Jet set Willy

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Jet set Willy
Studio Software projects
Publisher Software Projects
Tynesoft
Senior Developer Matthew Smith
Erstveröffent-
lichung		 1984
platform Acorn Electron , Atari 8-Bit , BBC Micro , Commodore 16 , Commodore 64 , Dragon 32 , Memotech MTX , MSX , Schneider CPC , Tatung Einstein , ZX Spectrum
genre Jump 'n' run
Game mode Single player mode
control Joystick , keyboard
medium Floppy disk , cassette
language English

Jet Set Willy is a process developed by Matthew Smith and Software Projects posted platformers Run video game in a side view (platformer). As the successor to the game Manic Miner, initially only released for the ZX Spectrum in 1984 , ports for other popular home computer systems followed a little later. Despite the programming errors contained in the ZX-Spectrum version, which prevented the achievement of the actual goal of the game, the game quickly became a blockbuster. In 1985 the successor Jet Set Willy II appeared.

action

The hungover and tired miner Willy only wants to disappear into the bedroom after a wild party with the jet set to be able to sleep off his intoxication. The disgruntled and energetic housekeeper Maria stands in the way, however, who insists that the landlord should dispose of the sometimes unsavory remains of the night of drinking himself and immediately. The practical implementation is difficult, however, because the villa recently acquired by Miner Willy is huge and has a huge number of rooms, the architectural features of which also require full attention when crossing. As if that weren't enough, the collection of the scattered rubbish is also hindered by other roommates and various household appliances that have been self-employed since last night. After handing over the cleaned house, at Maria's behest, miner Willy continues his cleaning activities in the entire outdoor area, in the adjacent gardens, on the nearby beach and the yacht moored there, before he can indulge in the longed-for nap.

Game principle and technology

The player controls the character Willy with the joystick or the keyboard through a total of 60 (in the Dragon 32 version of the game there are 75) locations of the villa area to be cleaned. This area is divided into different rooms, individual garden and beach sections and the yacht located near the villa. All locations are only shown schematically as platforms connected to one another with ladders and stairs. When crossing various obstacles, including moving ones, you have to avoid or jump over and collect scattered objects that blink faintly for better visibility.

If the character touches an opponent while wandering through the various screens or falls uncontrollably from a platform, the player loses one of the eight attempts to play. The progress of the game remains unaffected and the next attempt starts in the space of the previous virtual death. However, after all eight attempts have been used, the game is over and the player starts again in the first room. The aim of the game is to collect 83 flashing objects and then go to the villa's bathroom.

Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 and If I Were a Rich Man from the musical Anatevka serve as background music for the Spectrum version in the selection menu . The Atari 8-bit version contains a different theme song by Rob Hubbard .

Development and release history

Jet Set Willy was originally developed for the ZX Spectrum. Designer and programmer Matthew Smith had previously developed the financially successful game Manic Miner . Like most Spectrum games, it was distributed on cassette . A simple audio copy of the cassette also made a copy of the game. Jet Set Willy was one of the first games on the market with some kind of copy protection : the game came with a cardboard card with 180 colored codes. When the game loaded, the player was asked to enter one of the codes in order for the game to start. Thus, although the cassette could be copied, a copy of the card was difficult because it was difficult for private individuals to reproduce the colors on the card at the time.

Depending on the computer system, the game was published by the developer Software Projects himself ( Commodore 64 , Dragon 32 , Memotech MTX , MSX , Schneider CPC , Tatung Einstein , ZX Spectrum) or by the publisher Tynesoft (Atari 8-bit, BBC Electron , BBC Micro , Commodore 16 , Commodore Plus / 4 ). A version distributed in Japan and Spain for the MSX computers popular there was published in these countries by Hudsonsoft . Software Projects had versions created for the new 16-bit home computers Atari ST and Commodore Amiga , which were never published because of the minimalistic graphics, which were tailored to low-performance 8-bit computers.

In February 2011, a version ported by Elite Systems for mobile devices with the iOS operating system was released .

reception

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jet Set Willy . In: ASM . No. 9 , 1986, pp. 64 ( [1] [accessed August 30, 2012]).
  2. ↑ a b c Happy Computer: Jet Set Willy. Edition 8, 1984, p. 138 f.
  3. ↑ Jet Set Willy. In: Dragon User Magazine, Jun 1985, p. 27.
  4. ^ Roberto Dillon: The Golden Age of Video Games. CRC Press, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4398-7323-6 , p. 85.
  5. ^ John Aycock and Andrew Reinhard: Copy Protection in Jet Set Willy: developing methodology for retrogame archeology. Internet Archeology 45. doi : 10.11141 / ia.45.2
  6. ↑ AtariMania.com: Jet Set Willy. Retrieved August 1, 2020 .