"The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural."
[Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith]
This page will be updated as I write Advanced MM/JSW Trainer - that page refers to features not yet listed here, but the game itself is incomplete, currently covering just over half of the features listed here.
28th May 2008: Edited various sections (changes in red).
I keep a catalogue of quirky features in MM/JSW (which I add to whenever I think of another one) so that I can systematically incorporate them into my MM/JSW games. I play through all the MM/JSW games specifically to look for such patterns to make a note of in my catalogue. I look for both patterns that are deliberately exploited, and those that occur unintentionally (e.g. I have noticed several unintended Innocent-Looking Blocks in JSW Ivy, and the Adam Britton triptych). I also think laterally about new patterns to invent (e.g. "I just cut that jump much closer than I needed to. What if I put a Fire-cell there so that you have to cut it that close?").
The patterns in this document are presented as ASCII text-diagrams using the code below. I have long considered using screenshots; however this is prohibitive in the time it would take to save them and crop them, and in terms of my website's limited storage-space and bandwidth. Text-diagrams also have the advantage that I can use generic cell-types such as ? and =. If you don't like my text-diagrams, I can only suggest you play Advanced MM/JSW Trainer, which covers these patterns systematically, and in a similar structure to this document.
Key (symbols in cyan are not currently used in this document)
. Air
- Water
+ Water 2 (MM)
_ Crumbly
| Earth
* Fire
! Fire 2 (MM)
< Conveyor left
> Conveyor right
~ sticky Conveyor
\ Ramp left
/ Ramp right
^ Trampoline (JSW64)
; Trap
= any stand-onable cell-type
? any cell-type
$ Item
� Item in a Crumbly cell
WW Willy
WW
## Portal
##
TT Teleporter
TT
HH Horizontal guardian
HH
h in the path of a horizontal guardian
h
VV Vertical guardian
VV
vv in the path of a vertical guardian
Jumping from the edge of a stand-onable cell. There are two varieties that are very common in my games:
(1) =.....= (0x5)
(2) WW...= (2x4)
WW....
=.....
The above two varieties can be combined as follows, allowing Willy to jump onto the upper row when standing on the right edge of the bottom-left cell, or to jump onto the bottom-right cell when standing one step back from the right edge:
WW...== (can land on here...)
WW.....
=.....= (...or here)
Three-way jumps:
WW-... (can land on here...)
WW...- (...here...)
=.....
......
.....= (...or here)
Impossible jumps:
(1) ..WW
=.WW (1x1)
..=.
(2) ....|
..WW|
=.WW| (1x2 with an Earth-column in the way)
...=|
Using an overhead Earth-cell to jump left off a platform that is three rows above the platform you land on (doesn't work in MM, nor laterally inverted):
(1) ?????? (2) ?.....
?..... ?.....
|..... |.....
...... ....WW
....WW ....WW
....WW .....=
.....= .....?
.....? .....?
.....? .....?
=....? =....? (can land safely if you hit the Earth-cell whilst jumping)
Jumping through Earth-cells - I identify four variants:
(1) ......| (as in "Ballduins Ballhaus" in MM2)
=======
(2) .....|. (the Innocent-Looking Block, as in JSW: The Deadly Mission,
....... which dumps you slap through the floor - one of my favourites! :-) )
=======
(3) .....|. (a blocked ILB)
.....|.
=======
(4) ......| (a bit like an ILB - see "The Road to Isengard" in JSW:LOTR)
=====..
Jumping into an Earth-cell to be able to walk against the direction of a conveyor:
WW.... (jump right onto the conveyor,
WW.... then left into the Earth-cell)
|.....
==<<<<
Using an overhead Earth-cell to jump right into an Earth-cell at leg-height (in MM this also works laterally inverted; in JSW, only if you're standing far enough back to miss the overhead Earth-cell):
...|.
.....
WW...
WW.|-
=====
Walking left through Earth-cells at head-height, as you have to do several times in JSW in Space (this works in JSW but not MM):
||WW
..WW
====
A related phenomenon: the way you can jump onto the ledges on the left of "The Wine Cellar" because the overhead Earth-cell catches you, but not if you laterally invert "The Wine Cellar" or convert it to MM (see the Party Willy box-set for both).
