JianYang

Hi all,
I just wanted to let you know about something that I spotted today on YouTube.
A guy has produced a new version of classic (Bug-Byte) Manic Miner called Manic Miner Sprint, in which he's injected 'physics' so that the game can be played quite differently. Now Willy has a variable jump, can adjust his movement in mid-air, and has a 'sprint' ability that allows him to do long jumps and so on. It's quite an interesting mod, and gives the game a new way to play it.
What's especially interesting (if not alarming) is that apparently the coding was mostly done by AI.
Anyway, I'll leave it to you all to watch the video and investigate the updated version for yourselves.
I found out about Manic Miner Sprint by stumbling across this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/gxxNgZgd88I
The code repository for the patch, along with release notes, is on Github: https://github.com/sharopolis/manic-miner-sprint
And since no downloadable .tap file of the patched game is supplied, I'm saving you all the bother of creating it by attaching the copy I made to this post.
The patched game appears to have lost access to the 6031769 cheat (unless it's been changed, but there's no mention of that). But given the changes, and that infinite lives is standard in this version, it's not terribly important.
Manic Miner Sprint [Sharopolis 2026].tap

I thought that too. Then I thought "That's clever - Fest-Vial! I bet Willy will have to collect some potions."
But from @UncleWan's reaction it seems to be a typo. But maybe you (unclewan) could consider solving the issue by changing some item graphics to vials, which in my (not so perfect) understanding of the English language are little bottles.
Maybe a stupid idea. I don't know. I'm pretty exhausted. I couldn't even make it past the second screen.
So my review is just: What I've seen looks really nice.

I'm so glad I clicked this link. I'm usually not a fan of AI images, but this might just be the greatest Miner Willy picture ever.
 
Happy new year!
 

I'm so glad I clicked this link. I'm usually not a fan of AI images, but this might just be the greatest Miner Willy picture ever.
 
Happy new year!
 

With the sound of firecrackers, a year comes to an end.Tonight is the last night of the Year of the Snake.Wishing everyone good fortune in the Year of the Horse!
My mini-game has been submitted, and I also used AI to make the game's cover.🙂
Have Fun！

For me the closest match I have found are Meat Boy/Super Meat Boy that are puzzly, platformy and have quite minimal inputs. The next closest thing would be The Lost Vikings. Puzzly, platformy, but far from minimal inputs.
 
On the non-platformer side maybe Hill Climb Racing. I guess it`s mostly the three button inputs and difficulty in getting over obstacles.
 
What are your favourite somewhat-similar-to-MM-or-JSW games?
 

For me the closest match I have found are Meat Boy/Super Meat Boy that are puzzly, platformy and have quite minimal inputs. The next closest thing would be The Lost Vikings. Puzzly, platformy, but far from minimal inputs.
 
On the non-platformer side maybe Hill Climb Racing. I guess it`s mostly the three button inputs and difficulty in getting over obstacles.
 
What are your favourite somewhat-similar-to-MM-or-JSW games?
 

Frankenstein is an interesting platform game. Get the bug fixed version as otherwise it will falter at about level 8 or so (had this back then when it was new) 
Surprisingly good perhaps one of the best compiled Basic games actually.
Although one post long ago along with others on the WOS forum helped spur the author into an updated version , I still sometimes prefer the original for its simplicity.
https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/entry/1849/ZX-Spectrum/Frank_N_Stein
 

Just a guess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Coal_Board
 

It does indeed mean National Coal Board.

Software projects received a threatening letter from the National Coal Board, about usage of the NCB logo without permission.  Remember this was at the same time as Mr Arthur Scargill, was having a good laugh with the NCB.

Whilst the games MM and JSW do not have reference to The NCB (directly), the artist( Roger Tissyman) responsible for the cover design of the software projects release of these two games inserted the NCB graphic into his artwork.

Just a guess: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Coal_Board
 

Hello,
after more than 40 years, I haven't stopped playing with the Zx Spectrum and spreading the enthusiam for it.

