MANIC MINER

Bug Byte/Software Projects, 1983.

AUTHOR:
Matthew Smith.

DESCRIPTION:
Manic Miner is a single screen platform game with 20 excellent levels.

CONTROLS:

• Alternating keys on Q to P row = left/right.
• A-G = Pause.
• H-Enter = Tune on/off.
• Bottom row = Jump.

Since this game was released by two publishers, there are two different inlay card texts available, one for the Bug Byte version and one for the Software Projects version.

SEQUELS/PREQUELS:
The main follow up to Manic Miner was Jet Set Willy. A prequel came in the form of Miner 2049'er, on the TRS-80. This was by a different author.

Matthew Smith, the elusive author of this game, has also written Styx.

SCORES RECEIVED:
Unknown by me, but probably nowhere near as high as they should have been.

GENERAL FACTS:
This was the first game with in-game music, namely In the Hall of the Mountain King from the play Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg. The music that plays during the title screen is The Blue Danube.

This game was originally released by Bug-Byte, and then re-released by Software Projects. The reason for this is that Bug-Byte originally only had a contract to sell Manic Miner, they did not actually own it. So when Matthew Smith moved across to Software Projects, he took Manic Miner with him.

There are some differences between the two versions. Obviously the scroll-text at the start changes slightly to reflect the different copyright in the Software Projects version. However, there are two subtle but interesting changes.

1. In Amoebatrons' Revenge, the amoebatrons look different between the two versions. The originals look like Octopuses, with tentacles hanging down, whereas the Software Projects ones look like sort of beetles, with little legs up their sides.

2. In The Warehouse, the original game has threshers travelling up and down the vertical slots, rotating about the screens X-axis. The Software Projects version has 'impossible triangle' sprites (i.e. the Software Projects logo) instead, which rotate about the screen's Z-axis.

It used flashing attributes to provide an animated "Manic Miner" logo while loading. Although there was nothing clever about this as such, it was nevertheless the first game ever to have an animated loading screen.

For those who are interested (everybody!) the names of the rooms are as follows:

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 Amoebatrons
10. The Endorian Forest
11. Attack of the Mutant Telephones
12. Return of the Alien Kong Beast
13. Ore Refinery
14. Skylab Landing Bay
15. The Bank
16. The Sixteenth Cavern
17. The Warehouse
18. Amoebatrons' Revenge
19. Solar Power Generator
20. The Final Barrier

CHEATS:
The Bug-Byte version - Type in 6031769.
The Software Projects version - Type in WRITETYPER.

Both of these allow you to flick between rooms by holding down various combinations of numbers. Use key 9 + combinations of 1 to 5, which actually correspond to the binary code of the room number. 00001 [1] = The Central Cavern, 10010 [17] = The Warehouse etc... Be careful though as this gives more combinations than there is actual rooms, so if you use a combination that does not exist then it crashes the game.

Note that when the cheat is enabled, a boot appears next to the lives at the bottom of the screen, and The Final Barrier does not revel its secret so that people couldn't cheat at the competition.

You can also POKE 35136,0 for infinite lives.

COMPLETING THE GAME
When you jump into the exit of The Final Barrier (and you haven't used the 6031769 cheat) the door changes from an omega sign to a fish and dagger, one above the other, the answer being Swordfish. You were supposed to quote this in the competition (i.e. the first person to quote what happened at the end correctly must have won, though I don't remember ever seeing who did it, if anyone). Then the game then starts again from the beginning - in the true tradition of Spectrum Games.

NOTES:
Probably the most legendary Spectrum game ever. Even today programmers have trouble matching the devious design and incredible variety of imagination in the levels.

And I need a logo drawing. The black and white thing at the top will suffice for now, but if you could do something better, I would really appreciate it.