£2.99
MAD
Manic Miner must be one of the only rerelease games that has never been reviewed in CRASH. This occurred not because the lads couldn't be bothered, but because this classic platforms- and-ladders game appeared before your fave mag hit the streets. Miner Willy is the star and it is his job to travel the underground caverns of Surbiton(!!) and collect the treasure which lies twenty screens to go through, and all the treasure has to be collected on a screen before you progress to the next. Opposing your progress are such bizarre opponents as penguins, performing seals, dancing rabbits and kangaroos. And there's a time limit too.
Although Manic Miner is one of the oldest games to be rereleased, it's also one of the best. The graphics are sharp and attractive, the in-game tune attractive and playability as addictive as it's frustrating. This is an essential purchase.
Then: N/A Now: 92%
Pathos, however, is unlikely to raise its tragic head in the case of Manic Miner from Bug-Byte; it's more a case of frustration and panic as you guide Willy the miner through the underground caverns to the surface, and riches. Starting off in the central cavern, he has to be helped past numerous obstacles on his way to the next. As ever, though, it's a case of one step forward, any number back, as you master the first hazard only to fail dismally at understanding the complexity of the second.
Producer: Bug-Byte, 48K
£5.95
This is the best platform game around, in fact it's probably the best arcade game for the Spectrum. From the moment the full colour title blasts onto the screen accompanied by what sounds like the massed Coldstream Guards band, it's all wonderful. An amazing demo mode takes you through endless levels to whet the appetite. Control keys are simple: left/right/jump, and it seems incredible that Bug-Byte managed to pack so much animated detail into one 48K program. You must take Willie the Miner through the warrens of a long abandoned robot-worked mine beneath Surbiton, collecting keys at each level in order to proceed to the next. Jumping up the platforms is easy - avoiding the slime, poisonous pansies and manic mining robots is not. Some platforms collapse when you tread on them, but forward planning let's you use these on your way back down to the portal. Excellent quality all round and top notch value. Highly recommended.
Producer: Bug-Byte, 48K
£5.95
This is the best platform game around, in fact it's probably the best arcade game for the Spectrum. From the moment the full colour title blasts onto the screen accompanied by what sounds like the massed Coldstream Guards band, it's all wonderful. An amazing demo mode takes you through endless levels to whet the appetite. Control keys are simple: left/right/jump, and it seems incredible that Bug-Byte managed to pack so much animated detail into one 48K program. You must take Willie the Miner through the warrens of a long abandoned robot-worked mine beneath Surbiton, collecting keys at each level in order to proceed to the next. Jumping up the platforms is easy - avoiding the slime, poisonous pansies and manic mining robots is not. Some platforms collapse when you tread on them, but forward planning let's you use these on your way back down to the portal. Excellent quality all round and top notch value. Highly recommended.
INVENTIVE CAVERNS DESERVE MORE SUCCESS
Mutant telephones, killer penguins and caverns of ice are all part of Manic Miner for the 48K Spectrum. The game includes some impressive graphics routines which you will encounter when you take your player-character, Willy the miner, through a series of caverns inhabited by all kinds of strange creatures.
To exit from a cavern you have to pick up a series of keys hung from various parts of the ceiling or from bushes which are deadly if you touch them. To reach those keys you must jump on to ledges which are situated at various heights and you must jump in the correct order or you will fall back to earth again.
If you are not careful you could bump into a patrol robot, shaped in various guises, which will take away one of your lives.
The other killer is a fall from one of the ledges which disappears as you walk along it. If the ledge is high a life could be lost.
The game is very inventive and a great deal of thought must have gone into creating the many screens full of colourful characters. It is one of the few games on the market which deserves to succeed automatically because of the effort put into it. It has the depth of concept and quality of sound and vision to make it an instant winner.
If you cannot pass all the caverns and discover the secret of the game in the last sector the author has included an excellent taster routine which runs automatically at the start of the program. It shows the various caverns as they can be seen in the game.
Manic Miner should keep anyone, child or adult, enthralled through the long winter evenings. It costs £5.95 and can be obtained from computer branches of W H Smith.
PENGUINS MAKE LIFE PERILOUS!!
There's humour, horror and wholesome addiction awaiting the intrepid hero of the marvelous Manic Miner.
From perilous penguins to ferocious phones, this Bug-Byte game is filled with the most unlikely villains trying to thwart your progress through to the next cavern.
Miner Willy must explore the underground caverns and collect the keys which open the door to the next cavern.
