New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

People are still making stuff for the Sinclair related machines. Tell us about new games and other software that runs on the Spectrum, ZX80/ZX81, Pentagon and Next.
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bob_fossil
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New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by bob_fossil »

Here's my entry for the Spectrum Computing mini game competition , Thoroughly Modern Willy.

Image

Image

Guide Willy through 6 screens as he gets to grips with modern times.

You can download it from here.

Many Happy Returns!

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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by Ralf »

6 screens? I suppose it's a big chance for me to complete a Willy game for the first time in my life ;)
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MatGubbins
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by MatGubbins »

Took me half an hour to get through the Manic Miner screen!
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R-Tape
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by R-Tape »

This is fantastic!

And there was me thinking MM was perfect - the addition of one lever to the Central Cavern adds a huge amount to the gameplay.
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by R-Tape »

Nooo!

Just finished the level "Don't mention the..." and the program has stuck on me in the exit. That's not intentional is it? it's only level 5 I think.
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by Ast A. Moore »

Cliff Edge Brexit glitches:

Bottom level: Start walking left pushing the jump block in front of you. The letter bounces off it. The block randomly disappears and reappears, sometimes as a simple red square. The letter can be lodged between the invisible block and the left ledge, moving a couple of character cells inside the ledge.

Middle level: Once the block is moved to the left by the conveyor belt and you’ve collected the pound sign and jumped back on the the conveyor, walking right swaps you and the red-and-white block and you die. (The dying part is probably intentional, but the visual swap looks like a glitch.

They stole half a million glitches:

If you push the red-and-white block off the rightmost ledge and it meets the baddie; the baddie shifts to the left erasing the one-cell-wide block of the ledge with fire one it. You can still jump on it, but since the baddie’s vertical axis has shifted, it’s almost impossible to avoid it.

M’kay, I’m thoroughly stuck on level three. :)
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

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and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by bob_fossil »

R-Tape wrote: Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:40 pm Nooo!

Just finished the level "Don't mention the..." and the program has stuck on me in the exit. That's not intentional is it? it's only level 5 I think.
I had a quick run through of the final code yesterday (with infinite lives mind) and made it all the way through to the end screen after level 6, so there's something not quite right somewhere.
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by bob_fossil »

Ast A. Moore wrote: Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:53 pm Cliff Edge Brexit glitches:

Bottom level: Start walking left pushing the jump block in front of you. The letter bounces off it. The block randomly disappears and reappears, sometimes as a simple red square. The letter can be lodged between the invisible block and the left ledge, moving a couple of character cells inside the ledge.

Middle level: Once the block is moved to the left by the conveyor belt and you’ve collected the pound sign and jumped back on the the conveyor, walking right swaps you and the red-and-white block and you die. (The dying part is probably intentional, but the visual swap looks like a glitch.

They stole half a million glitches:

If you push the red-and-white block off the rightmost ledge and it meets the baddie; the baddie shifts to the left erasing the one-cell-wide block of the ledge with fire one it. You can still jump on it, but since the baddie’s vertical axis has shifted, it’s almost impossible to avoid it.

M’kay, I’m thoroughly stuck on level three. :)
If you're not going to play nicely with the blocks, I'll take them off you! :)

The first glitch needs a look at. The second and third, I quite like.
Spoiler
Try not pushing that block.
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Ast A. Moore
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by Ast A. Moore »

bob_fossil wrote: Mon Apr 23, 2018 6:30 pm The first glitch needs a look at. The second and third, I quite like.
Ha! Fair enough.

Okay, I just finished (?) the game, and as Dave mentions, it hangs at the end of “Don’t mention the . . .” I tried debugging it briefly, but it looks like it was written in a higher-level language, rather than in assembly directly, because there’s a great deal of what looks like compiler output to me. I haven’t gotten to the actual part that causes the crash/hanging, but I can tell you that the stack goes bananas and is pointed somewhere toward the beginning of the ROM area. From then on, the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket. :D
Every man should plant a tree, build a house, and write a ZX Spectrum game.

Author of A Yankee in Iraq, a 50 fps shoot-’em-up—the first game to utilize the floating bus on the +2A/+3,
and zasm Z80 Assembler syntax highlighter.
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by MatGubbins »

R-Tape wrote: Mon Apr 23, 2018 1:40 pm Nooo!

Just finished the level "Don't mention the..." and the program has stuck on me in the exit. That's not intentional is it? it's only level 5 I think.
Yup, happened here too... after much gnashing of teeth to get the timing just right... grrrrrr.
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by R-Tape »

Everyone's had this except Bob then, who playtested with infy lives and will know the gameplay inside out. When I was on this level I had 1 life left and started using (a LOT of) snapshots. Might means the bug is death/restart related?
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by MatGubbins »

I used snapshots and kept 2 lives at the bot-left of the screen, so I snapped after losing a life somewhere along the line.
I've also tried jumping at the exit from different places to see if it makes any change, nope, just ends up in a crash to reset (sounds like a great name for a band)
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by bob_fossil »

I think it's downright unfair of you lot to be playing this game in a different manner to myself. :)

I have a suspicion I've done something to the code in generating the final version which is a compressed single block If I play through to level 5 on the uncompressed version it doesn't appear to crash on entering the exit.

I've uploaded the uncompressed version along with a snapshot (.szx) before entering the exit on level 5.

http://www.thefossilrecord.co.uk/wp-con ... /debug.zip
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by R-Tape »

Cheers Bob, good ending!

Great wee game, level 5 is by far the hardest.
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by bob_fossil »

Glad you liked it. Everyone's been very charitable with my wonky code - which made level 5 a lot harder than I ever intended it to be. :) Guess I'll have to do a post competition release now.
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by MatGubbins »

It works... yay! Nice ending too.
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Juan F. Ramirez
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by Juan F. Ramirez »

Just downloaded. In the 1st attempt, I couldn't reach second screen... off form, definitely! :lol:
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Re: New Game: Thoroughly Modern Willy

Post by bob_fossil »

I've updated the download link in the first post with a fixed version which doesn't crash out after finishing level 5.
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