Brilliant new Spectrum game released - Ultimate Manic Miner
ewgf
so...
Drums roll, trumpets blare, choirs sing out etc...
Ultimate Manic Miner, an amazing new JSW/MM rewrite
for the Spectrum 128K, has been released. I've uploaded
it to
alt.binaries.comp.sinclair
so go and get it now - even if you don't like Jetset Willy
or Manic Miner (weirdo!), give this a go, it really is fantastic!
Dunny
> Drums roll, trumpets blare, choirs sing out etc...
>
> Ultimate Manic Miner, an amazing new JSW/MM rewrite
> for the Spectrum 128K, has been released. I've uploaded
> it to
Hmm. This really doesn't feel like a worthy successor. There's far better
adaptations around.
There's some real issues with chronic attribute clash which you didn't get
in MM or JSW to anything like this extent. At one part early on, Willy being
white really looks bad against a yellow background. And there's far too much
over-done garish colour schemes in each room.
The stairs in the penguin security centre - bounce, bounce, bounce all the
way to the bottom? Hardly smooth. Huge black areas that you can't walk
through - like the sprite that's supposed to be stopping you finished about
6 pixels away, but you're stopped at the attribute boundary.
No clear indications of which element type a block is - you don't know if
you can climb it or not until you get there... Went through a "cut scene"
where Willy collected some sort of telephone. It said "Press Space" - so I
press space, and you can hear willy jump to hit some hidden object. Very
poor.
About four screens of the lift - where you're hemmed in and can only hit the
lift switch again. No animation when the lift moves - just fade out and in
at the next room. Nothing to do in those screens but go "ho hum" and wait
for either someone else to hit the switch or for you to do it yourself.
Gameplay is quite bad, graphics are dreadful especially after the rather
much better MM graphics, or Eugene LOTB which was stunning.
In case you couldn't tell, I didn't enjoy this at all - and there's far
better on Andrew Broad's site which are well worth playing. YMMV, but I've
deleted it.
D.
Daren
But aaprt from that it's ok?
Daren
Dunny
> Dunny wrote:
>> In case you couldn't tell, I didn't enjoy this at all - and there's
>> far better on Andrew Broad's site which are well worth playing.
>> YMMV, but I've deleted it.
> But aaprt from that it's ok?
Yeah, no problems. It just looks like the guy's gone all-out trying to get a
MM/JSW style game to do stuff that it wasn't intended to do, and made a
right mess of it in the process. You can certainly *play* it. But as there's
very little that can actually kill you, it's no real fun.
D.
ewgf
> Hmm. This really doesn't feel like a worthy successor. There's far better
> adaptations around....
Blimey! I thought it was great. Admittedly it's hardly standard JSW/MM
gameplay (for that try ZX Heroes, Willy's Afterlife etc), but I think the
author did
a fantastic job of moving the engine in a different direction from the
"collect
everything that flashes" style, towards the exploration and adventure (and
thankfully
without the "collect the fuse and take it to the broken machine to fix it"
style of
puzzles in other arcade adventures, that quickly became so tedious).
Each to his own, I suppose, but I really can't see how you can say "Gameplay
is quite bad, graphics are dreadful" and so on. Admittedly I've yet to
finish the
game, and it isn't perfect (although it is running on a Speccy (or
emulator), which
limits the artist considerably), but I think it's the best new Spectrum game
I've seen
in years. And judging by the opinions of others that I've read (all of which
have been
similar to mine), this game seems very well received.
Anyway, give it time, and more people will air their views and opinions.
Then we can judge by the consensus. I really doubt that many people will
dislike the
game, though.
W Marsh
wrote:
>Admittedly it's hardly standard JSW/MM
>gameplay (for that try ZX Heroes, Willy's Afterlife etc), but I think the
>author did
>a fantastic job of moving the engine in a different direction from the
Puppet accounts only work if you remember to change your name first!
WM
news:dtn1ll$d4j$1...@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk...
I must be really crap, 'cos I can't get off the second screen...
Colin Woodcock
> Anyway, give it time, and more people will air their views and opinions.
> Then we can judge by the consensus. I really doubt that many people will
> dislike the
> game, though.
I think it's great!
Colin
Matthew Westcott
> "ewgf" <ew...@ewgf.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:dtn1ll$d4j$1...@newsg1.svr.pol.co.uk...
>
>>for the Spectrum 128K, has been released. I've uploaded
>>it to
>>
>>alt.binaries.comp.sinclair
>
I'm so crap I haven't even downloaded it yet.
Any chance of someone putting it somewhere more universally accessible?
Dunny
ewgf
it,
if that's what you mean - I had nothing to do with the game's existence (not
even beta testing it), though I wish I had, he's done a great job on it.
