Jet Set Willy

JSW, by Matt Smith, is possibly the most addictive game I've ever had the please to own. It was basically a mansion that Willy bought after finding all the treasure is his previous game, Manic Miner. The point to JSW was to clean up the house after a particularly heavy drinking sesh, by collecting all the flashing objects lying around the house. Only after collecting ALL of them would your lovely wife, Martha, allow you into bed. Favourite rooms were swimming pool with it's revolutionary swinging line, The Off Licence - reaching this room was as far right as you could go in the game, and that room with the big scary head. Oh, and the secret "Priests Hole" room. If it wasn't for the Your Spectrum mag, I'd never have got anywhere near as far as I did. It's their fault I now have POKE 23609,0 (Infinate lives) firmly embedded in my subconscious.

ToonlistGuy

Comments




After Manic Miner had been illegally copied by all my geek mates, imagine how disappointed we were to find that JSW had a kind of colour-coded PIN code that you could only access from the original box! So who volunteered to sit up and translate the code into numbers? who subsequently sold copies for 50p a throw? Who has permanently ruined eyesight? Yes it's true.
BigC09-Jul-2008, 04:58:14 PM

After the bugs were fixed with pokes provided by 'Your Spectrum', I completed JSW many times. In the 80's, myself and several friends were jobless, we spent many a night in my council flat playing Speccy games. We used to time each other to see who could complete JSW fastest. I think it took around 3.5 hours. That included the extra room - 'April Showers' - added by typing in the code provided by 'Your Spectrum' magazine
sickthings20-Apr-2008, 07:21:50 AM

I never completed this game either, I did have it on my mobile phone too and still didn't get close.
Have such a fond memory of this game and Manic Miner in my head, I had Jet Set Willy tattooed :-)
Dazz24-Mar-2008, 04:12:39 AM

My dad was brilliant, he made up codes to allow u to climb walls, so u could skip out so many rooms just by standing under a wall and jumping.....and another to get rid of the monsters!! I STILL NEVER FINISHED IT!!! Did anyone actually complete it??!!
Lindsey27-Jun-2007, 11:31:53 PM

I remember cursing the banyan tree. It still held enough memories for me to have my photo taken next to a real one in the Maldives last year!
MC26-Jun-2007, 11:50:05 AM

Was one of the first games I got with my Speccy. Everytime I see a Banyan Tree now I still think of this game!
Mulletino21-Feb-2007, 02:13:07 AM

Wife?! It was the maid Maria who stood between our intrepid hero Miner Willy and the good night's sleep he really deserved!
CheShA13-Sep-2006, 05:20:58 PM

Sorry, the geek in me has to correct ToonlistGuy's entry. The infinite lives poke was 35899,0. (POKE 23609,0 would turn off the Speccy's keyboard 'click'). Pass my colour-clashing anorak, would you?
Cougar24-May-2006, 05:25:03 PM

My memory about this game, was when I found out that it was impossible. I spent so much time as a child exploring the mansion, finding new rooms all the time, always hoping to one day be able to get all of the objects... ...and then it turns out that due to a bug in the attic room, it's impossible to get every object, and the 'ending' wasn't even programmed in anyway. Still, I can't remember a game made since then, that had this amount of exploration in...
CherryMay22-Apr-2005, 11:53:34 PM

I used to love this game but never got very far on it. The code WRITETYPER is embedded in my brain - you used to have to jump through the stairs on the first landing and then type it in to get infinite lives.
Nickie14-May-2004, 01:34:16 AM

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