Manic Miner: Deeper and Down

[The-Red-Bayron]

He's Back... In an all new old adventure!

This follows on from the Lost Levels and Lost Levels DS in that it is a conversion from another system in this case it is the Sam Coupé version.

After the first 20 levels that follow the original Manic Miner, there were another 20 called The Deeper Caverns then another 20 called Down, Down, Deeper and Down.

This gives the game its title Manic Miner: Deeper and Down as Manic Miner: The Deeper Caverns and Down, Down, Deeper and Down was a bit of a mouthful and wouldn't fit on the cassette label!

As before it tries to do this as close as the original game mechanic allows but this time using the JSW64 128K game engine as some features like trampolines and switches were impossible to replicate in the original game engine. There is a demo version of The Deeper Caverns for the 48K as initially it started here.

Sam Coupé original                                                                                                                           Spectrum Conversion

You will need to collect all 256 keys to escape the caverns and get Willy home.

 

The Deeper Caverns
The Gameplay follows the order of these next 20 levels, level 20 The Final Frontier is used as a link into Down, Down, Deeper and Down so the top of this screen is slightly different to the original Sam Coupé version.

01 The Hollow Chamber
02 The Office
03 Cheese-Plant
04 The Dodgy Mine Shaft
05 The Big Drop
06 Order Processing Department
07 The Rocky Outcrop
08 The Twilight Zone, Part I
09 Son of Kong Beast
10 Trainspotters' Paradise
11 Battle of the Bits
12 A Night on the Tiles
13 The Twilight Zone II
14 Dante's Inferno
15 The Freezer
16 Blue Stick-Waggling Bananas
17 Round The Bend
18 Teddy Bears' Picnic
19 The Clock Tower
20 The Final Frontier

         

 

Down, Down, Deeper and Down
This follows on directly from The Deeper Caverns with an additional 20 levels.

There is an ending level (Up Up and Away !) but it is not playable, like JSW the game just stops here (until the air runs out and then it loops).

01 In Xanadu, did Kubla Khan ?
02 Bleugh
03 Wibble Flowerpot
04 Wibbly Wobbly
05 Caveman Willy
06 No Way Back ?
07 Bouncy-Bouncy
08 Son of Bride of Kong’s Revenge 2
09 The Haunted House
10 The Mouse Trap
11 The Bonus Round
12 Still No Way Back ?
13 The Pink People Eaters
14 April Showers
15 Bottom of the mine shaft
16 The Building Society
17 The Control Room
18 The Assembly Plant
19 The Computer Room
20 The end of Willy as we know it ?
21 Up Up and Away !

         

Credits:
This version was made using the JSWED v2.3.7 (JSW64) by John Elliott, and a big thanks to John for his support with some of the questions that I had about the game ending.

The loading Screen was adapted from the Sam Coupé original and edited in Multipaint from Tero Heikkinen.

 

And Finally:

A big thanks to “Spider” for suggesting doing this version to me as well as testing all the levels and the tips about the loader.

Also Daniel Gromann at JSW Central for testing all the levels and the advice about the gameplay. And answering my constant questions, many thanks.

This was another great learning experience putting the levels together and designing the new sprites, the JSW64 opens up a lot more possibilities within the level gameplay.

As before it tries to capture the spirit of the original levels but now within the limitations of the 128K Spectrum.

Thanks to everyone in the community for being so positive about the Lost Levels.

I hope that this continuation will be received as well and that you enjoy playing it

All the best,

B

 

 

[DVDfever]

Eagerly looking forward to this 🙂

[DVDfever]

Whoop! Whoop! It's looking awesome and I've got the first 5 levels up here. Now I need to work on the other 35 (+1) 😄

 

Excellent stuff, Red Bayron!

 

 

[The-Red-Bayron]

Great Video, thanks for doing this.

All the Best, B

[DVDfever]

Thanks again for the game, and glad you like the video 🙂

[Richard Hallas]

Thanks very much for doing this! It's a really great conversion to have, and – again – something I've wished someone would do for a long time.

I'm also pleased that you've given the caverns proper mixed-case names this time, as I really didn't care for the all-caps names in the Lost Levels release (my only major criticism of that game).

I have two points of feedback that I've noticed so far, during my initial look, one trivial and one major:

1. In the title-screen scroll-text, you credit the "JSW46" engine (should obviously be JSW64).

2. The title screen music is just intolerably awful! I don't think this is your fault, Byron; I'm sure I've heard it before somewhere (is it the default music in JSW64 or something?) – but it should have been strangled at birth and badly needs to be replaced. I mean, the melody is OK and correct, but the accompaniment (a) is in completely the wrong key, and (b) doesn't fit even if it were in the right key – and the overall combination makes me wonder how on earth something that sounds so appallingly dreadful was ever created and released in the first place. As far as I'm concerned it really ruins the game, as I find it really hard to listen to it. No music at all on the title screen would be a far, far preferable alternative to this.

I'm sorry if my comments about the music insult someone (e.g. John Elliott, if it's his handiwork), as I really don't want to offend anybody. Nevertheless, I find it hard to put into words just how dreadful the title-screen music really is. It's like a study in what it must be like to be tone deaf. I know the original Manic Miner title screen music is pretty screechy and awful, but I always took it as being an attempt at rendering a honky-tonk piano sound, and as far as it goes it's quite succesful at that; it works because it sounds 'deliberately bad' (and it's also in tune in its own terms, and uses valid harmony). This 128K AY rendition, though, fails because the notes are perfectly in tune but are just completely wrong (in the accompaniment line). Maybe the data is simply corrupt (seriously). Either way, it REALLY needs to be replaced with a fixed version or a competent new rendition, be it of The Blue Danube or of something else.

[Richard Hallas]

Another typo: "Khan" is spelt "Kahn" in the game.

[The-Red-Bayron]

Hi Richard,

Thanks as always for taking the time to have a good look at the game. I am putting together a list of the changes, so there will be a version 1.1 👍 if you find anything else please let me know so that I can add it to my list.

At the moment it is mostly Typos and minor level changes. 

In the editor there is the possibility to import and export the music but I am not familiar with the files or how to create or change the music, any help from you or anyone in the community would be greatly appreciated.

Anyway I hope that you are enjoying the game, all the best,

B

 

[The-Red-Bayron]

Just see that Deeper and Down had over 150 Downloads !!

A big Thank You to everyone that has take the time to comment and Download the game.

This is greatly appreciated 😎

All the Best, B

[Richard Hallas]

Hi Byron,

I've certainly enjoyed the game – I've played it right through and it works very well. (A few tricky bits, but overall it's much easier than the original.)

So yes, it's great; I Iike it a lot. My only real quibble, as I say, is with the title music.

In theory I'd be happy to recreate the music myself, but aside from having very limited time available, I don't know anything about what format it's in. However, I could do a bit of research over the coming days and see if it's something I could tackle. I'm not familiar with working on JSW64 games myself, so if anyone could point me to the most up-to-date place for finding out about the engine (and specificially the music), that might be helpful. Otherwise I'll just do some hunting myself in the next day or two, assuming I get a bit of free time.

Anyway, if the editor has a music import/export feature then it must surely be straightforward to create new music, and given that that's the case, I'm sure I'll be able to manage it. If you'd like me to do so, and are willing to wait a short while for me to have time to do it, then I'll be happy to help.