Miner 2049'er, which runs on an Atari, is considered a big game with its 12 screens. Manic Miner has 20 and each is a game in itself.
The designer of this game has come up with some highly original scenarios; my personal favourites include Attack of the Mutant Telephones and also the man-eating toilets. The bank scene is very clever, but don't get caught by the bouncing cheque!
Although the game is not written for use with any particular joystick it should run on those which allow the interface to be programmed to use certain keys.
I found the movement keys quite easy to master and have so far managed to reach level four. A secret message awaits you if you successfully complete all 20 levels and Bug Byte promise a prize to the first such person.
Timing is the key to success. Once you have mastered a screen, you will usually have little difficulty in clearing it every time. Some levels, though, take a long time to solve especially as you have to start at screen one each time your three lives run out.
One of the qualities which make a game a winner is whether you'll keep coming back for more. Manic Miner scores well here, as it will take some time to complete.
When the impressive title frame comes up, you are told to press a key to start. If you don't, the game will cycle through all 20 screens giving you a short preview of each.
Impressive graphics and good sound, Bug Byte have produced a challenging game with long-lasting appeal.
Manic Miner runs on a 48k Spectrum and is well worth the £5.95 charged by this Liverpool software house.
THE BEST THREE OF '83
Nick Pearce and James Walsh take a fond look back at the three best software packages they've seen during 1983.
THE SPECTRUM OVERVIEW
A lot has happened on the micro scene during the last twelve months. The Acorn Atom has at last been laid to rest, and the Electron, Aquarius and Memotech micros have emerged. One thing that has solidly held its ground whilst others come and go is the Spectrum.
Not that the Spectrum fraternity has been standing still! During the last year Ultimate has blasted its way onto the scene. Imagine have consolidated their lead as the software company with most money and biggest gimmicks. Crystal have risen to be one of the most prestigious software houses in the UK. The list of events goes on... As far as software is concerned '83 must be counted as the most astounding so far.
For no other computer has there ever been such an influx of better and better quality software. It is definitely significant when looking at the titles which I have chosen to include in my 'Hall of Fame '83' that they have all been put on the market during the latter half of the year. Much of the software introduced between this time last year and the summer has now been noticeably outdated, one of the main exceptions being 'The Hobbit' by Melbourne House. This partly being due to the immortality of the book, but also to excellent programming.
PERSONALLY...
There is a good chance that you will not agree with my choice of best program, as no pure definition of a 'good' program exists. For this reason I would like to state the criteria an which I have based my choice:
1. Originality, this applying to the game scenario rather than programming gimmickry or technique.
2. The use of the computer, whether it uses its capabilities to the full; this largely means that BASIC programs were not considered.
3. Quality of programming and initiative, whether it runs fast and smoothly, the quality of graphics and sound, etc, and the use of new ideas.
4. Playability, in that a game is of little use even if it is a programming masterpiece if no enjoyment is derived from playing it. Now down to the programs themselves.
Manic Miner is one of the latest releases by the longstanding Bug-Byte. Bug-Byte has been around on the micro scene right back since the 'old days' of the ZX80. Over the years they have built up a reputation as a highly business-like professional body, producing high quality software in colourful packaging, advertised over glossy spreads and being sold in just about every retail outlet available. Recently there have been some reservations as to the quality and originality of the individual games. Fortunately, Manic Miner has come to dispel these. Though the packaging is of the normal professional standard, the game is the real masterpiece. I had no hesitation whatsoever when including Manic Miner in my 'Hall of Fame'.
MANIC MINER
Miner Willy is the star of the show. Whilst prospecting, he stumbles over evidence of a lost civilization far superior to ours. To maintain such a civilization it was necessary to mine vast amounts of precious minerals. When, many aeons ago the empire crumbled and this world lapsed into a dark age, no-one thought to inform the mine workers, who were in fact robots anyway. Willy realizes that there is a fortune to be made if he can find the hidden store. Your task is to guide him through the 20 underground caverns, collecting the keys so as to progress to the next cavern. Each cavern is an arcade game in itself. Apart from the problem of Manic Mining Robots who are out to get you, there are also Poisonous Pansies, Spiders, Slime, one way conveyor belts, collapsing floors and lots more besides. In each cavern, the problems are slightly different but never easy. Some of the monsters created are incredible. Each being perfectly defined and controlled.
The introduction to Manic Miner entails a display of the surface of the mine, and the home of Willy. There is also a full graphical keyboard, on which a line is played with the appropriate notes lighting up as it proceeds. Once this is over, and you have not selected to play the game, a demo mode will proceed, showing displays of all 20 caverns.
