MANIC MINER

(1983 Bug-Byte/Software Projects)

The one that started the whole Matthew Smith legend, Manic Miner, Smith's second commercial game, was a first for the Spectrum in many ways. Written when the programmer was only 16, Manic Miner is based round a series of caverns that are carefully negaotiated by the game's hero, Miner Willy. It was unique at the time for having animated, flicker-free sprites and continuous music, both things that were considered impossible on the Speccy at that time. It was a best-seller, and made Smith rich and famous.

Although credited with starting the whole platform genre, Manic Miner was actually concieved as a clone of the Atari game Miner 49'er, which was Matthew Smith's favourite game at the time. It was during production, though that the game evolved into something else. Paradoxically it was a mixture of Smith keeping things simple, and excluding ladders, lifts etc., and pushing the boundaries of Spectrum gaming, cramming in 20 individual screens, which made it a whole new game in it's own right. It was pretty much the first platform game seen by most British audiences.

Originally made for Bug-Byte, Manic Miner was taken to Software Projects with Smith, as Bug-Byte only distributed the game, the ownership lying with the author.

The Software Projects version differs in a number of ways. Firstly the scrolling message is different on the title screen, and the loading screen is different (using flashes to

animate the picture - the first animated loading screen in history). Also, the Amaebotron's graphics are different in the 'Amaebotron's Revenge' level, and the nasties in The Warehouse are replaced with the Software Projects 'impossible triangle' logo.

Probably the most famous level of Manic Miner is 'Eugene's Lair', a level named after fellow Bug-Byte programmer Eugene Evans, who had told Matthew Smith that he didn't think Manic Miner would work.

"If there is one true classic then MM is it. If you compare it to the others of the time you'll see how far ahead it was. Great graphics that were animated. Continuous music plus sound effects. Plenty of screens and pixel perfect challenging gameplay. What more could you want?"

Keith Ainsworth, Retrogamer Fanzine.

The levels:

1. Central Cavern 2. The Cold Room 3. The Menagerie 4. Abandoned Uranium Workings 5. Eugene's Lair 6. Processing Plant 7. The Vat 8. Miner Willy meets The Kong Beast 9. Wacky Amaebatrons 10. The Endorian Forest 11. Attack of the Mutant Telephones 12. Return of the Alien Kong Beast 13. Ore Rifinery 14. Skylab Landing Bay 15. The Bank 16. The Sixteenth Cavern 17. The Warehouse 18. Amaebatron's Revenge 19. Solar Power Generator 20. The Final Barrier

In the BBC version, Solar Power Generator is replaced with a different room called The Meteor Shower, and The Final Barrier is completely different.

In the Amstrad version, Eugene's Lair is renamed 'Eugene Was Here'.

In the Oric version, there are extra levels between The Sixteenth Cavern and The Warehouse. The are:

17: Home at Last? 18. Back To Work 19. Down The Pit 20. Hall of the Mountain Kong 21. At The Centre Of The Earth 22. End of the World 23. Space Shuttle 24. The Airlock 25. Where's The Hyperspace Button? 26. In a Deep Dark Hole 27. Channel Tunnel 28. Not Central Cavern

In the Dragon version, there are two extra levels at the end, The Dragon User's Bonus, and Eddie's Forest.

The inlay text:

Miner Willy, while prospecting down Surbiton way, stumbles upon an ancient, long forgotten mine-shaft. On further exploration, he finds evidence of a lost civilisation far superior to our own, which used automatons to dig deep into the Earth's core to supply the essential raw materials for their advanced industry. After centuries of peace and prosperity, the civilisation was torn apart by war, and lapsed into a long dark age, abandoning their industry and machines. Nobody however thought to tell the mine robots to stop working, and through countless aeons they had steadily accumulated a huge stockpile of valuable metals and minerals, and Miner Willy realises that he now has the opportunity to make his fortune by finding the underground store. Can YOU take the challenge and guide Willy through the underground caverns to the surface and riches. In order to move to the next chamber, you must collect all the flashing keys in the room while avoiding nasties like POISONOUS PANSIES and SPIDERS and SLIME and worst of all MANIC MINING ROBOTS. When you have all the keys, you can enter the portal which will now be flashing. The games ends when you have been 'got' or fallen heavily three times.