"W Marsh" <wayne...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:opluv11pnb1c54pol...@4ax.com...
Andrew Broad
Others: see http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/email.html
The general consensus in the MM/JSW community is that Igor Makovsky's
Ultimate Manic Miner is indeed brilliant. Admittedly I myself have only
had a quick, casual go so far, but it was enough to see that the game
deserves full marks for novelty, amazing graphics, and a unique
atmosphere.
It seems to be an excellent showcase of what can be achieved with John
Elliott's enhanced JSW64 game-engine, with the extra cell-classes,
cell-types, and guardian-types.
It's also nice to see some quirky features. So far I've had to jump
through an Innocent-Looking Block (i.e. an Earth-cell at head-height
that dumps you through the platform below), jump through some overhead
Earth-cells, and hide from an arrow by standing in a non-Air cell.
I had just got past "THE COLD ROOM" [27] before I had to quit the game
because I ran out of time in the real world (like I said, it was only a
casual go).
One downside of UMM is the uncertainty. Because there are so many
cell-classes, it's hard to know what to expect in terms of
cell-behaviour, whether something is a guardian or not, whether it is
stand-onable or not.
The other downside of UMM is the lack of items, most of which seem to
be hidden inside portals, or to be extra-life items (not necessary to
fulfill the ending-condition if the sole aim is to escape?). So I guess
I'll miss the joy of being able to tick off rooms as I clear them of
items.
But UMM is certainly something special in the development of the MM/JSW
field, and in graphical terms it will be a very hard act to follow.
Anyone who has written a MM/JSW game will appreciate the amazing
achievement of Igor Makovsky.
--
Dr. Andrew Broad
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/
http://geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/
Da Smog
έγραψε:
> What's a puppet account? I didn't write the game, then post here praising
> it,
> if that's what you mean - I had nothing to do with the game's existence
> (not
> even beta testing it), though I wish I had, he's done a great job on it.
>
Hmmm still cannot get it. My news server killed it. Any place a nice guy
(that's me :-) ) can download it?
Phoebus
--
Χρησιμοποιώ το επαναστατικό πρόγραμμα αλληλογραφίας της Opera:
http://www.opera.com/mail/
Da Smog
έγραψε:
> Την Fri, 24 Feb 2006 21:16:06 -0500,ο(η) ewgf
> <ew...@ewgf.freeserve.co.uk> έγραψε:
>
>> What's a puppet account? I didn't write the game, then post here
>> praising
>> it,
>> if that's what you mean - I had nothing to do with the game's existence
>> (not
>> even beta testing it), though I wish I had, he's done a great job on it.
>>
>
> Hmmm still cannot get it. My news server killed it. Any place a nice guy
> (that's me :-) ) can download it?
>
> Phoebus
Never mind, I found it :-) It's a bit slow though. Of course when you can
adjust the emulation speed....
Unfortunately I do not have an 128K (I hope someone will eventually sell
me one :-P) so I cannot try it on a real speccy :-(
I've converted it using ZM/hT to a real QL executable. Anyone want it?
Lister
wrote:
Now, where did I put that emulator?
Daz
I can't say that I found this game enjoyable at all. It was annoying, it
had attribute clash all over the place, the screens had no clear
objectives. I would have to give this a 4/10. Only saving grace was the
excellent music, but that doesn't make a game great. And I have played
many other versions of JSW, that were far better implemented than this
effort. Don't give up though, just a bit more investigation into
programming will ensure positive results I'm sure.
4/10
Daz.
Chupo
<ew...@ewgf.freeserve.co.uk> says...
>
> What's a puppet account? I didn't write the game, then post here praising
> it,
> if that's what you mean
Hmm, I got the same feeling. For you have said: "...I've yet to finish
the game..."!?
> - I had nothing to do with the game's existence (not
> even beta testing it), though I wish I had, he's done a great job on it.
>
Since I cannot access alt.binaries.comp.sinclair through my provider's
account, is there any URL to download the game? Or could you please
mail it to me?
Thank you,
--
Chupo
Chupo
<bad_...@yahoo.com> says...
> Since I cannot access alt.binaries.comp.sinclair through my provider's
> account, is there any URL to download the game? Or could you please
> mail it to me?
>
Oups, I've only just seen Paul Dunn's download link...
--
Chupo
Dunny
> The general consensus in the MM/JSW community is that Igor Makovsky's
> Ultimate Manic Miner is indeed brilliant.
I'd draw the line there. "Brilliant" is reserved for people like Einstein,
games like Choas. This game is "different", definitely not "Brilliant".
> Admittedly I myself have
> only had a quick, casual go so far, but it was enough to see that the
> game deserves full marks for novelty, amazing graphics, and a unique
> atmosphere.