I've recently bought 'The Spectrum' from RetroGaming and I have to say that it delivers an experience very similar to the orginal Speccy.
It is so close to the 'original' that it doesn't have a "modern" way to enter pokes.

Thus, to play and practice Manic Miner I had two possible choice:
- breaking to basic and poking the old fashion way... quite nostalgic, but very boring and unpractical;
- hack Manic Miner to add a "cheat menu".

I choosed the latter.

It took a while for the memories of Z80 assembly to arise, but little by little I remembered enough to hack into MM code.
Thanks to the complete disassembly by Richard Dymond I had a solid base to work on.

The project, as well as the assembled TAP files, can be found in the GitHub repo:
https://github.com/pacrox/MANIC-MINER_PAK


This is an extract from the README:



Some screenshots taken with Zesarux:





 
Running on 'The Spectrum':


Best,
P.

The promised update. I've made it through. Thank you for the infinite lives. I'd probably still be fighting level 3 or 4 without them.
One small criticism in-I think-level 4 "...(again)" the guardians seem to be moving a bit too randomly. Sometimes you get two right behind each other without a chance to jump both at the same time or jump between them and make it out again. I understand that that's true to the source material, but it feels a bit off in a Manic Miner game.
It was all still great fun.
Possible inspirations for more levels:
Adventure, Lemmings, Ant Attack, 3D Monster Maze, (New) Rally X, Tetris, Space Harrier, Sonic
I have no ideas how these levels would look, but I would be interested to see your take on them.

Congratulations on that level design. That Pong level looks easy and then I keep dying and dying. Some real Matthew Smith vibe there. The second level (I'm trying to avoid spoilers) looked a bit harder and was a little easier but not by much. On level 3 now. I noticed once that I clearly overlapped with one of the guardians. Could be intentional and/or a nod to the source material. I'm just mentioning it.
I'm pretty impressed.
Any chance you could make native Android and (GNU-)Linux builds? It works fine with Wine and I might try Winlator, but native versions would be really great.
I'll let you know if I make it through the game.
 

Hi JianYang, yes I may tweak level 4 a bit. Thanks for the suggestions.
BTW press f2 to jump levels if you want to.

Hi All,
After doing a remake of Manic Miner in GameMaker, I thought I'd use the same engine to create some new levels. Please see the attached zip (just extract and run) of the progress so far. Only 7 levels at the moment and the game will crash after you complete level 7.
Any ideas on what the additional levels could be perhaps?
Regards,
SDelmer.
 
RetroWilly.zip

There have been various interviews with Matthew Smith over the years. I wonder if he has ever been asked the questions that were asked in this thread. I can't recall any such interview, but that doesn't mean there wasn't one; I've always been more interested in new MM and JSW games than in details concerning the original ones.
Back in 2008, Andrew Broad created Manic Miner: Matthew Smith 2008 Remix, based on an interview with Matthew Smith in the Load 48 issue of Retro Gamer magazine. Here's an excerpt from its Readme regarding level 16 (or rather 15, since the first level is traditionally numbered as 0). This is just Andrew's interpretation, not Matt's "source knowledge". I highlighted the most relevant parts in bold.
 
[15] "Flag Bugs": '"I'd run out of names. Or maybe I was thinking in hexadecimal and thought it didn't need one," says Matt. And what are those enemies? "Flag bugs! In the code. If flag bug equals..."'
    I have put Water-cells in the portal to stop you simply dropping down to collect the item, although it does remove the need for a jump over the portal to collect the top-left item. I think it is more important to force the player to jump over the yellow flag-bug, which is obviously the route that Matthew Smith intended.
    I have added Fire 2 cells in the top row, just to show them. The Water 2 cells that I put in the portal actually look like switches, so it doesn't make much sense to make them visible.
    There is a hidden item in the room-definition, as the fifth item has a colour-attribute of 255, which terminates the sequence. So I have undeleted this item.