Jumping left through overhead Earth-cells (this works in JSW but not MM):
Not being able to jump up a cell-column that alternates Earth-cells with Air- or Water-cells. Contrary to what you might expect, it is not possible to jump up on top of the following structures without outside help:
(1) ....
....
||..
|.WW
||WW
====
(2) .....
.|... (if Willy jumps through this overhead Earth-cell,
.-... his head ends up in this row)
.|.WW
.|.WW
=====
Jumping left into a pair of Earth-cells that dump you into the gap below:
......
......
...|..
....WW
...|WW (can land on the left platform if you stand close enough to the Earth-cells,
==...= or fall into this gap if you stand far enough back)
Jumping into Earth-cells with superjump enabled:
(1) ?.....
......
...... (facing right, in your leftmost sprite-frame,
WW..|| jump right twice in successive time-frames
WW..|| to land completely inside these four Earth-cells)
==????
(2) ????? (no need to keep this row clear)
..... (facing right with your legs apart,
..... jump right twice in successive time-frames
....| to jump through this Earth-cell)
WW.??
WW|??
=====
Underfoot Fire-cells kill you, but overhead Fire-cells don't if an Earth-cell stops you:
(1) .....
.....
=*?*= (dangerous, but can be cleared by a pixel-perfect jump)
(2) ?*|*?
..$.. (safe to jump for this item)
.....
.....
=====
Awkward jumps in the presence of Fire-cells, such as:
(1) ....WW
.*..WW
<<<<<<
(2) ..........
...*..*...
==========
(3) ......
..**..
======
(4) *...*
.....
.....
.....
.....
=...=
(5) .....*
......
......
WW.... (has to be pixel-perfect from left to right)
WW....
====*=
(6) =...WW
....WW
....==
.*.... (trying to land to the left of the Fire-cell)
=?????
(7) ......|
.......
.......
.....WW
.....WW
*=....<
Jumping over Fire-cells from the bottom step of a ramp:
Jumping over Fire-cells and landing inside stand-onable cells, as in "Eugene's Lair" in the original MM, or "The Hotel Gardens" in JSW: Willy's Holiday:
(1) ?||**...
========
(2) ...*.=..
========
Jumping out from under a Fire-cell from four pixels in, as in JSW Ivy's "Dizzy Heights", or the following example I've made up:
*........
.....>>>> (carries you to certain death if you jump from the very edge)
.........
=.....=== (can safely land on here)
Impossible manoeuvres, such as jumping the spider in "To the Kitchens Main Stairway":
..*..
.....
=====
Not being able to jump out of safe-looking holes because of Fire-cells:
*......*
|||.$.|| (this item has to be jumped up for from below)
===---==
Fire-cells in the top row prevent you from falling off the bottom of the screen.
Walking the wrong way along a conveyor: this can be done if you walk onto it, or if you jump left/right onto it from the same row or a lower row. But you cannot walk against a conveyor if you fall, or jump straight up, onto it - in these situations, you can stop on the conveyor by holding left if it is a right-conveyor, or right if it is a left-conveyor.
If a Conveyor < cell is horizontally adjacent to a Conveyor > cell (only possible in JSW64), and you stand on both cells together, then the Conveyor > cell takes precedence:
(1) WW (Willy moves right)
WW
<>
(2) WW (Willy moves right until he's off the > cell,
WW then oscillates between both cells
>< until you walk away in either direction)
Stopping under Earth-cells by holding jump, while on a conveyor, e.g. to avoid vertical guardians (e.g. "The Final Barrier" in the original MM, "Tree Root" and "Dr Jones will never believe this" in the original JSW):
Stopping on a conveyor and jumping straight up (i.e. walk against the direction of the conveyor, stop walking for exactly one time-frame, then hold down the key you were pressing to walk). One application of this would be to avoid a guardian (see "Stopping on conveyors" [14] in Advanced MM/JSW Trainer: JSW64 main game), another would be to use Fire-cells to make the player have to jump straight up, as in the following examples:
(1) ?.$? (first exploited in "Sex and the Church"
?..? in MM: The Buddha of Suburbia)
*..*
?...
