Manic Miner: The Lost Levels

[The-Red-Bayron]

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.

 

 

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.

 

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.

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

[Spider]

Thank you. That's impressive. 🙂

I did look closely at the other two level sets for the Sam Coupe with a thought to porting those over, as in either one "40 cavern" game or perhaps two separate ones but it is still very much on the back-burner.

[The-Red-Bayron]

Hi Spider,

Many thanks, this is the first time that I have tried to do something like this so it's great to get some feedback 👍

If it is OK with you I will have a look for the Sam Coupe version and maybe give that a go at converting it  ❗  ❗ 

All the best,

B

[Spider]

Yes no issues.

The initial problems I thought about were the extra features aka trampolines or like "vacuum decent" but it would be possible to work around those.

[The-Red-Bayron]

Hi Spider,

I have found this video "SAM Coupé Longplay - Manic Miner - The Deeper Caverns" it looks very interesting and yes I would need a workaround for the trampolines or vacuum descents.

All the best

[Spider]

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.

[The-Red-Bayron]

Hi Spider, 

Many thanks I have found the videos.

Do you know if it still OK to convert the game for the Spectrum?

I have already started on the first level.

[jetsetdanny]

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.

[IRF]

The patch vector feature of the JSW64 game engine could maybe help you to achieve the special effects in some caverns referred to above (trampolines, vacuum descents)?

[Spider]

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.