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Manic Miner: The Lost Levels


The-Red-Bayron

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After watching Manic Miner Ports by RetroGamerDiaries I wondered if it would be possible to convert these levels back into the original Spectrum format.

The levels are from the Oric-1, Dragon 32, Amstrad CPC, BBC Micro and the Gameboy Advance releases and tries to replicate them as close as the original 48K game mechanic allows.

Here is the screen from the Dragon 32 against the Spectrum conversion, one of the limitations is that the level Guards all need to be the same sprite, so they are all Penguins.

 image.png.e9806b322cc02a602e124a4b7787813d.png

 

Here is the screen from the Gameboy Advance against the Spectrum conversion, the level Guards can’t move over other objects, so the Seal is above the conveyor.

image.png.b463ea5e529dbef86c3a296ab72cd436.png

 

The Space Shuttle level from the Oric-1 uses the lever to remove a section of wall and The Meteor Storm level from the BBC Micro has a beam effect that I wasn't able to replicate.

image.png.7a4f175e32f18d4fcdde5ad627dd24e0.png

As with the original version there are only 20 levels, but apart from that all the gameplay is identical to the original. As far as I have tested the usual pokes and the 6031769 boot will work.

This is the gameplay order and where all the levels came from.

Level Title System Level
01 Not Central Cavern Oric-1 Level 28
02 The Dragon Users Bonus Dragon 32 Level 21
03 The End Of The World Oric-1 Level 22
04 Flunky Punky Munkie Gameboy Advance Level 1
05 The Catacombs Gameboy Advance Level 4
06 Mummy Daddy Gameboy Advance Level 7
07 Nightmare Before Last Night Gameboy Advance Level 10
08 Helium House on the Highlands Gameboy Advance Level 13
09 Metropolis Bingo Gameboy Advance Level 16
10 Eugene’s Other Lair Gameboy Advance Level 19
11 Tokyo Uh Oh Gameboy Advance Level 22
12 Jester Under the Bed Gameboy Advance Level 25
13 Clockwork Satsuma Gameboy Advance Level 28
14 The Space Shuttle Oric-1 Level 23
15 The End Dragon 32 Level 22
16 The Meteor Storm BBC Micro Level 19
17 The Channel Tunnel Oric-1 Level 27
18 At The Centre Of The Earth Oric-1 Level 21
19 The Final BBC Barrier BBC Micro Level 20
20 This, folks, is the Last Cavern Amstrad CPC Level 20

While making The Lost Levels I found out that there was a port for the Nintendo DS that includes all the Oric-1 levels  that I hadn’t converted along with some of the ones that I have already done (typical) but missing most of the Gameboy Advance versions.

So there are 2 versions, it’s a compromise.

This follows the DS level order the levels that are missing from my first attempt are highlighted.

Level Title System Level
01 Home at Last? Oric-1 Level 17
02 The Airlock Oric-1 Level 24
03 The End of the World Oric-1 Level 22
04 The Hall of the Mountain Kong Oric-1 Level 20
05 Back to Work Oric-1 Level 18
06 The Dragon Users Bonus Dragon 32 Level 21
07 Not Central Cavern Oric-1 Level 28
08 Down the Pit Oric-1 Level 19
09 Metropolis Bingo Gameboy Advance Level 16
10 At The Centre Of The Earth Oric-1 Level 21
11 Eddie’s Forest Nintendo DS Level 11
12 In a Deep Dark Hole Oric-1 Level 26
13 The Channel Tunnel Oric-1 Level 27
14 Tokyo Uh Oh Gameboy Advance Level 22
15 The Space Shuttle Oric-1 Level 23
16 Where's the Hyperspace Button? Oric-1 Level 25
17 The Meteor Storm BBC Micro Level 19
18 The End Dragon 32 Level 22
19 The Final BBC Barrier BBC Micro Level 20
20 This, folks, is the Last Cavern Amstrad CPC Level 20

 

Both versions are intended to give the experience of what these versions could have been like if they had been coded for the spectrum and try to follow the originals as closely as possible.

This is my first attempt at something like this and there are some things and people to mention.

This version was made using the JSWED v2.3.7 by John Elliott, and a big thanks to John for his support with some of the questions that I had when first using the editor.

The loading Screen was created in Multipaint by Tero Heikkinen.

All the levels were tested on original hardware from Cassette and 3” Disk as well as the ZX Spin v 0.666 and ZXBaremulator version 3.2 emulators.

The .tap and .tzx files were assembled in BASin release 14b.

Labels for Cassette and Disk were created in LibreOffice Impress.

One Final Credit:
A big thanks to Daniel Gromann at JSW Central for testing all the levels, all the advice about the gameplay. It would not be possible without his support.

For me this was just a bit of tinkering to just see if it was possible and It was a great learning experience putting these levels together.
I’m thrilled to see it made available to anyone that wants to give it a go.

All the best,

Byron

 

 

 

 

Lost Levels DS.zip Lost Levels.zip

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There are videos here of those caverns too.

The 'full' game itself is denied (afaik) however there are a few variants, some don't have the extra caverns and some do, plus the freebie 'demo' one that only contains a couple of caverns.

The actual 'layout' is very similar in the code itself.

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Welcome to the forum, Byron! 🙂 Thank you for creating the two versions of "Manic Miner: The Lost Levels" and releasing them here - it's greatly appreciated! 👍 Thank you also for mentioning myself and JSW Central 🙂 .

You seem to be a fast worker, with a conversion of the SAM Coupé levels already underway! That's impressive. I couldn't give you any legal advice as such, but I generally don't think anyone should be after you for converting them to the ZX Spectrum (and making the conversion public, of course).

One thing to possibly consider regarding this project would be whether using one of the 128K JSW64 game engines could help overcome at least some of the problems related to the game engine differences. Furthermore, since there are more than one set of caverns in the SAM Coupé version (three IIRC? - is is the original set and two additional ones???), they could all be put together in the same game file - if you considered it a good idea, of course.

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I've not played it for a while, if I recall:

The trampoline effect is similar to Dynamite Dan

What I called the 'vaccum descent' , its sort of a fast downward drop compared to normal speed when you're over a certain floor tile. I think this 'feature' could be ignored possibly without detriment.

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