MANIC MINER 4 (C) BROADSOFT 1997 ============= [Special Edition 2003] For the Sinclair ZX Spectrum Written by Andrew Broad http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/ The Game -------- Manic Miner 4 is a redefinition of the screens in Matthew Smith's classic Manic Miner, which I acknowledge as being the copyright of Bug-Byte (1983) - owned by Jester Interactive since 2001. It also uses a few bits and pieces from the second edition of Manic Miner (Copyright Software Projects 1983), Jet Set Willy (Copyright Software Projects 1984) and Jet Set Willy II (Copyright Software Projects 1985), as detailed in the notes below. I developed the game on a Spectrum +2, using my own Manic Miner Screen Editor (also released on the Internet). Manic Miner 4 is written for advanced Manic Miner players, and the screens are intended to be outstandingly difficult, as a challenge to the experts. It presupposes that you can play Manic Miner - the controls are exactly the same, but the gameplay is much tougher, featuring some horrendous combinations of nasties which it takes good timing and pixel-perfect jumping to get past! Manic Miner 4 is also intended as an example of how far Manic Miner should be redefined for a sequel. Manic Miner 2 and Manic Miner 3 were a bit of a let-down in that the screens just looked like the original caverns gone wrong, with some of the platforms hacked up a bit but the graphics, positions of the nasties &c. unmodified. Manic Miner 4, on the other hand, has some genuinely new screens that are as novel as the Jet Set Willy rewrites currently doing the rounds on the Internet. I have thoroughly play-tested the final version, and I certify that it /is/ possible to complete. You can consider yourself to have passed Manic Miner 4 if you finish the game using infinite lives (POKE 35136,0) on a real Spectrum, or saving and loading snapshots on an emulator. If you cheat by using any other POKEs, or by using 6031769, you should consider yourself disqualified. ;-) Members of the Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy Yahoo! Group [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/manicminerandjetsetwilly/] can view exclusive screenshots in the Photos section. Acknowledgements ---------------- * Matthew Smith, for writing the original Manic Miner, and in particular for deciding on an unencrypted, perspicuous room-format! ;-) * Richard Hallas's document "A Miner Triad" was an invaluable aid to redefining the in-game tune. * I was torn between two in-game tunes, so I decided to code up both and give the player a choice. The first tune is a more faithful adaptation than the original Manic Miner of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite. * The second in-game tune is The Verve's "Bittersweet Symphony", which bears a striking resemblance to "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and is from the same year (1997) as Manic Miner 4! * The Special Edition was developed using Ramsoft's RealSpectrum emulator, following the death of my real Spectrum on 13th April 2003. * John Elliott, for his disassembly of MM (no longer online), from which I worked out how to edit the end-of-game colour-attributes (see Appendix E of my Manic Miner Room Format). Loading Instructions -------------------- To play Manic Miner 4, you need a Spectrum emulator that is capable of loading TAP files (I hope I'm right in thinking that the emulators you all use are capable of loading TAP files, as I don't want to complicate matters by also releasing snapshot files). To find an emulator for your particular computer, see the Emulators section of the comp.sys.sinclair FAQ [http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~pak21/cssfaq/emulator.html]. A TAP file is an encoding of the files on a Spectrum tape (as opposed to a snapshot file, which is an encoding of the complete state of a Spectrum at the moment it was created). To load from a TAP file, you have to issue a load- command to the emulated Spectrum (i.e. select Tape Loader or type LOAD "" (in 48K mode, press J for LOAD and SYMBOL-SHIFT+P for ")). You also have to open the TAP file in the emulator (either before or after issuing the loading instruction). The Caverns ----------- Manic Miner 4 has some interesting caverns, based on various strange ideas and inspiration from eclectic sources. Here's a room-by-room commentary: ROOM 0: "The Divas Internet Shrine". A tribute to the tennis-player Iva Majoli, of whom I am a big fan. That's Iva on the conveyor, hitting forehands and backhands - jump up and collect her tennis-balls! A nice, gentle opening screen. ROOM 1: "Inside". Named for David Bowie's Outside album. When I wrote this in 1996, I thought there was going to be a sequel called Inside, but that will be called Contamination (see Room 7). This screen is actually a tribute to Bob's house from Ian Pratt's Artificial Intelligence book - you have to go from room to room collecting the atlases and then, in true Miner Willy style, jump in the toilet! ROOM 2: "The Challenge-Response System". I'm not altogether sure what a challenge-response system is, it's something that was mentioned in "Segue - Nathan Adler" on David Bowie's Outside album! This screen was inspired by the film Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me, the scene where David Bowie is seen on video walking down a corridor! The growing and shrinking circles are my own way of adding to the surreal atmosphere. Take the ring and exit through the lift doors (you must enter this portal from the side, not from above). ROOM 3: "Starting Fires". Another Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me tribute, set in a log cabin where mysterious forces hang out. Collect the rings to open the door in the wall. Watch out for the fires that appear out of nowhere and walk across the screen with you! The title "Starting Fires" comes from the chorus of David Bowie's "Telling Lies" (but not the version on Earthling). ROOM 4: "The Flapping Toilets". A tribute to the loos in "Eugene's Lair" from Manic Miner 1. My little sister always used to refer to this cavern as "the flapping toilets", so here's a special screen devoted to them. Climb up among the lavatory pipes, avoid the flapping toilets, pull the chain to make the cistern come down, walk past the