It amazes me that you can say that. The graphics are bloody awful - There's
far too much that the artist wanted to put into each screen that he
completely forgot that the best way to achieve real class in a JSW/MM game
is to be minimalistic. The more empty space there is, the less clash. You
don't *need* stairs with bannisters (that ruin the main sprite's fluidity of
movement). You certainly don't need white sprites on a yellow background.
Nor do you need white blocks of paper appearing when the main sprite walks
down the moonlit stairs.
> It seems to be an excellent showcase of what can be achieved with John
> Elliott's enhanced JSW64 game-engine, with the extra cell-classes,
> cell-types, and guardian-types.
And room types? The main starting sequence - just rooms, for no particular
purpose other than to display text? And ones that you can't skip either. I
believe I've already ranted about the block types that don't give any
indication as to their purpose.
> One downside of UMM is the uncertainty. Because there are so many
> cell-classes, it's hard to know what to expect in terms of
> cell-behaviour, whether something is a guardian or not, whether it is
> stand-onable or not.
And of course, if you can stand on it, you're usually standing on thin air -
the skipping rope, anyone? Poor design. Try jumping under the first "lift"
sign.
> The other downside of UMM is the lack of items, most of which seem to
> be hidden inside portals,
Yes. Whenever a condition needs to be met, which results in a change of the
map, we get the "zoom" of the portal and an obvious teleport to the same
room with slightly different layout - witness the change from day (ugh) to
night, and many more.
> But UMM is certainly something special in the development of the
> MM/JSW field, and in graphical terms it will be a very hard act to
> follow. Anyone who has written a MM/JSW game will appreciate the
> amazing achievement of Igor Makovsky.
Graphically, it's been superceded by many other games in your own archive. I
can appreciate that you're a fan of MM/JSW (as am I - there's been some
fantastic work done with the engine), but you can take fanboy-ism too far.
Not every new release is "fantastic". This is just abysmal. The guy has
really tried to break through the barriers thrown up by the engine and just
not succeeded at all in anything other than an insult to the original games.
If can code, he'd have been better put writing his own engine, and getting
someone else to design the rooms and draw the graphics.
D.
Ventzislav Tzvetkov
game it's far above the average quality standarts. The graphics are
colorful, detailed and well put, although most of the time they clash
with the main character sprite, but that's unavoidable on the Spectrum.
The music is ok, but short and after some time of playing it's gets
annoying to the player. The gameplay is acceptable for this type of game
and the puzzles are good. I give it 8/10.
P.S. Turn off JIT for ASp if you use AOS 4 update 4 else it wouldn't
work.
--
http://drhirudo.pdroms.de
Matthew Westcott
>
> The general consensus in the MM/JSW community is that Igor Makovsky's
> Ultimate Manic Miner is indeed brilliant. Admittedly I myself have only
> had a quick, casual go so far, but it was enough to see that the game
> deserves full marks for novelty, amazing graphics, and a unique
> atmosphere.
I've had a quick play now (cheers for the link, Dunny) and I have to say
I find some of the criticisms here rather harsh. I'm surprised that
people here, of all places, are so intolerant of attribute clash...
I'm especially impressed with how he's taken an essentially linear game
and gone so far to give it at least the illusion of non-linearity
(although admittedly John Elliott's engine hacks can probably take a lot
of the credit for that). The idea of building 'cut-scenes' out of actual
MM levels was a really nice touch - sure, the sound of collecting items
and the brief flash where you could see Willy entering a portal gave
away how it was done, but in my opinion that just added to the appeal.
Sort of like being able to see the strings in Thunderbirds, I guess...
At risk of gushing on about a topic I know very little about, I would
venture that what Igor Makovsky has actually done is created the first
ever example of machinima <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima> on
the Spectrum, using the MM engine as his medium in place of the FPS
engines that machinima creators would normally use.
However - and I think this is the key to why the hardcore JSW/MM fans
are raving about it while others are being left cold - behind all the
neat stuff, it's a bit lacking as a game. I'm currently stuck on Attack
Of The Mutant Telephones, which I guess is the first real puzzle of the
game. I've killed myself several times jumping at random bits of screen
thinking "well, maybe that's a cunningly disguised portal, or at least
platform I can land on". The only possible exit seems to be on the
bottom left of the screen, boxed in behind a blue platform. I know just
enough about MM/JSW to suspect that this might be...
> an Innocent-Looking Block (i.e. an Earth-cell at head-height
> that dumps you through the platform below)
...and if so, I'm giving up on the game right now. This sort of thing
makes me want to grab everyone in the MM/JSW community by the neck and
bang their heads together screaming "IT'S NOT A FEATURE, IT'S A FUCKING
BUG!!!"
