THE SPECTRUM GAMES DATABSE MANIC MINER PUBLISHER Bug Byte and Software Projects AUTHOR Matthew Smith YEAR 1983 CATEGORIES Plaform 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. Since this game was released by two publishers, there are two different sets of inlay card text. Below is both of them starting off with the Bug Byte version, and then the Software Projects version. ORIGINAL INLAY CARD TEXT INSTRUCTIONS The program "MANIC MINER" its documentation and artwork are strictly the copyright of Bug-Byte. It is illegal to make a copy of MANIC MINER without authorisation from Bug-Byte and legal action will be taken against anyone found doing so. It is also illegal, and expressly forbidden, to lend or hire out the program by way of trade. MANIC MINER will run on any 48K Spectrum To load MANIC MINER, simply enter: LOAD "" - then hit the ENTER key and follow the computer's prompts. Leave the tape running until the game starts up automatically. THE GAME Miner Willy, while prospecting down Surbiton way, stumbles upon an ancient, long forgotten mine-shaft. On further exploration, he finds evidence of a lost civilisation far superior to our own, which used automatons to dig beep into the Earth's core to supply the essential raw materials for their advanced industry. After centuries of peace and prosperity, the civilisation was torn apart by war, and lapsed into a long dark age, abandoning their industry and machines. Nobody, however, thought to tell the mine robots to stop working, and through countless aeons they had steadily accumulated a hugh stockpile of valuable metals and minerals, and Miner Willy realises that he now has the opportunity to make his fortune by finding the underground store. Can YOU take the challenge and guide Willy through the undergraound caverns to the surface and riches. In order to move to the next chamber, you must collect all the flashing keys in the room while avoiding nasties like POISONOUS PANSIES and SPIDERS and SLIME and worst of all, MANIC MINING ROBOTS. When you have all the keys, you can enter the portal which will now be flashing. The game ends when you have been 'got' or fallen heavily three times. GAME CONTROL Three keys are used to control the game: Q,E,T,U or O - Move left W,R,Y,I or P - Move right Shift to space - Jump -------------------------------------------------------------- SPECTRUM MANIC MINER (SECOND EDITION) LOADING INSTRUCTIONS 1. Connect lead to ear socket of Spectrum from ear socket on recorder. 2. Rewind tape to beginning. 3. Set Volume Control to the required level. 4. Type LOAD "" or LOAD "MANICMINER". 5. Press key marked enter on your Spectrum. 6. Press play on your cassette recorder. 7. Your Program will now load. If the program does not load first time, repeat instructions but try a different volume setting. TO MOVE USE KEYS: Q, E, T, U, or O = MOVE LEFT W, R, Y, I or P = MOVE RIGHT SHIFT TO SPACE = JUMP MANIC MINER CAN ALSO BE USED WITH KEMPSTON, AGF AND PROTEK JOTSTICK INTERFACES AND IS ALSO COMPATIBLE WITH INTERFACE II Author: MATTHEW SMITH MANIC MINER Miner Willy, while prospecting down Surbiton way, stumbles upon an ancient, long forgotten mine-shaft. On further exploration, he finds evidence of a lost civilisation far superior to our own, which used automatons to dig deep into the Earth's core to supply the essential raw materials for their advanced industry. After centuries of peace and prosperity, the civilisation was torn apart by war, and lapsed into a long dark age, abandoning their industry and machines. Nobody, however, thought to tell the mine robots to stop working, and through countless aeons they had steadily accumulated a huge stockpile of valuable metals and minerals, and Miner Willy realises that he now has the opportunity to make his fortune byfinding the underground store. In order to move to the next chamber, you must collect all the flashing keys in the room while avoiding nasties like POISONOUS PANSIES and SPIDERS and SLIME and worst of all, MANIC MINING ROBOTS. When you have all the keys, you can enter the portal which will now be flashing. The game ends when you have been 'got' or fallen heavily three times. Software Projects are always looking for new and original games. If you have written one then why not send it into us for free evaluation with no obligation by either party. We pay good royalties or you have the option of an outright payment, whichever suits you. Interested? Send a sample of your game or 'phone. Software Projects Bear Brand Complex Allerton Road Woolton Liverpool L25 7SF 051-428 7990 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. However, at the top end of the code in the original Manic Miner game, is a command set for the TRS-DOS, which Matthew Smith used to develop JSW on. SCORES RECEIVED: Unknown by me, but probably nowhere near as high as they should have been. 