Manic Miner 40th Anniversary Tribute

[jetsetdanny]

"Bob The Polar Bear" (he prefers to be credited with his nickname only) has just released a new MM game - "Manic Miner 40th Anniversary Tribute" - on the Central Cavern Facebook Group. The direct download link for those who do not frequent FB is here.

The game is a redesign of Bob's earlier projects "Manic-4-Noobs" and "MANIC-minor". When adding it to JSW Central, I will have to decide whether to classify it as a new game or a continuation of these two previous editions. I think I will opt for the latter (following the logic behind "Frosya the Cat", "Frosya the Cat - Lite Version" and "Jet Cat Frosya" being classified as one entry on the list of games, which is also the case of "Jet Set Willy: The 2005 Megamix" and "Jet Set Willy: The 2010 Megamix" - but I will make the final decision when I add it to JSW Central.

I have just played the game to completion (one set of caverns, I played using the Rollback feature, as I always do) and finished it with a score of 33,313 pts. It could be greatly improved, of course - I was just playing for pleasure, not looking for a high score. I will not make this recording public (I've only shared it with Bob). A few months from now, once everyone interested has had a chance to face the game's puzzles and challenges without any spoilers, I will record a "proper" (high-quality) walkthrough for the JSW Central YouTube channel.

I like the game a lot, particularly the graphics and the room titles, also the room designs. The additional graphical elements in the room-title line are a particularly nice touch for me 🙂 .

I would encourage everyone to have a go at this anniversary tribute - you will enjoy it! 🙂

[PB268]

Hi there,

If you want to include MM40th with the other two or have it as a stand alone entry that's up to you, I'm fine either way, whatever make sense 🙂

Thanks for holding off on making the video public. I think you saw something in one of the caverns towards the end which got you thinking. Not hard to work out but think it is a nice touch I wouldn't want given away too soon. You did take some unusual routes, and in at least two caverns I saw the desire to head in the traditional but sub-optimal direction. And have no idea what you were doing at the bottom of Cavern 4, you made that look at least twice as hard as it needed to be 😛

Glad you like the look and layout. Was planning to release it on the 1st, but as I was playtesting it I saw another graphic or block location I could tweak. Was thinking a 40th Tribute comes around so rarely I should at least spend a few more days getting it as good as I can. Not saying it's the best mod of MM, as it isn't. Some clearly have better graphics, more original layouts, better music, and axtra machine code routines I never even thought of. But, although I'm blowing my own trumpet here, I think it's fun, bright, with good flow, and enough of a challege to keep the average player wanting just one more try.

Oh, glad you liked the title line faces. When I moved from an Upper & Lowercase font to just an Uppercase one, that freed up 26 characters, enough for 13 faces just there. And with some cavern titles already quite long I didn't need them for those, leaving just a few more to find in the unused characters £$%^_+{}~# 🙂

Edited August 24, 2023 by PB268
Adding more info.

[jetsetdanny]

45 minutes ago, PB268 said:

I think it's fun, bright, with good flow, and enough of a challenge to keep the average player wanting just one more try.

Yes, that's exactly how it is! 🙂 

Thanks again for MM40th and also for posting here! It's a pleasure to know you are visiting these pages 🙂 .

[jetsetdanny]

Bob The Polar Bear has kindly sent me his notes about his three games, i.e. "Manic-4-Noobs" (M4N), "MANIC-minor" (M-m) and "Manic Miner 40th Anniversary Tribute"  (MM40th). I've just published them on JSW Central. This is exclusive content, he wrote the notes especially for JSW Central, for which I'm very grateful 🙂 .They are an interesting and valuable background to his three excellent remakes of "Manic Miner".

[PB268]

"three excellent remakes" is being too kind. I would call them three attempts at one good remake 🙂

If players enjoy them, it's all been worthwhile.

[jetsetdanny]

Whatever one prefers to call them, they are all great to play 🙂 . I have enjoyed playing them so far, and I look forward to the time when I will make a 'proper' recording of "MM40th" for the JSW Central YouTube channel (striving for a high-quality performance)😁.