?...
?>>>
(2) ????
????
*??*
?--.
?...
?>>>
In MM48 and JSW64, a conveyor-animation can cover cells that are not Conveyor-cells (ghost-conveyor), and in JSW64, it need not agree with the direction of any Conveyor-cells that it does cover!
Off- and sticky conveyors (which have a direction of 2 or 3 respectively, rather than the standard 0 for left and 1 for right):
An off-conveyor behaves as Water, and always animates to the left (if it animates at all).
A sticky conveyor takes you in the horizontal direction you're going when you land on it; if you fall onto it or jump straight up onto it, you cannot walk left or right. A sticky conveyor always animates to the right (if it animates at all).
In JSW64, it's the direction of the conveyor-animation (and not of the Conveyor-cells) that determines whether conveyors are off, sticky or neither, and this determines the behaviour of all Conveyor-cells in the room (i.e. you cannot mix sticky conveyors with left- and right-conveyors in the same room).
Interesting pattern with a sticky conveyor (inspired by "rHythm and blues Angus Steakhaus" in strangel):
WW.=..- (the only way to collect the item is to jump right
WW/...$ when you're next to the foot of the ramp,
~~~~~~? facing right with your legs apart)
When you walk onto a cell directly below a Ramp-cell, at the low side of the Ramp-cell, it takes you up to the cell-row above, and the Ramp-cell overrides the underfoot behaviour of the cell below. For example:
../ (you can walk right onto this Ramp-cell -
=.. you don't fall through the gap)
If you walk off the low side of a Ramp-cell, you go down one cell-row before you start to fall:
.WW..
.WW..
../.. (can safely walk off the left edge of this ramp, but not the right)
.....
.....
.....
.....
=====
You do not collide with the cell marked ? by walking down the ramp in the following situations, even if it is a Fire-cell or an Earth-cell:
?WW WW?
.WW WW.
../ \..
No matter how far down a Ramp-cell you are standing, you do not lose height when jumping. For example, you can still jump a 2x4 gap from the low side of a Ramp-cell:
WW...=
WW....
\.....
It's also perfectly safe to fall onto the low side of a Ramp-cell from a height of 4 cell-rows:
WW.
WW.
=..
...
...
...
../
Jumping always overrides a Ramp-cell's ability to move you down:
|||
WW. (if you walk right, you fall through the Ramp-cells,
WW. but if you hold jump as you walk right, you don't fall through)
\\\
Jumping through ramps: when precisely you can jump through a ramp, and when it catches you:
*******
....../
...../.
..../..
WW./... (must jump from your rightmost right-facing frame)
WW/**..
=======
Jumping into Ramp-cells:
(1) ......../| (as in "The Chapel":
WW...../.. <- can jump into either this Ramp-cell,
WW..../... <- or this one)
==========
(2) ......../|
WW...../..
WW..../-.. (must jump into this Ramp-cell)
==========
(3) ......../|
......./..
WW..../-.. (must jump into this Ramp-cell)
WW.../|===
==========
(4) WW....? (as in "*really rampant rampy rope room*" in where's woody;
WW..../ must jump into this Ramp-cell
======/ to be able to walk left off this one)
Jumping out of the underside of a ramp:
(1) .....\WW.
......\W.
.......\.
=.......\ (as in "barrier 2" in strangel)
(2) ..../.....
WW./......
WW/*??*..* (as in "gunzan money" in strangel)
==========
Moving in a field of Ramp-cells where you have to jump onto the correct diagonal. For example:
|/////
|/////
|/////
|/////
|$////
|*****
The narrowest pairs of Fire-cells through which you can walk in a field of Ramp-cells:
Even when you're standing on the low side of a ramp, you experience the underfoot behaviour of the horizontally-adjacent cell:
Crumbly: \_ (it crumbles)
Conveyor: \< (you move left and up the Ramp-cell)
\> (you move right and down the Ramp-cell)
Trampoline: \^ (you jump)
Trap: \; (you fall down onto the cell-row below)
The underfoot behaviour of an Earth-cell is no different from that of a Water-cell, therefore you can move down through the Earth-cells in the following situations:
\|. .|/
However, Earth-cells block you in the following situations, because they are treated as being at leg-height, thus their side-blocking behaviour comes into play:
\?| |?/
The Earth-cells in the following situations are treated as being at head-height:
(1) ..| (stops you walking down the ramp)
\..