The sound is fantastic, the graphics are excellent, whilst the programming is brilliant. This must be the most colourful game I have ever seen. This is highly recommended for arcade freaks everywhere. The controls are simple - only left, right jump - hence making it playable by anyone. Though it may take hours before proceeding past Cavern One, this in itself is a game. Manic Miner is an absolutely fantastic game - very highly recommended. Have a very happy Christmas.
This excellent title is a must for ALL arcade enthusiasts. At £5.95 it is well worth a couple of weeks pocket money.
While loading, we are met by a continuous rotation of the words MANIC and MINER in large letters which alternate in colour. Once loaded we can hear a fascinating tune played on a piano keyboard with the keys visibly being played.
On the inlay we are told that miner Willy (that's us) has found a long-lost mine and has to bring out all the treasure he discovers there. We have a choice of keys, but I found that Q to go left, W to go right and space to jump (with A to pause) are the best keys for the job. We also have a choice of having the tune (Hall of the Mountain King) on or off while we play.
So, onto the game itself. On pressing 'enter', the first cave (called the Central Cavern) flashes up instantly. We are in the bottom left-hand corner and have to get all the keys that are placed in awkward positions around the rest of the screen. This is not as easy as it seems as there are nasties like poisonous pansy bushes all over the place which must be jumped over or otherwise avoided at all costs. A mad mining-robot must also be missed as an added peril. Conveyeor belts also must be negotiated as well as disintegrating floors. If these are not enough complications for you then I'll add that you have a limited air supply, which only takes about 2.5 minutes to run out.
If you safely get all the keys and manage to return to the lowest level, you can go through the flashing door into the next sheet. You get a bonus depending on how much air you have left, with the keys at 100 points each. If you get killed for the third time a boot comes down on the end of a very long leg and steps on you. What a good idea!
If you make it through the first cavern you have got another 19 more caves to go through before you reach home, each one progressively harder. Cave 2, the 'cold room', has penguins on ice skates after you, and rather than keys you have to get snowshoes. The third cave, the 'Menagerie', obviously got its name from the three emus which eagerly patrol the different levels. Deadly spiders appear for the first time on this sheet, making it even harder.
My favourite cave (also the furthest I can get) is 'Eugene's Lair', cavern number 5. In this we must obtain five bricks to get to the next cave. Eugene is a small round man with stubby legs and glasses and is clearly named after a certain well known programmer. He does his best to stop you getting all the bricks, as do the ferocious toilets, which are complete with flapping seats.
This game is highly addictive as there is always the motivation to try and reach the next cavern. Each cave holds its own secret, which must be learned before any progress can be made.
Well done to Mathew Smith for writing an ingenious program with such super graphics, and thanks to Bug-Byte for issuing it. All in all, an excellent game for the 48K Spectrum.
The all-time classic of arcade games on the Spectrum. Written by Matthew Smith, originally for Bug-Byte, it proved to be the ultimate in ladder and level games, and has caused an influx of lookalike software from other companies.
Your aim is get through as many weird and wonderful screens as possible to collect keys to the mine in which Willy works. You must escape from mechanical penguins, mutant toilets, poisonous pansies and mining robots. At the end you can access a special screen of evil goodies which will finish off any miner.
Position 3/50
48K Spectrum
Bug-Byte
Miner Willy stumbles on the riches of a lost civilisation while prospecting in Surbiton. Your job is to guide him back to the surface avoiding poisonous pansies, spiders and slime, and worst of all, the manic mining robots. Willy must also collect the keys which are vital to his escape to each of 20 lethal levels.
The game has excellent graphics, and keyboard control gives you plenty of choice as to which keys are most convenient for you to use. There is lots of wacky humour, too from the penguins in the cold room to the ferocious toilet seats in Eugene's lair, a witty side-swipe, no doubt, at one of Imagine's star programmers. Satire on other games also creeps in - Pac-Man lookalikes are to the fore in the processing plant and there is a Kong Beast and a Return of the alien Kong Beast. Not to forget the Attack of the Mutant Telephones - do not ring us we will ring you, eh, Llamasoft's Jeff Minter?
Games like this certainly make the average micro user of the paucity of imagination that less dynamic software houses are stricken with. What is the point of buying one game if so many elements of different arcade games can be so effectively combined? The animation is excellent. With games like this Bug-Byte will be laughing all the way to the bank - which occurs, in Manic Miner, on the 15th screen.
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