Manic Miner

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Description

You play the role of Miner Willy, a bold explorer and adventurer. He discovers a network of underground caverns used by an advanced but now extinct civilization, and realizes that the mines contain lucrative metal ores. Through 20 caverns, you must collect all treasures before all time (air) runs out, watching out for the nasty guardians, the obstacles, dead falls, quicksands and all elements to be found in a classic platform game.

Screenshots

Promo Images

There are no promo images for this game

Alternate Titles

• "Manic Miner: ZX Spectrum HD" -- iPad title
• "Manic Miner starring Miner Willy" -- Tag-lined title

Part of the Following Group

• Miner Willy series

User Reviews

Take a shine / to Manic Mine / ur	ZX Spectrum	Ashley Pomeroy (233)
Roy Coates' loving adaption of the classic game, and not before time!	Dragon 32/64	drmarkb (39)

Critic Reviews

Home Computing Weekly	ZX Spectrum	Sep 20, 1983		100
Home Computing Weekly	Amstrad CPC	Feb 12, 1985		100
Home Computing Weekly	Commodore 64	Feb 21, 1984		100
Popular Computing Weekly	ZX Spectrum	Sep 22, 1983	10 out of 10	100
Pixel	ZX Spectrum	Jul, 1984		88
Computer Gamer	Amstrad CPC	May, 1985		80
Personal Computer Games	Commodore 64	Apr, 1984	7 out of 10	70
TeleMatch	Amstrad CPC	Dec, 1984	2 out of 3	67
Pixel-Heroes.de	ZX Spectrum	Feb, 2010	6 out of 10	60
GameCola.net	ZX Spectrum	May, 2004	5.82 out of 10	58

Forums

Topic	# Posts	Last Post
SAM Coupe port	4	Rola (8304) Jul 14, 2012

Trivia

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).

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.

Related Web Sites

• Abandonia (downloadable Manic Miner versions for C64, Amiga and DOSBox)
• Fan-remake of Manic Miner (Barak Ori's remake runnable on Windows 95-XP)
• Manic Miner Remake (Flash online version of Manic Miner on darnkitty.com)
• Retrospec - Manic Miner (Free downloadable remake of Manic Miner - for DOS, PlayStation One, Blitz Basic, Windows and Macintosh)
• Wikipedia (free Encyclopedia entry)
• World of Spectrum (downloadable releases; additional material; remakes links; player reviews; magazine references; magazine adverts)