27/3/2001

ARCANE DESIGN

presents

'jet set' willy in:

STRANGEL

--------
credits:
--------

original JSW engine - matt from earth

JSW128 engine and editor - john elliott
playing field/game - sendy (alex cornhill)
all backdrops and most sprites - me again
primary beta tester - philip bee

------
story:
------

every now and again, strange and angelic folk such as willy need to slip into the
alternate antimatter dimension known as the otherworld and solve a multitude of
interplexed problems, restoring the karmic balance in the real world and keeping
the balance of the forces intact, using pure intent to do good as their weapon as
opposed to guns or nuclear explosives.

although willy is unaware of his special callings, you can tell that deep down he
is a true angel, with unlimited reserves of patience and reason, and of course the
willingness to walk into the thick of the fray without consideration for his own
safety (although POKE 35899,0 has been known to summon up some 'dutch courage' ;).

nobody knows about willy's secret life in the otherworld, not even himself, because
time in the otherworld is a different sort of tyme, and the structures and ethers
in the otherworld are not compatible with real world memory. however, small
fragments of experience may leak through, although the rational mind would probably
'reason' them away via the explaination of strange dreams.

do you know anyone who has weird dreams?

they may be responsible for more than you realise....

-------------
instructions:
-------------

guide willy through the multitudinous locations of the otherworld (which is not
actually a real place, but is based in the third world of objective content of
thought, which is as real in it's way as any actual country on the map). collect
256 phantom gizmos, then make your way to the escape route and return to reality,
hopefully by which time everything will be alright! well, we can hope...

-----------
background:
-----------

to play strangel, you will need a spectrum emulator. it was developed on the zx32
spectrum emulator by vaggelis kapartzianis, and the JSW128 editor, JSWED 2, by john
elliott. extraneous room hacking was performed in a program called hex edit, mainly
used to set the illegal ramps and wrapping ramps/conveyors. phil bee used real
spectrum to apply the aesthetic pokes to colour the barrel and maria sprites.

if you hear a quiet ticking sound while playing the game, press 'enter' to stop it.
i still say zx32 is the best looking windows spectrum emulator, because in full
screen mode it gives a lovely half-scan TV simulation effect... so use that for
best results!

-----------
disclaimer:
-----------

IMPORTANT: by playing the game 'strangel' you agree that if you are offended or
troubled in *any* way by *anything*, including hairstyles, contained within the
game and accompanying documentation, then that's fine but please don't contact me
about it. i will however respond to positive comments and constructive criticism,
bug reports, queries if you are stuck, or smut. beyond that, mind, i just don't
care.

---------
thankage:
---------

as ever i must say i'm not the only one who made 'strangel' what it is today...
these other people were essential:

* matt from earth, for deciding on an uncompressed room format, and being one of
the greatest game writers ever (still).

* john elliott, for developing JSWED version 2, which is a massive improvement and
helped in the fluidity and creation of this game.

* andrew broad, for getting me interested in advanced and experimental room design.

* phil bee, for extensive remarks and playtesting which helped no end in the final
tweaking of some of the rooms, and also for applying the POKEs to change the colour
of the 'barrel' and 'maria' sprites. also for inspiration in the room design area
(via the as yet unreleased 'JSW again').

* all the other regulars at the MM/JSW club, for general support. it's comforting
to know i'm not the only one who is obsessed.

------
links:
------

http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/manicminerandjetsetwilly
the yahoo MM/JSW club. good for general knowledge but you need a yahoo profile to
join.

http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~broada/spectrum/willy/
andrew's MM/JSW pages. contains information on all the most common quirky features,
which will be invaluable for solving the puzzles in this game.

http://www.seasip.demon.co.uk/Jsw/
john elliott's page, home of JSW128 and the excellent JSWED 2.
http://jswremakes.emuunlim.com/
jet set willy remakes. every JSW remake is archived here and there's lots of
information too.

------
notes:
------

first and foremost, strangel is a game for advanced JSW players who are interested
in exploring possibilities at the fringe of the JSW game engine.

like andrew broad's 'we pretty', strangel deliberately exploits all known quirks of
the JSW game engine, and i've even exploited some new ones!

if you don't know the standard quirky features, such as passing right to left
through walls at head height, ILBs, etc, then either experiment, or look on
andrew's page or another one on the web. the information will always be available.

some parts like ramp behaviour may not be documented on the web. in the case of
more obscure things such as ramp exploitation, experiment. look for patterns.
you'll get a feel for how willy interacts.

