Unfair deaths, annoying tune, and dodgy value proposition aside (JSW2 is basically the original with more rooms), this platform game fascinated a younger me.
The oddball humour in the enemies and room names/designs combined with the sprawling map to create a game that felt like you could find anything, if only you could just make it through one more screen.
Going to ask a potentially dumb q, since there are so many scientists/astronomers/etc on here: given how old the universe is, and how many billions of star systems there are, what is the probability that there are other intelligent life forms somewhere? Not talking about Vulcans with warp capability or little green men in flying saucers, just, I don't know...self-aware slime molds? Silica-based jellyfish swarms with complex language? You know, something.
THIS WEEK IN 1988: Activision, the one-time Atari 2600 game developer which had recently entered the Macintosh business software market, admitted there was a critical flaw in its HyperCard application "REPORTS!" that caused the Macintosh to "roll over and die," according to the developer who discovered the bug. The developer said he informed Activision about the bug earlier "but they decided to ship the product anyway."
At least 9,500 bugged copies made it onto store shelves. Activision tried to remedy the problem by providing an online patch through BBSes and services like CompuServe.
A few weeks later, Activision changed its name to Mediagenic, again as part of its diversification into business software. The name changed back to Activision after Bobby Kotick bought the company out of bankruptcy in 1991.