects
    Bear Brand Complex
    Allerton, Woolton
    Merseyside.
    051-428 7990
    Ive looked for it a few times to no avail is it past the 3 tower blocks when your going down Menlove Avenue then left at the junction . I often jog from my house on Penny Lane up to there and am wondering if it was demolished . In my opinion if it exists it should have some kind of plaque outside and make it a protected building ! Liverpool had such an amazing gaming scene then with yourselves and Imagine (later taken over by Ocean) and still does to this day , perhaps without you guys we never would have got Pysgnosis and later Sony Liverpool .

  • Mattattattatt #37 12 months ago

    Manic Miner (along with Space Raiders and Chuckie Egg) is one of my earliest recollections. I didn't play Jet Set Willy until much later, and I never warmed to it as much as its predecessor. I think because you didn't get the same satisfaction of completing levels like Manic Miner and it was rather difficult, I never quite gave it the time. Still, I must have spent many hours on it.

    However, my collection of PS trophies would mean nothing if I had something to record the fact I made it across the Banyan Tree. One of the biggest gaming moments ever :)

  • krayzkrok #38 12 months ago

    When my mum bought my brand new ZX Spectrum 16k, she got two games with it: Bugaboo the Flea, and Manic Miner. They were both classics, but I became obsessed with Manic Miner. When I finally beat it, the keyboard was covered in sweat. A couple of months later Crash magazine published the name of the guy who was supposed to be the first person to beat the game, but I'm pretty sure I beat them by a fair margin. Actually I'm sure I wasn't the only one, but in those days it was just a thrill to beat any game! Of course, Jet Set Willy was fabulous, but it could never quite top the focused brilliance of the original.

  • Mayhem64 #39 12 months ago

    @Grayn - the beauty of the cover is that it still refused to show us what Miner Willy really looked like (even JSW 2 made sure of that), is pretty iconic, and that it's a great big huge spoiler in plain sight. If you did manage to complete the game, patched bugs and all, then Willy left the bedroom and went to the toilet to throw up :p

  • StooMonster #40 12 months ago

    @Sanxo:

    Matt Smith used Tandy TRS-80 as his development box for Spectrum, if you look at old pictures of him on the internet he's always next to one, for C64 development we use Apple II kit at Software Projects. Over at Imagine they used Sage II and Sage IV machines (based on 68000 processors) which were marketed as "13 faster than Apple II" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAGE_Comput... and they were early machines at Denton Designs too and used for 8-bit games. The reason being that there were proper compilers and serious development tools, with floppy drives and backup, and connectivity to proper printers -- i.e. those alternate green and white paper line things, can you imagine using a Speccy thermal printer for work? -- and high resolution i.e. 80 character wide monitors.

    At Odin we used BBC B for C64, Spectrum, with green screen (or amber screen) high resolution monochrome monitors for everything really because there were some excellent 6502 and Z80 compilers and code editors on ROM and one could press an F-key to switch between them. There was also lots of fast floppy disc options to aid compiling code quickly, the BBCs were really fast at compiling code.

    When 16-bit Amiga and ST age dawned, we switched to development on those boxes at Denton where one was dev machine which compiled code which was downloaded to target (as per the above).

  • MinerWilly #41 12 months ago

    @StooMonster , Denton Designs ? Did they have a hand in the game "The Great Escape" published by Ocean ? That was my 2nd most played game on Speccy , absolutely miles ahead of its time .

  • StooMonster #42 12 months ago

    @MinerWilly

    Yep, I moved to Liverpool the day I finished school to work for Software Projects, and left the city when I left the games industry. Still got plenty of friends and family up there as Mrs StooMonster is a Scouser. Cool that you live on Penny Lane, I used to live there too, the first house I bought was in Croydon Avenue.

    Anyway, Bear Brand Complex was a tights manufacturer (i.e. Bear Brand) and Software Projects rented office space in the factory. It was located in Woolton village and is now the site of the large Sainsbury's supermarket and its carpark in the village.

    Odin was located in the Canning Place office blocks which was immediately opposite the Albert Dock, in our own offices at first (for Nodes and Robin) and then eventually in the old Bug Byte offices (larger space used a cubicle-farm with the warehouse at the rear), Imagine were in an office on Tithebarn Street IIRC and at Denton Designs we were in 30 Rodney Street (next to HSBC) for years. When Psygnosis started they were down in the Albert Docks.

