Join the Jet-Set!

starring Miner Willy

Created by Richard Hallas

Plot

Having woken up from his deep sleep, our intrepid hero is keen to explore the surrounding countryside. Whilst Willy would dearly love to join the jet-set, funding the upkeep of a mansion is no mean feat, and Willy needs more resources if he is going to hobnob with royalty. Therefore, he buys himself a crash helmet (not that it's very effective) and sails off to a nearby island with a central mountain. The game starts with Willy in the palace of the mountain's royal resident. He must collect all the valuables from inside the mountain, the surrounding trees and gardens, and from the local town. He must also fly through the sky, go to sea, and even take a trip to hell and back!

Background information

This game was created using the truly outstanding (Software Projects-approved) JetSet Editor which was written by Paul Rhodes and published by Spectrum Electronics. This editor is much better than the Softricks Mark II Jet Set Willy Editor which has been available for a long time on the various FTP sites. I do still have the original tape of JetSet Editor, and thanks to the efforts of Barry Plewa, it has now been made into a snapshot (plus TAP file with some demo rooms). It's available in a zip archive for downloading, complete with OCRed and corrected documentation. Sincere thanks to the author, Paul Rhodes, for agreeing to its free distribution.

Join the Jet-Set! was intended to be very much in the style of Jet-Set Willy, with a similar atmosphere and collection of awful puns, etc. (Sorry if some of the jokes are a bit bad, but remember I was only 14 or 15 when I thought them up!) Most of the rooms in the game are original, but a handful of JSW rooms remain, in an edited form.

An important source of inspiration was a letter which appeared in Your Spectrum magazine (or was in Your Sinclair by then?); I no longer have the magazine, so can't look it up. The letter caused much excitement amongst my Spectrum-owning school-friends, as it contained many exciting claims about Jet-Set Willy (all of which were fictitious). As I recall, it said that if you were standing on The Bow (of the Yacht) at 7:30pm (I think that was the time; or was it midnight?), a raft would appear and take you to a desert island (which I think was called Crusoe Corner, though I may have invented that name myself). You could climb a tree on the island to reach "Tree Tops - the sequel". The letter also mentioned an "Ice Volcano" below Hades.

Although the letter was a piece of pure invention, and none of the things it mentioned existed in JSW, it caused a lot of excitement; and the fact that the yacht does sail away to a desert island in JSW II probably owes something to it, as might the fact that there's a raft in Dynamite Dan. Anyway, I took many of the ideas in that letter and made them reality in this game; so you really can visit the ice volcano (has hell frozen over?) and go to that desert island.

I play-tested this game extensively all those years ago (and since retrieving it for the emulators!), and it's definitely possible to complete all the rooms and collect all the objects. Some rooms are very tricky, but most are quite easy, and the game overall is probably easier to complete than JSW itself. Have fun!

Tunes

The game features a choice of ten tunes, which must be poked into memory before the game starts. The ones I can remember are as follows:

Sorry I can't remember all of them! I do recognise the missing ones, but can't put a name to them; they may have been adaptations of things I heard on TV.

Guided tour of rooms (in alphabetical order)

(SPOILER! If you want to 'preserve the magic' and discover all the rooms yourself, come back and read this section later after you've spent some time playing the game!)

