Ports
JSW II was originally created as an Amstrad version of Jet Set Willy, but with expansions to exploit the 64K RAM of the Amstrad CPC range (compared with the 48K of the ZX Spectrum, the game's home platform). This version was subsequently ported back to the Spectrum. The porting across to Amstrad and porting back to Spectrum may also explain a number of other small differences, including the loss of coloured backgrounds in certain screens as the CPC version ran in a 4-colour display mode.
The game was subsequently ported to other platforms, including the Commodore 64, Commodore 16, BBC Micro, Acorn Electron and MSX. The BBC Micro cassette version has 2 rooms not in the ZX Spectrum version, and omits 60 of the rooms, rather than being a superset of it as are the CPC and ZX Spectrum versions. Unofficial ports to the Acorn Archimedes, Windows/DOS and UNIX/X environments also exist.
The C64 screen was a different format to the Amstrad, so the developers were unable to take the data used in the Amstrad and instead had to re-layout and re-implement all the screens and sprites. Derrick Rowson was able to use much of the data directly from the Amstrad, and hence the game was released sooner.
Read more about this topic: Jet Set Willy II
Famous quotes containing the word ports:
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That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
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—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)