Line #32 VideoGame/ManicMiner


1	[[quoteright:256:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/manic_miner.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:256:The opening level.]]
3	''Manic Miner'' is an 1983 video game. Willy has discovered an automated, abandoned for untold centuries, mine in [[UsefulNotes/OneLondonThirtyThreeBoroughs Surbiton]].
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5	The good news is, the mine machinery has been piling up wealth which is there for the taking; the bad news is, it's still active and doesn't take kindly to intruders...
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7	This game became controversial when a number of Bug-Byte programmers left to found Software Projects, and Creator/MatthewSmith used a contract loophole to take ''Manic Miner'' with him.
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9	''Manic Miner'' is also famed as the first UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum game to feature a backing track alongside the sound effects, a feat previously considered impossible as the Speccy only had one sound channel. This was done by arpeggiated multiplexing: the tune and the effects were both played as a rapid staccato, and interleaved with each other. The title screen also features an attempt at two note chords using a similar method. The resulting rendition of ''The Blue Danube'' did not work quite so well.
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11	Spawned two sequels with ''VideoGame/JetSetWilly''. A [[RuleOfThree third sequel]], ''Miner Willy Meets the Taxman'', was [[{{Vaporware}} announced but never released]] -- indeed, probably never even started.
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14	!!''Manic Miner'' contains examples of the following:
15	* AgonyBeam: While you're being hit by the sunbeam in "Solar Power Generator", your air supply will deplete four times as fast as usual.
16	* AlliterativeTitle: '''M'''anic '''M'''iner rolls off the tongue nicely.
17	* AttractMode: The 20 levels are shown in sequence if no game is started after a while.
18	* BallBalancingSeal: The guardian monsters in level 4, "Abandoned Uranium Workings", are seals balancing spinning balls on their noses.
19	* ClassicCheatCode: 6031769 (in the Bug-Byte version), which activates the LevelWarp system. Later used in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto''. Also TYPEWRITER in the Software Projects version.
20	* CollisionDamage: Player should avoid contact with everything that's not walls, floor, collectible or level exit.
21	* EndlessGame: The game loops back to level 1 "The Central Cavern" after completing level 20, "The Final Barrier"
22	* EveryTenThousandPoints: Willy is awarded a new life for every 10,000 points added to the score.
23	* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Everything that is not walls, platforms, levers or objects is deadly. Even the enemies consist of normally innocent things like seals minding their own business, toilets, telephones. impossible triangles and so on.
24	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Take a wild guess as to where "The Sixteenth Cavern" and "The Final Barrier" fit into the sequence of levels.
25	* FacelessEye: One of the things that must be avoided is a floating constantly-blinking eye.
26	* GiantFootOfStomping: In the Game Over screen, a very long leg crushes Willy under its foot. It's the same in the sequels.
27	* InconvenientlyPlacedConveyorBelt: The game engine allows one conveyor belt in each cavern, and they're usually positioned to hinder the player.
28	* OneHitPointWonder: Touching enemies or hazards or falling from a certain height makes Willy lose a life.
29	* ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: There was a prize for the first players who completed the game and figured out a final password, which is based on a fish and a sword briefly appearing when completing the last level, but only if [[NoFairCheating no cheat codes are used]].
30	* PlatformGame: The gameplay is dominated by jumping between platforms of varying heights to collect items and reach the exit, while avoiding enemies and obstacles.
31	* PublicDomainSoundtrack: The title screen plays a section of Blue Danube Waltz, complete with a piano keyboard. During the game, a section of In The Hall Of Mountain King is played.
32	* RuleOfFunny: Surbiton is nowhere near any past or present mining areas (although quarrying has been carried out in that part of the world). Also, it's a suburban area surrounded by other suburbs for miles in every direction, hence looks nothing like the picture on the title screen.
33	* ShoutOut: Several.
34	** The mobile enemies in "The Processing Plant" are [[VideoGame/PacMan Pac-People]].
35	** "Eugene's Lair" is a TakeThat at Imagine programmer Eugene Evans.
36	** The two "Kong Beast" levels refer to ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', which had been released two years earlier.
37	** "Attack of the Mutant Telephones" is a reference to cheesy B-movies, as probably are the two "Amoebatron" levels.
38	** [[Franchise/StarWars "Endorian Forest"]], complete with ewoks.
39	** A Creator/MontyPython-esque foot [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64Stw8ikRjg squashes Willy]] when you lose all your lives.
40	* TimedMission: You have to complete each level before your air supply runs out. Eugene's Lair has to be completed before Eugene blocks the exit, as he rushes to it as soon as Willy gets the last object of the screen.
41	* UndergroundLevel: The whole game is a mine full of enemies.

Context VideoGame / ManicMiner