Manic Miner

Manic Miner was originally released in 1983 by Bug-Byte and is the first game in the Miner Willy series. Features included in-game music, sound effects and colourful graphics with great designs as well as background and foreground colours which were exchanged automatically.

Miner Willy falls down a mine shaft where he discovers remnants of an ancient civilization.

The object of the game is to collect several flashing objects out of each of the 20 caverns before Willy’s oxygen runs out. Each time an object is collected from a cavern, the player must proceed to a flashing portal which leads them on to the next cavern.

The player has to ensure that Manic Miner survives all the various obstacles and dangers, whilst at the same time collecting the ‘goodies’ and finally reaching the surface of the mine a much richer man. Points are gathered up during the game, but if you eventually lose all the lives allocated then the game is up and you have to start again.

As the levels become more and more difficult, the player’s concentration becomes intense and frustration follows every time Miner Willy falls to his death. The game is so addictive that the player returns again and again to level 1 in order to defeat all the obstacles.

The game itself was originally inspired by the Atari 800 game Miner 2049er which was a video game created by Bill Hogue in 1982. Written by Matthew Smith Manic Miner became an instant success.

Manic Miner has received many accolades, winning the Golden Joystick award for best arcade style game by Computer and Video Games magazine in 1983, and was placed number 25 in the Your Sinclair official top 100 Spectrum games of all times.

There have been many different versions created since then, and the Sam Coupe version, which was programmed by Matthew Holt, has updated graphics and audio and a further 40 caverns added to the original version.

The BBC Micro version is different again and the last screen is complex and difficult compared to the Spectrum version.

Manic Miner was the first computer platform perfection on the Spectrum, and has been copied many times since it’s inception. Many people think the initial version is still the best, which is testament to the brilliance of Matthew Smith who, at the time, became an overnight star.

The game of Manic Miner is fun, exciting and completely addictive.