Jet Set Willy

Jet Set Willy
Part of the Miner Willy series
Genre(s)	Platform game
Year of Release	1984
Platform(s)	ZX Spectrum with later ports to other systems
Developer(s)	Matthew Smith
Publisher(s)	Software Projects

Jet Set Willy is a platform game created by Matthew Smith and published by Software Projects in 1984 originally for the ZX Spectrum. It is the sequel to Manic Miner and the second in the Miner Willy series.

Plot

Miner Willy is a millionaire with his own mansion, yacht and housemaid. After throwing yet another big party his maid Maria puts her foot down and insists that he go around the place and collect all of the items that have been left around after the party. Only then will he be allowed to go to bed.

The mansion previously belonged to an unknown gentleman who mysteriously disappeared one night whilst working in the laboratory. Most of the mansion is unexplored, and there are some very strange things going on! Willy must keep his wits about him as he avoids all manner of strange creatures.

For most of the game Maria blocks the entrance to the master bed. Once Willy has collected all of the items she disappears, and the player may enter the bed to finish the game. When this happens Willy automatically runs at double speed towards The Bathroom, sticks his head in it and waggles his legs in the air. This is the ending of the game, and the game must be reloaded to play it again.

Graphics and sound

© Screenshot: Software Projects
Screenshot of the room named Ballroom West

The graphics available for the ZX Spectrum limited the game to using only 8 colours, and then only 2 colors per 8x8 pixel block. Music was also limited to short tunes that could only be played one note at a time. Bearing these limitations in mind Jet Set Willy made excellent use of both graphics and sound. CRASH magazine said "Quite simply, the sound is excellent, the graphics are brill and the colour is great."

The original version of Jet Set Willy played a modified version of If I Were a Rich Man from Fiddler on the Roof. Some later versions instead played In The Halls Of The Mountain Kings by Edvard Hagerup Grieg, which was also the theme tune for Manic Miner. In both versions when a life was lost the pitch of the music was altered downwards.

Gameplay

Gameplay was quite simple and there were only three controls - left, right and jump. Willy is also capable of holding onto and jumping from ropes, and climbing stairways. The player must move Willy around the house collecting the flashing objects whilst avoiding a variety of creatures. If Willy collided with a creature, or fell too far, the player lost a life and was returned to the place where he entered the screen. Sometimes this 'reset point' was instantly fatal, leading to all eight lives being lost for a single mistake.

When Willy reached the edge of a screen he moved into the next screen along, maintaining any momentum and direction from jumping where applicable. There are a total of 60 screens used in the game, however the coding allowed for a total of 64 screens. These other screens are in the game, but inaccessible by normal means and unused. For a full list of rooms, see this catalog.

There are a total of 83 objects to collect in the game. Of these 79 are standard and appear as flashing objects within the game's screens. These are collected by simply touching them with Willy. One non-standard item is found in the room called Swimming Pool and is automatically collected upon entering the room at any point. Another item is auto-collected upon entering the room called Beach, however this counts as two items. The final item is in the room called First Landing and it is invisible. Technically it can be collected simply by touching it as with any standard item, however it is in a completely inaccessible location and therefore cannot be collected. This was just one of a few bugs in the original version of the game.