NOTABLE FIRSTS:

1) 'invalid arrow technology'. this is a term i created for any effect which arises
through exploitation of an 'invalid' arrow. these arrows draw attributes onto the
screen and therefore allow strangel to be the first JSW game with moving platforms,
moving holes, and moving deadly blocks! on top of this, some platforms are time
limited and will be erased from under your feet (first seen in 'we pretty'), and
some platforms will appear to help you right at the last minute.

2) invalid ramps. these can vary from subtle to rediculous, depending on their
implimentation. they arise by giving a ramp a value other than the usual 0 or 1. by
merging them with platform and air blocks you can really mess with willy's movement
routine, so if you see willy acting strange in some rooms, don't worry, it's meant
to be like that! i also created stairs like those in C64 JSW, and a funny ramp that
causes willy to get dumped through a conveyor, amongst other things.

3) diagonal guardians straddling the vertical boundaries. apart from just looking
odd, this actually writes colour attributes to the top of the screen, which may or
may not prove helpful.

4) the longest ending in a JSW game ever!

on top of these, there are some more subtle tricks which make very unique rooms,
but i'm not going to pull the whole game to bits... i mean, i've just finished
putting it all together! :)

GRAPHICS:

all backdrops are my own work. look out for the sweet and sour colour schemes!

the sprite set was copied over from 'where's woody', so credits for sprites are the
same as that, apart from some new characters i devised. i'm proud of them so if you
use them, please give me credit and let me know! thanks :)

* spying eyes (fiend ish brick yard)

* bouncing tea cup (washing up)
* bubble (washing up)
* fish (tricky lake)
* boat (tricky lake)
* cog (notorious c-o-g)
* vertical bird (sky lark)
* police helmet (laying down <the law>)
* metronomes (suspension breakdown)
* hangman (our chizz)
* headbanging ostrich (our chizz) - this is a mutation of a MM sprite
* big grin ghost (trick step) - this is a mutation of a monty on the run sprite
* thunderbolt (stolen thunder)
* plane (sky lark)
* fly fly fly (sky lark)
* the null handshake (nuull-haandshaakee!!)
* twitching blockhead (better shape up)
* jelly on a trolly (not everyone's cup of t)
* suction cup dude (not everyone's cup of t)
* mashup pete (not everyone's cup of t) - he's the winking guy
* noisy music note (key bored)
* knife, fork, plate (walk the path of the precious 1s)
* thin oval face (walk the path of the precious 1s)
* nuclear cats (nuclear cats get new home) - really pleased with this one :D
* flag-guns (gunzan money) - nice twotone joined guardian
* spanner (gunzan money)
* triangle (it's a noise being noisy) - i'm actually a grade 8 triangle player
* bass and treble clef (noted)
* monitor and documents (i nformation)
* teleporting blocks (leafy lane)
* square eyes (bal ance)
* mini tank (a place with no name)
* bouncing ball (the bal cony)
* black blobs (frostie plaice)
* fishbone (frostie place)
* faces of jollyness (almost here)

i also used some other sprites i made for 'where's woody'. check the sprite list
there.

the foot was taken from andrew's 'we pretty'.

REFERENCES:

there are references to (in no paticular order): frank zappa, si begg, luke vibert,
hrvatski and blitter, orbital, douglas adams, and the soft machine. see if you can
recognise them. there may be others i've missed here. if you have similar tastes in
music, feel free to get in touch! :)

-----
tips:
-----

it is possible to finish strangel without cheating. if you are an expert player and
wish to have a pure, unspoiled strangel experience, my advice is to take a good few
goes to just wander around and learn the layout. most of the room connections are
crazy but two-way so you can always turn back.

infinite death is always a risk. never jump into an unknown room if you have the
option of walking in. there are two unfair death traps: exiting right from 'tricky
lake' will kill you unless you are on the conveyor (i tried to make this evident in
the design), and falling down from 'high pass filter' drops you into a death pit,
unless you are on the left hand side (see the embedded object!). this adds to the
excitement of the room above! :)

be weary of guardians moving along exit edges. if one looks dangerous, remember
where it starts, and avoid flicking into it! this is only a risk in 'the groping
space' to my knowledge. i thought it would be a challenge.

all items are collectable without sacrafice of a life. however there are quite a
few which can be collected upon sacrafice. needless to say, if you do it that way,
you haven't really solved the puzzle properly.

the room connection has been carefully constructed and if you know the game well
you can take a route which does not require passing through lands already cleared
of items.

FINALLY:

always remember... where there's a willy, there's a way!

coming in the not too distant future - strangel 2 (the chaos engine)

this game design, my original graphics, the story, characters, and concept, as well
as the layout of the screens, is (c) sendy (aka alex cornhill) of arcane design.
all rights converted to antimatter.

if you like the game, please visit me at http://skip.to/sendy , and consider

listening to or buying my music.

thank you.

end of document.