A Big HELLO from Richard Hallas!: A very bad joke which I couldn't resist...
A far cry from Hades: This tranquil, sunny and pleasant scene is far removed from the hellish screens next to it.
All at sea: En route to the desert island. Watch out for the submarine!
Below Hades: Directly below hell, you must navigate through the furnace to collect the flames, avoiding the evil scroll and the devil. Note the rather nice dancing-flame effect of the conveyor belt.
Branch: This "branch of the tree" is a pun: you must collect the railway train's eggs from the nest, as well as the baby engine which is learning to fly. Branch = railway branch-line. GWR on the side of the engine = Great Western Railways.
Bug-Bytten: Named for Bug-Byte software, original publishers of Manic Miner and publishers of Stay Kool, subject of the adjacent room (see 'Who is Luke Warm anyway?').
Cliff walk: Walk through a secret passage to reach the cliff.
Courtyard: A tricky room; collect the cutlery from the battlements.
Crusoe Corner: The fabled, fictitious desert island from JSW. Collect the coconuts.
Entrance to Hades: At last, this screen is a real part of the game. Collect the crucifixes and avoid the evil god.
Eugene's Lair: An adaptation of one of my favourite caverns from Manic Miner. The old-style toilets have been replaced by the Jet-Set Willy ones, though.
Hades: You can actually go there in this game! There's no special significance to the words "Live or let die" except that they're similar to the title of the James Bond film, and seemed appropriate to this location.
How on earth did you get here ?!: Well, if JSW can have an unreachable room in it, why can't I?
If I were a rich man ...: This is the name of the music from Jet-Set Willy. Collect all the money bags.
In mid air: Jump from aircraft to aircraft, but avoid the smutty fumes, and don't get too close to the sun!
Inside the trunk: Halfway up the tree. There's a subtle exclamation mark built into the trunk, which is made out of lethal blocks, just ready to catch you if you ascend the wrong side of the trunk...
In the Hall of the Mountain-King: This is the name of the music from Manic Miner. The Mountain-King floats up the middle of the screen. The object at the bottom-right (for the end of the game sequence) is an RH monogram.
Into the sky: Watch out for the black rain-clouds! This room is notable because it features a non-central rope. Note that there's a bug associated with this: you get picked up by the rope as if it were positioned in the centre of the screen, if you try to approach it from the right!
Into the wide blue yonder: Leading from 'Up in the clouds' (see entry). I told you to watch out for birds! Collect the bird's eye. (Hmm, now I wish I'd included a fish's finger!)
Is this Pacman or Caterpiller?: A very attractive room which requires pixel-perfect jumping and exact timing to traverse.
Library: The red/yellow blocks are meant to look like rows of books. Collect the Bible. Note the machine bouncing the ball at the bottom of the screen: it's not possible to jump over this.
Maria's Hideout: A redecorated Master Bedroom
M*E*S*H: The title was taken from one of my favourite TV programmes, M*A*S*H. This room is easy, except for the fact that the details are hard to make out because you see them through a mesh. Seeing this screen on a computer monitor makes it rather too clear; it was much harder to make things out on a normal TV set!
Mountain Peak: The tip of the Mountain-King's home.
Mules Pong: A joke based on Donkey Kong. Jump the barrels, avoid the flames, collect the broken heart at the top to rescue the damsel in distress.
My Old Flame: This is the title of a song, here represented by the collectable flame on top of a candle.
Nelli Secundus: A "Nomen Luni"-style pun on A&F Software (also known as A'n'F), who were responsible for Chuckie Egg. The A and F letters are built into the floor, and you have to collect the ampersand (&). Watch out for the rolling (chuckie) egg... A&F Software used to subtitle themselves "Nulli Secundus": "Second to none"; hence the title of this room.
Off to town!: Jump the skyscrapers and collect the satellite dishes. Be careful when entering this room from the right.
Out on a limb: Slightly modified room from JSW.
Outskirts of town: This room forms a pair with 'Under the mansion', and you must cross sets of platforms through both rooms just to get a single object. Doing so is extremely difficult; this is probably the most demanding object to collect in the whole game.
Over Dover: It's always raining over the white cliffs. Jump on the driving rain to collect the object.
Over the harbour: Collect the flag from the top of the ship's mast.
Over the ocean: You're in fluffy white cumulus clouds, attempting to collect a flag which has blown away. Watch out for the bird and the raindrop, and be careful not to fall from the clouds, which are only partially solid! If you jump left off this screen to get back to "Tree Tops - the sequel", be very careful about how you do it!
Plinth: A "Monty Python"-inspired room, like the end-game foot from both MM and JSW. Collect the foot, but don't allow yourself to be stamped upon! Easier than it looks.
Sweet dreams!: A rather unnerving development from JSW's 'Nightmare Room'! Note that it's not possible to exit to the left of this room. Collect Maria's frowning eyes. Note that if you jump up from Maria's hairpiece, you end up in 'Wigfalls'. This was supposed to be amusing.