(2) |.. (can walk down the ramp)
../
Walking up through Earth-cells using ramps. Interestingly, if you have a ramp under Earth, the effect depends on whether the ramp goes up to the left or to the right:
(1) ??|
WW. (you get stuck here, but can walk right through the ramp
WW/ if you hold down a jump-key)
?=?
(2) |??
.WW (you can walk up through the Earth-cell!
\WW or jump left at the foot of the ramp to walk left through the ramp)
?=?
(3) |||.
|\.. (a nice application of the above)
|$\.
====
You cannot walk left through the following Earth-cell at head-height, because the ramp makes it think it's at leg-height:
|WW (you can, however, jump left through this Earth-cell -
\WW though you must stand back if you're trying to land on it!)
?==
WW| (you cannot jump right through this Earth-cell -
WW/ no need to stand back)
==?
Interactions between / and \ Ramp-cells (only possible in JSW64): \ takes precedence:
(1) /\ (no conflict - behaves as you'd expect)
(2) \/
Case (2) is particularly interesting. When walking across it from left to right, the \ cell takes precedence and you fall through instead of walking up the / cell. However, when walking across it from right to left, the \ cell appears to take precedence as you walk up it - but you still fall through it the moment you step off the / cell!
(3) \/ (as soon as you set foot on /,
=. you appear at the top of \!)
(4) \./ (you fall through when crossing in both directions)
(5) WW.
WW/ (walk right and you fall through)
\..
(6) .WW
\WW (you can walk left onto \)
../
Avoiding arrows by standing inside a non-Air cell (this effect can be seen in J4's "Nights in White Satin"). This works because an arrow collides with any pixels in a cell with white ink, and nothing else.
Ropes
Effects of ropes when they collide with pixels that were drawn first: you get picked up from wherever you are in the room, and placed at the position of the collision; if the collision occurs near the top of the screen, then you are teleported to the room above.
Edges of the screen
Entering a room inside a Fire-cell such that you can escape from it if you move immediately. e.g. If you were to enter the following room from the left, you would die if you stayed still but live if you moved right immediately. This works because there is no collision-detection on the 0th time-frame of a room (i.e. the one before the first time-frame that you can pause it on):
(1) *.....
*.....
*.....
*.....
*.....
======
(2) Room above:
...|.. (note the overhead Earth-cell to force Willy to land on his leftmost sprite-frame!)
....WW
....WW
..**==
Room below:
*.???? (you have to walk LEFT immediately when entering from above!)
*.????
==????<
Being able to jump a gap of six cells when you enter a room, e.g.
......=
You could jump onto this Water-cell from the room to the left, but you couldn't jump back into the room to the left.
Being able to jump an even longer gap if that room is the Master Bedroom, with all the items collected, and it's from the left that you are entering - see Willy fly!
The following items can be jumped both left or right for (depending on the direction in which you're walking along the conveyor), but the jump has to be perfect:
Having white-ink guardians collect items for you, e.g. an arrow collects an item in JSW:LOTR's "Three is Company". An item is collected if it is drawn over any cell with white ink, e.g. the white-ink Air in "Swimming Pool").
In JSW, non-white guardians pass through items without collision, but in MM, vertical guardians and Eugene kill you if they touch an item in their path, because the item is drawn before them.
Combined cell-types (MM, JSW48/128)
The following cell-types can be combined by giving them the same colour-attribute (this doesn't work in JSW64):
Earth-Air: Willy falls through it, but cannot walk or jump through it.
