Matthew Smith making a new game!
http://retroasylum.com/manic-miner-creator-matthew-smith-set-for-return-on-ios-and-android/
"The Retro Asylum team have heard a whisper that almost 30 years after Manic Miner first hit the Spectrum, creator Matthew Smith has announced that he will be releasing a new game in conjunction with Elite Systems on iOS and Android.
Details of this release are under wraps at the moment, but all will be revealed at www.matthewsmithishere.com as soon as the site goes live."
[EDIT]
The above page appears to be live now and redirects to an article confirming the new game: http://matthewsmith.elite-systems.co.uk/?p=108
"The Retro Asylum team have heard a whisper that almost 30 years after Manic Miner first hit the Spectrum, creator Matthew Smith has announced that he will be releasing a new game in conjunction with Elite Systems on iOS and Android.
Details of this release are under wraps at the moment, but all will be revealed at www.matthewsmithishere.com as soon as the site goes live."
[EDIT]
The above page appears to be live now and redirects to an article confirming the new game: http://matthewsmith.elite-systems.co.uk/?p=108
Post edited by Daren on
Comments
I didn't have any plans to buy one of these fancy devices but if anything would make me consider it then a new Matthew Smith game would be one of them! Hopefully he'll do a Spectrum version too :-D
This could be like Brian Wilson's SMiLE...
...I won't give this the slightest bit of attention again until there is proof.
My games for the Spectrum: Dingo, The Speccies, The Speccies 2, Vallation, SQIJ.
Twitter: Sokurah
A new game from him seems entirely feasible to me.
e.g. manic miner = miner 2049er by bill hogue.. oh and what is styx exactly like ?
writing a game for ios = writing it on the spectrum with an emulator shell around it ? not the same thing.
Can you explain why you think it's massively plagiarised?
I know Matthew Smith joked about this once on tv but beyond being a platform game that's set in a mine that's where the similarities end for me.
I'd say inspired by Miner2049er :-)
go play it thru fully.. I guess it the best thing to say..lets see, platforms, miner for a start. you think it miner 2049er was put out by a bigger company it'd not got a cease / desist order ?
it's a bit like saying giana sisters is a "bit" like mario bros.. or katakis is a bit like "r-type" ..right, I'm off to write a game featuring a blue hedgehog + fox..
it's got parallels with sampling for tunes tbh.. years ago , say 89 you could get away with sampling loads of stuff and get it put out, even if the samples were blatently lifted. by say 95 time, big labels were going direct to pressing plants to find out who had records pressed. Someone I know got in a shedload of trouble for sampling some manga.. and it got traced back
chaosmongers , that's between you and them, no ? .. if you sign a contract, I suggest you read what it states or get your legal people to chat with them. Since it's maybe via apple , perhaps they can furnish you with the sales figures (I assume it's the same as requesting record sales). since I assume you are down as the "writer" and that will give you exact figures of any royalties numbers.
generally ... after friends being consistently "diddled" by software houses, I'd not even deal with any of them WITHOUT an agent, sure they take 10-20%.. but it's far better than not getting paid.
It wasn't Atari Teenage Riot for sampling practically half the dialogue from 3x3 eyes on one of their albums was it? :lol:
I'm guessing he won't be able to remember much about that period...
nah "it was boozy vs mile".. the mongy lard remix . It was for a drum n bass label bassed ( ;) ) in west london, who also really liked lifting bits out of blade runner :)
what ya mean ya never heard of it ? .. the person in question was *VERY* careful to go to a pressing plant that wasn't a big one.. but the manga folk said either hand over the name.. or we are going after you lot.
which one? Bet it was placido domingo , the guy has no faith in the speccy scene!
Well the only other DnB type tune I can think of off the bat that uses a sample from an anime is a tune by Makai....and I forget the actual name of it? But it uses samples from Ghost in the Shell. I know there's plenty more, there's some older ones from years ago that I know have samples from Akira, and Fist of the North Star, but names escape me completely on those ones, we're going back almost 20 years for those?
He must have a few tantalising glimpses through the haze!
Yep already agreed on those, do go on :p.
In that case whoever originally made Space Panic or Painter has a case against Miner 2049er!
^ This!
For anyone who wishes to compare, here is Miner 2049'er
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh1UmrYNYFA
which tasks you to paint the platforms accessed via the ladders. Personally I can't see any hint of plaigerism. The only thing the 2 games share is being part of the already established platform genre and the word Miner.
I'm not sure how you managed to read so much into chaosmongers wry comment about not getting paid. Do you really think sales of a few 8 bit games are worth getting a lawyer or agent in for? If there was real business money in retro games you'd probably need a mailing house to deal with the glut of Make A Chip orders.
In terms of screen layout and movement, it seems to me Chuckie Egg is a lot closer. As for painting the levels, that's like neither.
It's probably an astute observation that forcing you to traverse every platform (with collecting items just for bonuses) is a bit of an artificial and tedious gameplay mechanic. Whereas having to collect all the objects as 'keys' and get to a 'door' to get out of each level (which may well mean traversing all the platforms anyway) is a better incentive as it makes more sense. And that's a part of how games evolve instead of all being identical.
- IONIAN-GAMES.com -
I feel sure that there was a piece in Retro Gamer several years ago where he said he was working on an iOS game. He even showed them graphics IIRC. Like you, I'll believe in a new game when I see it...
The email says:
"For further information please refer to www.MatthewSmithIsHere.com, from
noon tomorrow."
In fact the page is live now, and redirects to http://matthewsmith.elite-systems.co.uk/ with an articlle linking to http://matthewsmith.elite-systems.co.uk/?p=108
Excerpt:
"Matthew Smith and Elite join forces for new game
Matthew Smith, developer of the legendary games ‘Manic Miner’ and ‘Jet Set Willy’ and Elite, one time Golden Joysticks’ ‘Software House of the Year’, have announced that they are to co-operate in the development and publication of a new game. ‘Jet Set Willy’, Smith’s last game for former publisher Software Projects, was first published almost 30 years."
:( Perhaps if the boot was on the other foot (ie them selling Elite stuff) someone would certainly wake up then...