Manic Miner

1001 Video Games

Manic Miner appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Author

The author of the game, Matthew Smith, wrote Manic Miner and the follow-up game Jet Set Willy before the age of 18. He wrote Manic Miner while working for Bug-Byte Software. When he left to join Software Projects he took the licence with him together with the follow-up game.

Cheat code

The cheat code 6031769 is based on Smith's driver license number (slightly changed).

Oric version

The Oric port of the game suffered from horrible squashed-up graphics but to compensate the visuals there were 12 extra screen giving in total 32.

Sequel

There was an unreleased sequel to Manic Miner called Mattie Goes Mining. The idea for this title was to improve upon the Commodore 64 version of Manic Miner. This may have included the use of multi-color graphics and other graphical or sonic improvements. There was once a news article about the title (the source is unknown) which says that the game was at an "advanced state" at the time of the article. They stated that there would be "many improvements" to the original game to take advantage of the Commodore 64. That was all that was ever heard of the game, and it never surfaced anywhere. Just who was developing the title is unknown as well.

Awards

• ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)
  • February 1991 (issue #41) - Included in the list Greatest Games of all Time, section Platform-based Games (editorial staff choice)* Commodore Force
  • December 1993 (Issue 13) – #78 “Readers' Top 100”* Commodore Format
  • April 1991 (Issue 7) - listed in the A to Z of Classic Games article (Great)
  • November 1994 (Issue 50) – #16 The All-Time Top 50 C64 Games
• Computer and Video Games
  • Golden Joystick 1983: Winner best Arcade style Game
• Retro Gamer
  • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #3 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
  • May 2007 (Issue #37) - #2 in the "Top 25 Platformers of All Time" poll

Information also contributed by Caltrus.