The Aviary: Ascend the parrots' backs to collect the ostrich, watching out for the other flying birds.
The Book Tower: Named after the children's TV programme hosted by Tom "Dr Who" Baker. The room takes the form of a castellated tower made from Bibles. Collect the glowing books, avoiding the lethal bookworms! The bookworms are a little tribute to Bill the Worm from Mined Out! (Quicksilva) and Splat! (Incentive), both of which were written by Ian Andrew.
The Bow: Thanks to a new pair of boots, Willy can now walk on water! The letter in Your Spectrum mentioned that a raft would appear and take you to a desert island at 7:30pm(?). Whilst this was not true, in this game it is possible to reach that desert island.
The Cess Pool: At the bottom of the garden... This is a tricky jump, especially from right to left. It's very easy to land right in it. Oh, you do have to collect one rather unpleasant object!
The Gaping Pit: In JSW, this was the original title for the room 'We must perform a Quirkafleeg'.
The Garden: Jump over the plant pots to collect the flower in this alpine garden. Watch out! Most flowers are deadly.
The Greenhouse: Lives up to its name...
The Ice Volcano: A fictitious screen of this name was mentioned in the letter in Your Spectrum. In this game, it really exists. The ice-cubes erupting from the volcano are actually undefined guardians from the original JSW game; I thought they looked quite suitably icy without any editing!
The Object Shop: Surely the most objects you've ever seen all together in one place! An easy room, but watch out for the bird!
The Off Licence: Modified version of the room from JSW.
The On Licence: Compare with 'The Off Licence'. I know this joke is awful, but I couldn't resist it; sorry!
The Plumber is incompetent: A joke focussed on the end-game animation from JSW. Quite a tricky room.
The Smithy: Named for Matthew Smith, creater of this wonderful Miner Willy series. As he was (is!) considered a bit of a demi-god by Spectrum games-players, the room contains a couple of 'god' guardians.
The Terrace: Don't spend too much time trying to get the object if you've entered the room from the left...
The TV Room: Collect the TV aerial, avoiding the TV sets and joystick. I don't know who the TV presenter is, but he must be a bore!
The wide blue yonder: Collect the "B" for "blue". This room is quite tricky because of the combination of wide jumps which need to be timed carefully with the firing of arrows. NB You can't cross this room from the right; you need to enter it from 'Into the wide blue yonder'.
The Yacht: Willy has moored his yacht at the foot of the cliff.
Top of the cliff: Rescue the stranded man who's reaching out for help, and avoid the fish.
Tree trunk: The bottom of a three-screen-high tree, situated at the side of the mountain.
Tree Top: Slightly modified room from JSW.
Tree Tops - the sequel: As far as I can recall eleven+ years on, the Your Spectrum letter mentioned that climbing the tree on the desert island led to a screen called 'Tree Tops - the sequel'. So here it is.
Under the mansion: See entry for 'Outskirts of town'; this room is half of a pair, with a very hard-to-reach object in it. The object is an arrow pointing upwards, indicating the direction of the mansion.
Up in the clouds: You're high up in the sky. Watch out for birds...
Use "WRITETYPER" in this room!: A fairly unsubtle clue as to how to turn on the cheat mode!
WC: An outdoor privy of no special significance.
What shall I do with this room?: I ran out of ideas for naming this one! It's a moderately taxing challenge, though. Watch out for the Microdrive cartridges!
Who is Luke Warm anyway?: This refers to a very obscure game called Stay Kool, which featured a main character called Luke Warm. Stay Kool was a mediocre platformer which was very much in the Manic Miner/JSW style, and which was written by a friend of my best school-friend's elder brother. Stay Kool was published by Bug-Byte (see 'Bug-Bytten'). It was never successful. I played it once in a shop, but didn't buy it.
Wigfalls: Named after a chain of shops which, I think, no longer exists. (As I recall, they sold DIY stuff.) In this room, you must collect the flashing "W", whilst avoiding the falling wigs.
[: A tribute to the spare room in JSW.

Distribution terms

I release this game as freeware, since its whole purpose is to be played and enjoyed, but I retain copyright on those parts which were created by me. The room designs from this game form half of the rooms in John Elliott's Jet Set Willy 128 (the other half being the original JSW screens); anyone wishing to make use of elements of this game in other ways (such as extracting some of the tunes, graphics, room designs or whatever) may do so as long as they attempt to ask my permission first. I will almost certainly grant permission; I would just like to know what's happening to my game. Copies may be distributed freely in an unmodified form (if you wish to make any modifications, please ask me first). If the game is to be distributed on a medium other than an Internet FTP site or Web page (e.g. a CD-ROM) then I would appreciate being notified of the fact, and if a copy of the relevant publication could be arranged, then that would be even more appreciated. The bottom line, though, is that this is a free game. Do whatever you like with it; but, above all, enjoy it!

Richard G. Hallas
31 Skelton Crescent
Crosland Moor
Huddersfield
West Yorkshire
HD4 5PN

Tel. 01484 460280
Email Richard@Hallas.net