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Jet Set Willy

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JSW, by Matt Smith, is possibly the most addictive game I've ever had the pleasure to own. It was basically a mansion that Willy bought after finding all the treasure in 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 housekeeper, 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 (Infinite lives) firmly embedded in my subconscious.

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Do You Remember Jet Set Willy?

Do You Remember Jet Set Willy?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    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.
  • sickthings
    on
    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
  • Anonymous user
    on
    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 :-)
  • Anonymous user
    on
    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??!!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    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!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Was one of the first games I got with my Speccy. Everytime I see a Banyan Tree now I still think of this game!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Wife?! It was the maid Maria who stood between our intrepid hero Miner Willy and the good night's sleep he really deserved!
  • Anonymous user
    on
    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?
  • Anonymous user
    on
    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...
  • Anonymous user
    on
    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.
    • Anonymous user
      on
      I forgot about that code, it has suddenly come back to me reading this. I've got 10,000 games now for the beloved spectrum. I will never forget the banyan tree / entrance to hades and miss maria waiting in that bedroom. Classic retro stuff. And yes, it is impossible, apart from the cassettes that you had to turn over to stop them wearing out after each load !

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