Honestly, the reason Manic Miner is such an enduringly brilliant game is
that you can pick it up instantly - the game mechanics are intuitive. It
may just be a bundle of pixels, but those pixels translate into real
world metaphors - jumping over deadly spikes, riding on conveyor belts,
collecting treasure. There is no real world metaphor for an
Innocent-Looking Block, so if you build puzzles based on them, you're
breaking a fundamental rule of game design.
(And before anyone points out that there's no such thing as an
amoebatron in the real world either - the difference is that you don't
need to know what an amoebatron is to understand that it's something
nasty to be avoided.)
> But UMM is certainly something special in the development of the MM/JSW
> field, and in graphical terms it will be a very hard act to follow.
> Anyone who has written a MM/JSW game will appreciate the amazing
> achievement of Igor Makovsky.
I can't argue with that, and even though I'm by no means a MM/JSW guru I
can appreciate the clever stuff he's done with the engine. But when it
comes to expecting me, the player, to exploit the quirks of the game
engine myself - that's where it all falls down.
Daniel Mandic
> I can't say that I found this game enjoyable at all. It was annoying,
> it had attribute clash all over the place, the screens had no clear
> objectives. I would have to give this a 4/10. Only saving grace was
> the excellent music, but that doesn't make a game great. And I have
> played many other versions of JSW, that were far better implemented
> than this effort. Don't give up though, just a bit more investigation
> into programming will ensure positive results I'm sure.
>
> 4/10
>
> Daz.
Four of Ten. Hmmm, that makes Five. That's Okey!
Best Regards,
Daniel Mandic
Matt Rudge
<lots of really intelligent stuff that I wish I'd written>
I have to say after trying to play this game, I'm in complete agreement
with what Matt said in his previous post. I can tolerate the attribute
clash - although it does seem to be worse in this than most other games
I remember, but the thing that really annoys me is the total
non-intuitiveness of each screen. I seem to almost randomly lose lives
on each screen and there's no clear indication as to what each object /
part of the scenery is supposed to do.
I have the disassembly of the MM/JSW engine from (I believe, correct me
if I'm wrong) Andrew's site, and I've tinkered around with it on many
occasions, so I don't doubt the technical merits of what Igor has
achieved by pushing its limits far beyond what anyone would have
dreamed; however the finished product is, I'm afraid, sorely lacking in
gameplay, it's often difficult to know what's going on, and it's not
really what I'd call the "Ultimate Manic Miner". As a result, it
scores: 6/10 from me.
--
Matt
Jaime Tejedor Gómez, aka Metalbrain
>> The general consensus in the MM/JSW community is that Igor Makovsky's
>> Ultimate Manic Miner is indeed brilliant. Admittedly I myself have only
>> had a quick, casual go so far, but it was enough to see that the game
>> deserves full marks for novelty, amazing graphics, and a unique
>> atmosphere.
>
>I've had a quick play now (cheers for the link, Dunny) and I have to say
>I find some of the criticisms here rather harsh. I'm surprised that
>people here, of all places, are so intolerant of attribute clash...
I tend to ignore most attribute clash out there, but there are really
poor design choices out there, such as making the stairs out of red
paper and black ink in Living Quarters, so an invisible lower part of
Willy erases them while the rest of his visible part is moving. Also,
collitions with background objects/people are very badly solved. I'm
fine without masks, but come on, do at least an OR and don't erase
the guy you're passing on just because one of your bits has entered
his character. That happens an awful lot.
>[...] I'm currently stuck on Attack
>Of The Mutant Telephones, which I guess is the first real puzzle of the
>game. I've killed myself several times jumping at random bits of screen
>thinking "well, maybe that's a cunningly disguised portal, or at least
>platform I can land on". The only possible exit seems to be on the
>bottom left of the screen, boxed in behind a blue platform. I know just
>enough about MM/JSW to suspect that this might be...
I also got stuck there the first time I played. Since there's another path if
you go to work instead of getting drunk, I'm considering it's just a mortal
trap...
METALBRAIN
(C) 1977 Tejedor & Gómez Research Ltd.
Daren
Eder
Whether this game is good or bad, one thing's for sure - it's nowhere
near as good as what Dunny could do. He's a genius.
Daniel Mandic
>
> A walkthrough recording of this game has been submitted to
> http://www.rzxarchive.co.uk/
>
> Daren
Really great.
Not a game for scoring it.... I (would) give 9 of 10, as it is partly
copied.
Much of (imported :-)) English humour. Timings are very nice.
Graphics!, background and so, are sometimes new to me and also nice.
Thanks for the RZX.
Best Regards,
Daniel Mandic