Like I said before, MS clearly understood game design principles. In "Abandoned Uranium Workings" there are 2 seals that you don't go any where near, so why are they there? And yeah, which shaft do you use in the "Cold Room"? In "The Sixteenth Cavern", do you drop down through the exit to get that item and then get stuck because you didn't notice the item in the top left, or get the item in the top left and drop right down below the conveyor and go up to the last item?
Maybe MS knew the concept of speed runs. After all, the faster you complete a level, the higher your score.
Concerning MS interviews; there is one in his bedroom (I think) where he was asked where the boot came from in the Game Over screen in MM. MS answered with "the top of the screen". Obviously the interviewer meant where did the "idea" come from. Very funny answer.
Incidentally, I've reverted level 16 in my port to the OG layout. This discussion has helped me rethink that level. Thanks for your thoughts.

Maybe troll wasn't a great word, but in the cold room there's the shaft with the crumbling floors and next to it there's an empty shaft that looks like it would lead to fall damage/death. But if you have all the items collected you can exit the room through the empty shaft without getting hurt. So he sends you down a wrong path that takes a lot more time and is actually more dangerous than the drop through the empty shaft.
In this sense it could be a similar thing of showing the player a maneuverable path that he can choose to collect the item from below or take a much smaller risk and collect it from above. Red herring? False lead? I don't know what to call it, but there's a precedent for something like this.
But I agree most likely it's an oversight/design flaw.
Looking forward to your Easter egg.

I'm glad we cleared that up.
Now your main question is pretty much a philosophical one. I don't have an answer, but I'll give you some thoughts.
In my head there are three classes of Manic Miner engines:
- Bug-compatible: I don't think they exist in the real world. Unless someone puts in the work to develop a Z80 recompiler, they might never happen.
- Bug-fixed: I think most engines are in this category.
- Loose recreations: Games that look like MM, but take lots of liberties.
I tried but couldn't manage to get stuck in a piece of wall, so I don't think you were going for bug-compatible.
For 15.8 levels it feels like a bug-fixed version and then when jumping into the exit I fall to my death. It is surprising. In a way it jumps from one category to another.
Do these categories matter to you? They may not even have existed outside of my head until I just wrote them down. Will this change surprise most players? Probably.
My gut reaction always seems to be: this should be more like the original. But then I can play the original pretty much on any device with a CPU and a display. In the end as a player I probably get more out of versions that take some liberties.
One more question might be: Did Matthew Smith intend people to collect the last item from below? We cannot be certain, but it looks a lot like it. Is it a design bug? Is it a design flaw? Maybe it's supposed to be troll?
Until I played the first version that changed this, I never even thought of my strategy to collect the last item from the top as a short cut.
Maybe as a final thought: the most extreme love letter to Manic Miner, @DigitalDuck's Manic Miner Redux, went the way of recreating the levels as original as possible and also including a second set of fixed/improved versions. Which might just show how difficult of a question this is.
That's a lot of thoughts without even really attempting to answer the question. Maybe this will help: There is no One True Way to do Manic Miner, trust your gut.

I was just trying to give others a little heads up while giving you a compliment in a "Yeah, you got me" kind of fashion while also trying to add a bit of humour. Clearly that didn't work out. Don't worry I like your version.

Almost 9 years ago. Wow!
Thank you for digging that out.

Did MS intend that item to be there? Is it a design bug/flaw? An oversight. Once the game is released it's too late. His contract would have mean meeting a deadline. You can only do so much testing. Supposed to be troll? MS understood game design principles but doesn't strike me as the sort that troll's.

I just had a thought but I'm not sharing it. It will be an easter egg.

I know you weren't scolding me (it's my port after all and I'll do what I want with it), but it made me think if I'd done too much to it on that level.
Level design, for any kind of game, usually avoids being designed that allows game engine bugs to creep in, which is what my post is about. That particular level illustrates that. I guess that the change I made was a kind of "that's how I would have done it" but now feel I've deviated from the OG which isn't the design goal. "Game play is 100% identical" I think is my claim. That level breaks that rule.
I'm just thinking out loud. Suggestion welcome.