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[File] Manic Mixup


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Manic Mixup


"Times are tough for poor old Willy. Decades of excessive partying have taken their toll on his finances. Despite already having downsized his mansion in 'Jet Set Mini', he is finding it increasingly difficult to afford the cost of maintaining his home, and keeping his formidable housekeeper Maria in the style to which she has become accustomed!

 

And so, after dusting down his trusty hard hat, Miner Willy descends back into the subterranean realm where he first made his fortune 35 years ago. Emerging into the Central Cavern, he soon notices that things have changed somewhat since the last time he ventured down here..."

 

***********************************

 

'Manic Mixup' is a remix of Matthew Smith's classic ZX Spectrum 48K game 'Manic Miner', and is released in 2018, 35 years after the original game. It can be played on a real Spectrum, on the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Vega/Vega+ or on a computer, games console or another device using a ZX Spectrum emulator.

 

The starting point for 'Manic Mixup' was an amalgamation of two projects by Dr Andrew Broad: his laterally-inverted version of 'Manic Miner' ('reniM cinaM') and Andrew's 2008 remix of 'Manic Miner'. Into this melting pot was poured a cluster of newly-designed special features, making 'Manic Mixup' quite unique amongst games based on the MM game engine.

 

Thematically, 'Manic Mixup' is a sequel to the authors' previous game 'Jet Set Mini', which was a modified version of 'Jet Set Willy' - that in itself being Matthew Smith's sequel to 'Manic Miner'. What a mixup!

 

All of the original caverns (and their perilous occupants) have had an overhaul in 'Manic Mixup', and the in-game music has been significantly enhanced. Furthermore, nearly all of the routines in the 'Manic Miner' game engine have been rewritten or redesigned for this project, for various reasons: to provide additional functionality (such as new sound and visual effects, and additional gameplay elements - including putting Willy's hard hat to good use!); to increase the efficiency of the code; and to fix various bugs in the original game engine.

 

However, the essence of this 8-bit, 48K game will be very familiar to devotees of 'Manic Miner'. We hope it gives you 'unalloyed pleasure'!

 

**********

 

UPDATE: A minor visual bug during the title screen sequence has just come to light, which crept in because of a tweak to the routine which plays the title tune ('The Blue Danube' by Johann Strauss II).
When a single note is played, only one piano key is supposed to be lit up (whereas two keys are highlighted simultaneously whenever a chord of two notes is played). The rewritten routine caused two adjacent piano keys to light up when a single note was played.
This bug during the title screen sequence has now been fixed, and the corrected game file re-uploaded. This change does not alter the gameplay of 'Manic Mixup' in any way.


 

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External reviews:
 
http://www.indieretronews.com/2018/10/manic-mixup-remix-of-matthew-smiths.html
 
http://idpixel.ru/games/manicmixup/

http://planetasinclair.blogspot.com/2018/10/manic-mixup-2018-manic-miner-remix.html
 
Google Translate or similar may be needed for the latter two.
 
It is (in Google's Cache at least) mentioned on http://www.elmundodelspectrum.com/index.php however I am not able to currently find their 'review' of it.

 

Another > https://www.classic8bit.com/games/sinclairspectrum/842-manic-mixup

 

Spectrum Computing > https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1074

 

https://pulsaunatecla.blog/2018/10/28/manic-mixup/

 

YT video as well from ZXSpectrumUser:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sRNliKMdns

 

YT video from SabreMan: (download link on the video description is currently incorrect)

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1rFn2FQR5M

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 6 months later...

An RZX walkthrough of Manic Mixup can now be downloaded from RZX Archive.

 

The ZIP contains two recordings, one of the Slow version and one of the Fast version of the game.

 

I recorded the Slow version first and the Fast one second. I managed to improve my score on the Fast version marginally in relation to the Slow version. My score upon the second re-entrance to "Back in the Central Cavern" was 72,396 points (44,335 on the first re-entrance to the initial cavern). In the Slow version, the end results are, respectively: 72,252 and 44,142 points (all of this without any loss of life, of course).

 

I have to say that, playing the game some time after I last played it during the playtesting, I was very impressed by its technical quality and the innovations that Ian and Andy introduced in it. It was a pleasure to play - it's not too easy, it was challenging to press for a good score, also when re-recording the game (doing the Fast version). Congratulations on this fine game, guys!  :thumbsup:

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Well done Danny?

 

May I ask: did you download the game for this playtesting?

 

I made a small tweak to the game file back in January (I think), to fix a small glitch/bug in the Title time routine (and to update the reader to give you credit for the Easy/Hard POKES idea, implemented differently here from JSW40-40).

 

That change didn't affect the gameplay in any way, so it doesn't matter if you used an earlier version.

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  • 6 months later...

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