Some thoughts if you make a game like this again. At first is hard to tell if the level your on continues to the right (or left). Could the color of the walking surface be green on the sides that do continue to the next screen? Some games would be good with arrows and jump. I for one use custom controllers, so if game had jump (up) and arrows (action button)
When I made the game the main idea was for the player to take control of his stock of arrows. He wanted the arrows to be important so that the player would not despise them and return to catch them. To make the player jump would make the arrows not so essential.
Another idea is to use both controller ports. This way you have 5 more switches to play with. It would require custom controllers, but that might not be a big deal, sort of like how Robotron works on Atari 7800.
I used both controls on Mars Menace, so I don´t wanted to use it again.
BTW. Leonardo made a great tray to carry the two controls!
Any reason why Forbidden Lands uses one joystick port and HW uses the other? When I switch between these games I need to always move the joystick cable. I understand if there is a good reason, if there is no good reason why not use the same joystick port for all the new games?
Yeah, I remember that. When I was programming I was testing on O2em, but every time I had to change the control in the emulator, I decided to change it in the game. In a way this can be a good deal. In the 80's the Odyssey games were made this way, so if one of the controls broke, you could play half the library.