Jet Set Willy II
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| Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Derrick P. Rowson |
| Publisher(s) | Software Projects |
| Designer(s) | Matthew Smith |
| Series | Miner Willy series |
| Release date(s) | 1985 |
| Genre(s) | Platform game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC |
| Media | Cassette tape |
Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier was a platform game released in 1985 by Software Projects for a variety of 8-bit home computers. It was the only official sequel to Jet Set Willy, one of the most successful and popular home computer games ever released. Officially, Jet Set Willy II: The Final Frontier is the last of the Miner Willy series, although numerous unofficial sequels, remakes, homages and updates have been released, even up to this day.
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[edit] Details
Jet Set Willy II is an expansion of the original JSW rather than a new game unto itself. Its map is primarily an expanded version of the original mansion, with only a few new original elements over its predecessor, several of which are based on rumored events in JSW that were in fact never programmed (such as being able to launch the titular ship in the screen called "The Yacht" and explore an island). In the ZX Spectrum version Willy is blasted from the Rocket Room into space, for which 33 rooms he dons a spacesuit.
Jet Set Willy II was not written by the original programmer, Matthew Smith, and was instead developed by Derrick P. Rowson[1].
[edit] Ending
The ending of JSW II is also different. Once Willy has collected 150 items and goes to bed, the game takes control of Willy and guides him into the bathroom, where he falls into the toilet - and lands in a room resembling the Central Cavern, the opening level of Willy's first game (Manic Miner). Although the screen is playable on the Amstrad CPC version (not on the ZX Spectrum), there is no escape from this screen save for the player intentionally killing off his remaining lives.
[edit] Ports
JSW II was originally created as an Amstrad version of Jet Set Willy, but with expansions to exploit the 64K RAM of the Amstrad CPC range (compared with the 48K of the ZX Spectrum, the game's home platform). This version was subsequently ported back to the Spectrum. The porting across to Amstrad and porting back to Spectrum may also explain a number of other small differences, including the loss of coloured backgrounds in certain screens (the CPC version ran in a 4-colour display mode).
The game was subsequently ported to other platforms, including the Commodore 64, Commodore 16, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and MSX. The BBC Micro version has 2 rooms not in the ZX Spectrum version, and omits 60 of the rooms, rather than being a superset of it as are the CPC and ZX Spectrum versions[2]. Unofficial ports to the Acorn Archimedes, IBM PC and UNIX/X also exist[3].
The game was under development on the C64 in parallel (just a little behind) and the teleport system was first developed in that version, which was a result of a bug that cause the sprites to fade in & out. After much discussion with Allan Maton it was decided to extend the game and allow Wille to teleport from certain rooms for added gameplay; the room he departed from was not the room he returned to. This feature was then cross-ported to the Amstrad.
The C64 screen was a different format to the Amstrad, so the developers were unable to take the data used in the Amstrad and instead had to re-layout and re-implement all the screens and sprites. Derrick Rowson was able to use much of the data directly from the Spectrum, and hence the game was released sooner.
[edit] References
- ^ World of Spectrum entry.
- ^ http://www.jdawiseman.com/papers/games/jsw2/bbc/jsw2-bbc.html
- ^ http://decwarch.free.fr/images/jetset.html
