ScuzzBlog: Diaries November 2018
Entry 25th November 2018: Post 02: Spectrum - Manic Miner
Spectrum - Manic Miner
Twas the night before Christmas December 1983 and I had been to
the computer store and bought this new game and began loading up
with joyous expectation. My anticipation did not come unrewarded
because there on the screen was to be the most enjoyable game
ever played on the Spectrum. Manic Miner.
I must have spent the whole Christmas Holiday hooked to this game.
For a good while I was stuck on the first level thinking there
was only one level. I just had to go to the loo, so I left it
running in load mode and when I returned... my jaw dropped. Cus
there on screen were all twenty levels of this beautiful game.
Soon I discovered how to play with infinite lives to avoid the
dreaded boot and my Spectrum time was never to ever be the same.
The TV used in this review is the very black and white TV I used
in the day. We couldn't afford a second colour TV, especially in
those days both carried separate licenses.
And so to Manic Miner and all 20 mind boggling levels. The task
was simple. Climb the puzzle layers with your miner, grab all
the keys and then get out of the puzzle alive to the door that
opens. And yes that sound simple.... the one thing you have to
battle with is Spectrum graphics precision. Getting use to when
an object is going to turn or move or jump or drop is an art.
So deciding exactly when to press that button has to be spot on.
Unless that is you don't want the old boot.
Classic game and one that lives on even today. Still fun.
Manic Miner written by Matthew Smith and released in 1983 by
Bug-Byte. Evidently it was based on the Atari Miner 2049er.
Spectrum - Manic Miner
|
