Manic Miner

Another free game today for fans of old games. Manic Miner was probably the best game for the ZX Spectrum. Older readers may remember this machine; which was the first really affordable PC. It worked with a TV set and a cassette tape recorder. Younger readers may regard such a primitive set up as, well, prehistoric. Consult the link to reassure yourself that I am not pulling your collective legs.

Click on the Manic Miner link to go directly to the download page for the game. The title link goes to the home page for the distribution site. This site provides many more free downloads of old games and is worth a visit.

I was addicted to Manic Miner during my postgraduate years. It is still a very good game despite the release of Quake IV, Bioshock, GTA IV et al. As is said in the readme supplied by takegame.com:

"Miner Willy, while prospecting down Surbiton way, stumbles upon an ancient, long forgotten mine-shaft. On further exploration, he finds evidence of a lost civilisation far superior to our own, which used automatons to dig deep into the Earth's core to supply the essential raw materials for their advanced industry. After centuries of peace and prosperity, the civilisation was torn apart by war, and lapsed into a long dark age, abandoning their industry and machines. Nobody, however, thought to tell the mine robots to stop working, and through countless aeons they had steadly accumulated a hugh stockpile of valuable metals and minerals, and Miner Willy realises that he now has the opportunity to make his fortune by finding the underground store. Can YOU take the challange and guide Willy through the underground caverns to the surface and riches. In order to move to the next chamber, you must collect all the flashing keys in the room while avoiding nasties like POISONUS PANSIES and SPIDERS and SLIME and worst of all, MANIC MINING ROBOTS. When you have all the keys, you can enter the portal which will now be flashing. The game ends when you have been "got" or fallen heavily three times.

NOTE: This was taken from the original BUG-BYTE inlay. I have never seen any POISONUS PANSIES, SPIDERS or SLIME anywhere in the game.

For those of you who have never played Manic Miner before, all you have to do is collect X number of objects from each screen to open the exit before your air runs out. Sounds easy? Just give it a try."

Try it. You may like it.