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PUBLISHER It was published by both Bug Byte and Software Projects. AUTHOR Matthew Smith. YEAR 1983. DESCRIPTION Manic Miner is a single screen platform game. CONTROLS: Alternating keys on Q to P row = left/right. A-G = Pause; H-Enter = Tune on/off. Bottom row = Jump. INSTRUCTIONS Using the keys, the idea of all the levels is to collect all the flashing objects and then make your way to the flashing potato waffle. 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 6 + combinations of 1 to 5. 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. (I think the competition thing was a fish and a dagger, which appeared when you jumped into the exit in The Final Barrier. The answer might have been swordfish.) SEQUELS 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. 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" by Peer Gynt and Edvard Grieg. This game was originally released by Bug-Byte. 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. 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 NOTES One of the most legendary spectrum games ever.