  • StooMonster #43 12 months ago

    Yeah, we did "The Great Escape", the guys were working on it when I left Odin and joined the firm. I thought for a minute I did the Speccy loading screen for it (I mostly did graphics and game design in my days in the nascent games industry) but that was "Where Time Stood Still" instead.

  • Eraserhead #44 12 months ago

    Stoo, you worked at SP, Odin *and* Denton? For what it's worth, I am doffing my imaginary cap to you, sir.

    (Mind you, if we'd all bought games back than instead of swapping tapes, you might have had a better job. Er, sorry about that.)

  • MinerWilly #45 12 months ago

    @stoomonster thanks for the in-depth replies Stoo , I have such fond memories of growing up in those days and you played a part in creating some of my all time favourites . It all seemed so magical back then as a kid , im 36 this year and still love gaming . Battlefield 1942 and then its sequels are the only games that i have put a similar amount of hours into since Jet Set Willy , The Great Escape and Head over Heels !

  • petran79 #46 12 months ago

    Miner Willy was a bigger star than Mario and it bugs me that todays younger gamers seem to think he was the original platform star here in Europe . The NES sold pitiful amounts in the UK and everybody was playing Jet Set Willy on their Speccys , commodores and Amstrads.
    He was in my mind the first gaming icon of home computer gaming (not counting pac man etc as they where arcade machines) , I have the 3 games mounted on my wall above the computer im typing on now as a homage to Matt Smith !
    I use the name MinerWilly as my PSN name online and its turned out to have been a great way of meeting older gamers from the early days of gaming . The young kids (yup Americans) say " Ha Ha " ," MinerWilly" "you have got a small dick" ! I dont even bother to tell them that would be Minor not Miner, bah bloody whippersnappers !


    prior to Mario I was fond of this game on the Atari 2600. Much harder and very frustrating. I never finished it.

    [link url=http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-2600-vcs-alices-abenteuer_12282.html
    ]http://www.atarimania.com/game-atari-260...[/link]

    as an answer to Mario there were also the much better Gianna Sisters.

    ""One reason not to like the Nintendo-mob...they have allowed the Sisters to be forbidden because of these two annoying, moustache-wearing overall-plumbers. Thank you for nothing, Nintendo ;o)!!!"

    [link url=http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/The_Great_Giana_Sisters
    ]http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/The_Gr...[/link]

  • nafter #47 12 months ago

    You can play Jet Set Willy in your web browser - link is here.

    http://www.darnkitty.com/jsw/

  • Scimarad #48 12 months ago

    Thanks for that link. That game is still really addictive.

    Thankfully a quick google proved that I wasn't going round the bend for remembering playing this on the Amstrad with some screens in the shape of a starship.

  • Kaminari #49 12 months ago

    Ah, the time when you had to type in your own patches!

    Martyn, you're becoming my favourite EG reviewer.

  • EMarkM #50 12 months ago

    Two words:-

    April Showers

    Thanks for helping me to relive the magic :)

  • nick_f Verified Senior Producer, Microsoft #51 12 months ago

    Anyone with fond memories of JSW should definitely check out "LaserCat" on the Xbox LIVE Indie Games service. It's a loving tribute to the days of exploring bizarre 8-bit mazes driven by quirky imagination.

  • ShiroBen #52 12 months ago

    MM vs JSW is the original 'tight gameplay' vs 'open world fun'. MM is the better game, absolutely and without question, but I always had more fun just buggering around in JSW, trying to get a little further than I had before, not even really bothering about collecting anything.

  • merseymal #53 12 months ago

    Definitely enjoyed the exploration side of JSW and JSW2. Bought JSW2 directly from Software Projects and also received a cardboard tube in the mail full of posters for Software Projects titles. Unfortunately, my mum chucked them out a few years later :(

    Was lucky enough to pay a visit to Odin in Canning Place and Denton Designs on Rodney Street when doing an amateur computer mag.

  • PixelPirate #54 12 months ago

    More great C64 memories! How about looking at the 'Monty Mole' series ?

    They have a few weeks ago ;-)

  • Alipan #55 12 months ago

    Got this on the Amstrad some time after having it on the Spectrum. I was amazed when you could go up through the roof of the house and take off in a rocket, leading to a series of screens in space.

    In hindsight I guess this must have been Jet Set Willy 2? I hadnt realised at the time and it was an amazing thing to discover!

  • ant72 #56 12 months ago

    JSW II was actually pretty good.

  • andromeda #57 12 months ago

    kneel at the altar of Smith.