Ramp-Air (aka springy platforms): Willy hops up into the cell-row above when walking into an Air-cell to the {right/left} of his legs if the ramp-direction is {/,\}; a stand-onable cell that is horizontally adjacent to an Air-cell behaves as Ramp.
Conveyor-Air: stand-onable cells behave as Conveyor if he is also standing on top of an Air-cell.
Earth-Fire: Willy cannot walk or jump through it, and it kills him if he stands on it, or if he tries to walk or jump through it via a quirky feature.
Earth-Ramp: Willy can walk diagonally along it, but cannot jump through it or walk the wrong way through it (except as per the quirky features for Earth-cells).
Earth-Conveyor: behaves as Earth except that Willy is conveyed when he stands on it.
Conveyor-Ramp-Air: combines the behaviours of Ramp-Air and Conveyor-Air.
Earth-Conveyor-Ramp: combines the behaviours of Earth-Ramp and Conveyor-Ramp.
Manic Miner (and JSW64) only
Here are some that are specific to Manic Miner (and JSW64):
Jumping onto and off a Crumbly cell, then falling back down onto it and walking off (leaving one pixel-row of Crumbly left for a later jump):
==......
.._...WW
=.....WW
.......=
In fact this pattern can be used in one of two ways:
The player has to visit the middle '=' platform (eventually returning to the bottom platform) before leaving the room via the top platform, and so must be able to jump back up onto the top platform later (leaving one pixel-row of Crumbly left to be able to do so).
The player has to visit the top '=' platform (eventually returning to the bottom platform) before leaving the room via the middle platform, and so must be able to reach the middle platform later (leaving seven pixel-rows of Crumbly left to be able to do so).
Putting an item in a Crumbly cell, so that you can only collect the item after the cell has crumbled (as in MM:Buddha's "Untitled No.1") - in both MM and JSW, you can only collect items that are in Air-cells (unless a white-ink guardian collects them for you).
Fast-crumbling cells - both 'proper' (as in MM4's "A Hole in the Ocean") and those that leave 'ghosts' (as in the first room of MM:Buddha).
Eugene: avoiding the item that must be collected last, e.g.
..$.. (can be jumped over, unlike a Fire-cell!)
.....
=====
The switches in Rooms 7 and 11, and the Kong Beast.
Skylabs (understanding where a Skylab reappears after crashing and thus being able to anticipate whether it's safe to jump near the top of the screen).
Solar beam: the colour-attributes for Water 1 and Earth absorb it (in JSW64: any Water or Earth cell-classes), the colour-attribute for Air lets it through, and any other colour-attribute deflects it. Thus an item may have different effects on the beam depending on its colour on any given time-frame.
The item below the portal in "The Sixteenth Cavern" - if you fall into the portal without having collected this item, you finish the level with the key still visible and without being awarded 100 points for collecting it!
The following cell-types can be combined by giving them the same colour-attribute (this doesn't work in JSW64):
Crumbly Air: any on-pixels in Air's pixel-pattern will crumble. The only application of this which affects gameplay would be to remove Crumbly-Air cells from a guardian's path.
Crumbly Earth: behaves as Earth, but crumbles when Willy stands on it.
Crumbly Conveyor: when Willy stands on it, it both crumbles and conveys him - leaving a smear if the conveyor is animated!
Crumbly Earth-Conveyor: combines the behaviours of Crumbly Earth and Earth-Conveyor.
Crumbly Fire: jumping over a Crumbly-Fire cell so as to land just past it causes it to crumble, as in MM4's "Dotty"!
You cannot stand in one cell-column with your back to an Earth-cell (except by falling into that position).
If you jump up against an Earth-cell, you can't fall as far without dying as in MM/JSW I:
||||
....
....
WW..
WW..
==..
??..
??== (you die if you fall onto here after jumping up against the Earth)
You can jump over a Fire-cell at head-height:
..*..
.....
=====
You can jump straight up on the leftmost cell of a left-conveyor.
Moving in a field of Ramp-cells causes some unexpected interactions with other cell-types, such as the way you whizz downwards as you try to walk against horizontally-adjacent Earth, and the way other cell-types - even Air - block your downwards movement rather than let you pass through them.
