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Pengwin

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Posts posted by Pengwin

  8. Posted

    Ah...

     

    There are several things to collect in game (except rocket fuel). In the original they can be collected for points. In this version they will load your oxygen and laser gauges. Well, you will see.

     

    Sounds interesting. Does this mean that we will need to keep these topped up to breath and shoot the aliens?

  13. Posted

    We're not discussing particular companies' attitudes to particlar machines, just "shoddy port syndrome" (or SPS as it's known medically =-) The Amstrad CPC suffered very badly from it...

     

    I read somewhere that the problem of ports to the CPC, when the original was Spectrum, was that the code needed minimal rewriting to create workable games. Therefore a number of ports to the CPC looked and behaved just like the Spectrum versions. this was a shame as the programmers failed to take advantage of the superior hardware (please don't flame me for this statement, I am just paraphrasing) to create better games.

     

    From what I understand (again, I am only remembering what I have read), some ports were created in a rush, to get the games to the market, so minimal work was done to create versions for other platforms.

     

    My original post, about JSW, is because the A8 version differs so much from the other versions. I would have been happy seeing a direct(ish) port, rather than what they did produce.

  15. Posted · Edited by Pengwin

    Most of my experiences with UK software houses weren't too bad. I feel that JSW sticks out because it appears that there was no care put into the conversion (I could be wrong, and I apologise to the Riddells if I am). With all other conversions, it appears that the programmers were trying to at least get as close to the look of the original, whereas with the A8 version, I wonder if the programmers had actually seen the original.

     

    Even the Oric got a decent port of Manic Miner!!

  16. Posted

    I would like to pose a question to everyone that reads this post: What did Tynesoft have against Atari gamers?

     

    Why such a bold question? Well, the answer is three little words, Jet Set Willy.

     

    I have known for some time that the Atari version of JSW is far inferior when compared to the original Spectrum version, so I recently took it upon myself to dig out some other versions (and respective emulators) to have a look to see how other micro owners faired with this game. I would have also used the original Manic Miner for comparison, but it appears that not all computers that got JSW got Manic Miner and vice versa.

     

    Sinclair Spectrum

    So, lets start off by looking at the original. Coded by the almost legendary Matthew Smith for the Sinclair Spectrum, this game was released in 1984 by Software Projects. The game was an instant hit, although some may argue that it was riding on the success of Manic Miner. The graphics were bright, animation smooth and the sounds and music only added to the game play.

    Some people see this game as Matthew Smith's masterpiece, and I believe it is one of the most remade and expanded games ever to grace the Spectrum.

     

    Commodore 64

    Next up, we take a look at the Commodore 64 version of the game.

    This version was also published by Software Projects in 1984, although the conversion was done by Shahid Ahmed with George Neophytou producing the music.

    This proved quite a surprise to me. Instead of aiming to improve on the Spectrum version graphically, the game is very similar in looks to the Spectrum version. The title music is a different tune, although it does make use of the Commodore's advanced music capabilities. In game, the music is also of an equally high quality, but the sound effects are almost non existent, bit of a let down in my opinion. ut, despite this minor gripe about the sound, this game is just as good as the original.

     

    Amstrad CPC

    Next, onto the final Software Projects version in this blog entry (Software Projects also published a version for the MSX, but I am not talking about that on here).

    The Amstrad CPC version of JSW was written by D. P. Rowson and S. Wetherill. It was published a year after the original, in 1985, and like a number of Spectrum games that were ported to the Amstrad, it remained very faithful to the original. The only real criticism I have of this version is the lack of in game music. Why it was decided not to implement this feature is beyond me, the Amstrad was more than capable of handling it.

     

    BBC Micro

    Now on to the Tynesoft conversions, the first of which I will look at is the BBC Micro version. This was written by Chris Robson and is extremely faithful to the original, although the limitations of the BBC Micro meant that the game is limited to only four colours on the screen at one time.

    But this minor quibble does not detract from the game at all. Chris even got the same in game music in as the Spectrum. The sound effects are there and the animation is just as smooth as the other versions. Unfortunately, I do not have a release date for this version, but I estimate it was probably around 1985.