  • StooMonster #58 12 months ago

    @Alipan: In hindsight I guess this must have been Jet Set Willy 2?

    No, you were right the first time.

    First there was JSW on Speccy, with C64 and other conversions that mirrored the original game.

    Steve Wetherill and Derrick Rowson were in-house developers who did the Amstrad port of the game and for fun added lots of rooms, for example the Star Trek parody stuff (e.g. Captain's Log) and stuff about the house Steve, Marc and me shared (house on Holt Road full of beer barrels).

    Matt was "working" with Marc and me on MegaTree but Software Projects was keen not to lose momentum with Miner Willy so they asked Derek to port the Amstrad game back to Speccy, which he did, and they called it "Jet Set Willy 2".

    There's a 2010 interview with Steve and Derrick about it here http://www.jdawiseman.com/papers/games/j...

  • Alipan #59 12 months ago

    @Stoomonster - Ah interesting that all makes sense now. Good to know I wasnt as confused as I thought I was!

    The space section came as a complete suprise to me - I had owned the game for quite some time before one day randomly deciding to climb the roof. Great memories. If I remember rightly the rocket actually scrolled off the screen?
    Edited by Alipan at 13/06/11 @ 12:18

  • SAMagic #60 12 months ago

    Brilliant article and the perfect retrospective for me because it's the first game I can remember playing (I must have been 4) and the author brings up the SAME thoughts when I hark back to it, namely:

    - Finding a way through the landing stairs (You had to jump into them in a certain way).
    - Simply exploring the house was a thrill, you didn't know what to expect next. Some of the descriptions were only four words but were still captivating.
    - Madness like the Nightmare Room.
    - The whole plot being that the landlady is refusing to let Willy to his bed until he's tidied up after his party. Walking in to her would cost you a life (and prompt a Monty Python style foot to squish Willy as the game over sequence). I later read on some modern Spectrum nostalgia website that the game-crushing bug is that the 'bed' has two kill tiles that make up the bottom part of it so it was impossible to make it to the end and win the game.
    - The sheer difficulty. I find it hard to play these days but the memories are still ace. :)

  • madeus #61 12 months ago

    Nice article, and thanks to StooMonster for some inside information on the development history.

    I played Manic Miner, JSW and JSW2, and all were brilliant. On balance, I think JSW was the best at the time, but JSW2 probably was technically more accomplished.

    I recall completing Manic Miner nearly 3 times in a row. I must have been in 'the zone'! However, I was aged about 12 and probably near a peak of gaming ability. I also recall reverse engineering MM and JSW to work out how the levels were constructed so I could create my own. Nostalgia...

  • skoypidia #62 12 months ago

    In the midst of E3 2011 you are writing about Jet Set Willy?

  • Sanxo #63 12 months ago

    @StooMonster

    Thanks for all the details! It all makes sense - I mean would you trust a microdrive with anything? Sounds like quite a career...

    I remember at the time (well, 1987) somebody telling me all the bastard code mutation that Jon Ritman put into Head over Heels while it was loading. I couldn't get my head round it at the time and probably couldn't even now.

  • IronCladChicken #64 12 months ago

    Ooh - A chance to mention my Java Manic Miner remake
    Edited by IronCladChicken at 15/06/11 @ 09:35

  • bloodflowers #65 11 months ago

    There's a bit of popular chatline C code out there with a function called we_must_perform_a_quirkafleeg(), and yes - it's my fault. That game left a profound impression on many of us. It was a terrible, splat of hacks that did something to the player database previously thought impractical.

  • Tyedyed #66 11 months ago

    Great article but even better comments thread with particular thanks to stoomonster for the fascinating backstory! I work for Sony in Liverpool but had no idea so many of the great software houses were based up here.
    I saw some documentary on retro gaming a few years back which featured an interview with matthew smith and he came across as quite a tragic figure :/
    @Minerwilly Penny Lane winebar steaks are the best in liverpool!

  • Broomoid #67 11 months ago

    My tribute to Manic Miner, done a couple of years back. Originally for a radio comedy show, then the "film" was added later.

    [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo5OMR9idyE
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo5OMR9idyE
    [/link]

    Matt Fox in his video games guide posited that JSW was the first genuine Platform Adventurer. I certainly can't think of any earlier. Great game, though I oddly found it a rather lonely experience playing it, just wandering around on your own on an impossible quest. Like if Samuel Beckett had made a videogame.