Originally written in 1983 by Matthew Smith. This port is based on the original ZX Spectrum version, written in C and using the SDL2 library.
Game play is 100% identical except for the following differences:
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Level 16 has the item below the portal slightly lower down and the conveyor has a gap. This forces the player to utilise the left side of the level to get the item and to return to the portal. Judging by the collapsible blocks on the left, this may have been what Matthew Smith originally envisioned.
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In level 19 "Solar Power Generator", air depletes by 8 points if Willy is hit by the light beam unless his Y position is offset and the light beam strikes him vertically, then he loses 12 points of air. That's how the original game works. It should not matter if Willy's Y position is offset as he takes up no more room visually, therefore air depletes by 8 points regardless.
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The original game had bugs. These have been fixed, such as landing at the end of a jump into a solid wall.
Some subtle improvements have been made to make the game more enjoyable:
- Per pixel colouring. This eliminates colour clashing.
- 16 colour palette.
- 2 replacement character set fonts; one small, one large.
- The piano keyboard on the title screen has been corrected.
- The title screen has been redrawn in places for a more balanced look.
- The title and in-game music scores have been reproduced and are polyphonic.
- The sound effects are approximately the same as in the original game and include stereo panning effects.
- To give the music and sound effects a retro feel, a square wave generator is used to give it a "beepy" sound.
Cheat mode is activated just like in the orginal by typing the cheat code. Once activated, switching levels is as simple as typing the level number followed by ENTER. Levels lower than 10 do not need to be preceded by a zero, i.e. 01 or 1 has the same effect.
Both cheat codes from the Bug-Byte and Software Projects versions are supported.