     

    Acorn Electron

    Released on the other side of the cassette of the BBC Micro version, the Acorn Electron version was also converted by Chris Robson, as can be seen in the attention to detail.

    Unfortunately, this was a purely mono affair once in the game, I assume this was due to some limitation of the Acorn Electron (I don't have enough experience with this machine to be sure of this).

    This game also suffered from a lack of music. not only in the game, but also at the title screen. this does detract from the games charm a great deal, in my opinion, but the graphics and animation are true to the original. Maybe it was the limitations of the electron that caused the music to be missed out and the graphics to be monochrome, if so, then I feel that this is a valiant effort by Chris Robson. If not, then they are, what I think, serious flaws in the game.

     

    Atari 8-Bit

    Now on to the cause of the question I opened this post with. I have tried to demonstrate that Jet Set willy can be ported to most platforms of that era, without too many compromises (except the music in the Electron version). So, why on earth were Atari users presented with what I feel is one of the worst ported games to hit the platform.

    This version was released in 1986, written by Mark Riddell with graphics by David Riddell and music by Rob Hubbard.

    Let me start with the good about this game. The music! Rob Hubbard has created a very professional tune, one of the best heard on Atari games, utilising the Pokey chip to it's fullest.

    OK, now that's out of the way, on to the bad. where to start. This conversion is awful. The graphics look nothing like the original, which I feel had a charm all of their own. The animation is jerky. And the colours are very limited. This last point is especially galling considering that the Atari was renowned for its graphics and colour capabilities.

    Whilst testing this game, I also noticed that, every now and then, miner Willy would sink a pixel or two with no apparent reason. Level designs have also been changed, I assume that is because of the blocky graphics used in the game.

     

     

    So, back to my original question: What did Tynesoft have against Atari gamers?

  17. Posted

    Love your website but if it will be supporting multiple platforms you might want to change the title.

    I thought about that, but it is still my Atari site, just with skins.

    Also, when using the Spectrum style the title reads as, "KRAZY PENGWIN'S ATARI 8-BIT HOMEC", with the "C" alternating betwween normal and inverse video.

    The flashing C is the Spectrums text cursor when in Caps Lock.

    as with the main theme (Atari), I have tried to keep everything in keeping with the computer. This is why I chose the choice of orange for the selected page, but fo the Spectrum theme, I have showed the selected page by "setting the Bright flag to 1"

    Also, when using the Spectrum style the title reads as, "KRAZY PENGWIN'S

    Hope to see you at Wednesday's chat!

    I haven't been able to make the last couple of chats, but I hope to be there this week.

  18. Posted

    Time for another update to my site. This one is not strictly Atari related, but I have added a themes option to allow visitors to view the site as either an Atari style site, or a Spectrum style site.

    I will be adding other themes as time allows, including an Oric theme.

     

    I have yet to implement the themes into the Lightbox gallery, but I hope to do that tomorrow.

  20. Posted

    Color indicator fuel could be repaired with sprite overlay.

     

    How exactly do sprite overlays work? Do you overlay an exact graphic over the object, in the same shape, just with different colours, or can you just create a block that changes the colour of everything beneath it?

  22. Posted

    Just had a play with the test. I like it, very faithful to the original.

    The only issues are that you cannot tell how much fuel is in the rocket (although that's not really a problem, just keep fueling until the fuel stops coming) and it's not as fast as the Spectrum version.

  25. Posted

    Thanks, Pengwin. I'll try that. When the new game is finally done and saved using the "Save Adventure" option, how does one go about running the new game? I see on the directory that the "Save Adventure" option creates two files: "XXXXX.ADV" and "XXXXX.PRG"

     

    Select option L BINARY LOAD from the DOS menu to load and run your adventure.

     

    However, if you want your adventure to be an autorun disk, follow these steps:

    Load DOS

    Select option H. WRITE DOS FILES to make your game disk bootable

    Select option E. RENAME FILE to change the name of the main program to AUTORUN.SYS

     

    For instance change the name of DRAGONS.PRG to AUTORUN.SYS. The PRG files are the programs, whereas the ADV files are the adventure datafiles

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