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 (for the SP version) or 6 (for the BB version) + 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. 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 Waltz of The Blue Danube" by Strauss 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 Eugenes Lair is a jibe at one of Matthew Smith's fellow programmers (Eugene Jarvis?). Miner Willy meets the Kong Beast is a parody of the old Donkey Kong games. Presumably The Endorian Forest is from Star Wars. This is how to complete what is generally regarded as the most difficult screen in Manic Miner, The Warehouse: As soon as the level starts, walk right, until you're past the blue killer. Fall through quicksand until you can walk under the plant. Turn around and face the blue cat-track, falling through the sand as you go. Once you've fallen through the seventh quicksand, jump straight up twice, (which brings you into time with the cat-track,) then jump left, collecting the object, and go back up through the quicksand to the start platform. (This is a bit close, but you should make it!) Stand on the very edge of the start platform. Wait until both yellow and white cat-tracks have reached the top of the screen, and are moving down again - let the yellow one touch the bush. (This happens almost straight away. If you're not quick enough on the keys, wait a revolution before the cat-tracks align again.) Jump right, and fall through five blocks of quicksand. Jump right again, which should place you on the level so that you can either walk through the travelator, or on it. (If you do jump onto the travelator. Panic not. Keep on truckin'.) *Without pausing!* Walk right, collect the object as you go and fall into the pit that the white cat-track uses. Fall through one section, collecting the object. Jump right again, which will place you underneath the next object, and wait until you fall through a section of quicksand before jumping to collect the object. (Otherwise you clout yourself on the bush... Not nice!) Now just fall through the quicksand, collecting the final object as you go, until you land on the floor, go right, and jump up through the quicksand, until you reach the portal. Easy when you know how! Regarding different version across different computers, the following may be interesting: 1. The original Bug-Byte release on the Spectrum featured 'threshers' in the Warehouse. 2. The second Software Projects release on the Spectrum replaced the threshers with rotating Sofware Projects logos ('impossible' triangles), and there were other minor changes: the deadly bush in the Processing Plant became a ghost, the Amoebatrons in Amoebatrons' Revenge were different sprites, and I think some sprites changed in the Sixteenth Cavern too. 3. The BBC Micro version doesn't have the Solar Power Generator! Instead, it's got a completely different room called "The Meteor Shower". This has the "reflecting machines" from the Solar Power Generator but there's no beam of light; instead, it has meteors which descend from the top of the screen and disintegrate when they hit platforms, like the Skylabs in Skylab Landing Bay. It also has forcefields which turn on and off, and the layout is completely different. Then, the last screen (which is still called The Final Barrier) is very tricky (unlike the Spectrum version which was easy) and has a completely different layout. It also features the blinking forcefields. 4. The Amstrad version is effectively the same as the Spectrum version by Software Projects, except that (a) Eugene's Lair has been renamed "Eugene Was Here" for some reason, and the layout of The Final Barrier is again completely different (but it's more similar to the Spectrum version than the BBC version, which has nothing in common with the Spectrum version at all). 5. The Acorn RISC OS version of Manic Miner has a couple of extra screens after The Final Barrier, but that's not an official release by Software Projects (just something someone created as a public domain release) so it doesn't really count. 6. I heard that the Dragon 32 version had a couple of extra rooms at the end (i.e. 22 altogether), but I don't know if that's true. I believe, though, that the two extra rooms in the RISC OS version are copied from it (though I can't now find evidence of this). The significance of the number in the "6031769" cheat is that it was Matthew Smith's number at the time he wrote the game. Please do not phone it any mopre however, since the owners of this number are fed up of people phoning them. 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.