hanging turds and into the bowl. This is the first screen in Manic Miner 4 that I regard as a masterpiece, if you like that sort of thing! ;-) ROOM 5: "Processing Plant (Version 2)". This is one of three rooms from the original Manic Miner 1 that were changed when the second edition was issued by Software Projects. The idea of having it in Manic Miner 4 is that completists only need to get Manic Miner 4 and the first (Bug-Byte) edition of Manic Miner 1. This cavern demonstrates that much of Matthew Smith's inspiration for Manic Miner screens came from early 1980s arcade games, in this case Pacman. The difference from the first edition is that the graphics for the first static nasty and for the item have changed. ROOM 6: "The Brothers Grimm". One of my favourite rooms, a tribute to the unfriendly staff at a certain railway station ("Your switch card's over the limit! We can't be bothered ringing the bank for verification at 8am in the morning, we're trying to run a railway station! You've done this to me before, you had 'em queuing out the door!"). Collect the guard's batons from up on the platform, avoid the camouflaged manholes at the bottom of the screen, and dodge the ticket-sellers to catch the train! This requires smart timing and good jumping. ROOM 7: "Contamination". Named for David Bowie's forthcoming (I hope!) album, which still hasn't been released yet, this screen was written about someone I hate so much that he ought to be hanged (hence the gallows), but renamed because I didn't want to risk the possibility of getting sued for defamation of character! An adaptation of "Miner Willy meets the Kong Beast", flick the left switch to open a way through the curtain, and then, if you want a lot of bonus points, flick the right switch to hang the bastard! To get to the items, you'll have to jump off the left of the screen (from the second step down), razz it across the conveyor with precision jumping, and take care not to touch the rope! If you get white blobs appearing on this screen, it is because of a bug in Manic Miner that `contaminates' this section of memory when you jump off the top of a screen (as you have to do in Room 9) or fall off the bottom. ROOM 8: "Students Union". A simple but tricky screen, you have to keep jumping up and off the right of the screen until you get to the top. This requires precision jumping, often from right on the edge of the conveyors, and timing to avoid the papers (remember that when you jump /down/ onto a conveyor, you can hold yourself until it is the right time to go). The items in front of the doors of the union building are a red herring, as the portal is already flashing! ROOM 9: "At the Sound of Sawing Wood". Inspired by a quote from Twin Peaks - Fire Walk With Me, you have to collect the flashing apples around a cabin inhabited by monks from Jet Set Willy, much as Atlas had to do while Hercules held up the world, if I remember the Greek myth correctly. To get the apples buried in the earth, you'll have to jump off the top of the screen, avoiding the sun-god, before the wood drops away. ROOM 10: "Let's Rock". An obvious tennis tribute, in which you have to collect the balls that have been hit into the net. A peculiar exercise in spatial reasoning, to get across the net you have to straddle the top and bottom of the screen, blinded by chalk-dust. I had considerable difficulty naming this room, as I didn't want to go for an obvious title. "Let's Rock" is a rather saucy attempt at a pun - I don't know who Let is, but that's his rock in the bottom- left corner! ;-) ROOM 11: "Purgundation". Another room about the downfall of one of my enemies, again diplomatically renamed for the Internet release of Manic Miner 4. The battle-axes (no, they're not elephants' heads or whatever else you may have imagined!) are symbolic of her downfall, which you can bring about by flicking the switch on the right. An adaptation of "Return of the Alien Kong Beast" (cf. Room 7), and a very difficult one at that - it takes some very clever jumping indeed to flick that left switch! "Purgundation" is a word I made up myself, to describe a certain way that food or drink goes bad if you start to eat it and then leave it, or if someone else has had their mouth on it! I thought it went well with "Contamination" as a title! ;-) ROOM 12: "WARNING: Horrible". The hardest screen in this, or perhaps any, Manic Miner game, featuring a wicked combination of the ugly amoebatrons from Jet Set Willy and nasty, headachey ice-lollies. Requires pixel-perfect jumping and frame-perfect timing. You don't have a lot of air, but that actually helps you to get the timing right! The jump over the yellow lolly is so hairy that it usually takes me at least three attempts at clearing it, hanging on the pause button! ROOM 13: "A Hole in the Ocean". Willy's poseidon adventure: collect the flashing items underwater, don't be mislead by the false portal, watch out for the seaweed (it crumbles faster than normal falling-away floor), and don't get stuck in the hole! If you manage all this, you then have a nerve-wracking trip across the sea ahead of you, avoiding the stabbing swords of Excalibur! ROOM 14: "Dotty". A bizarre screen in which you have to get to the portal at the left edge before the star crashes into the right end, which kills you! A surreal exploitation of the peculiarities of Manic Miner's collision-detection algorithm, it requires pixel-perfect jumping across near-invisible blocks (depending on your monitor), and there's not a second to lose! ROOM 15: "Tales From A Parallel Universe". A gem for aficionados of the ongoing Manic Miner series, it is partly a tribute to Manic Miner 3 and partly a tribute to "Central Cavern" in Manic Miner 1 (observant viewers will notice that this screen is "Central Cavern" laterally inverted). "Central Cavern" appeared in an unplayable form at the end of Jet Set Willy II where, just before you think you're going to hit the toilet in "The Bathroom", you suddenly wind up in "Central Cavern" and start jumping forever. The graphics and colours for this room were pinched from there, and sure enough, this room starts with a jump! ROOM 16: "The Warehouse (Version 2)". The second of three screens from Manic Miner 1 that differed when Software Projects issued the second edition (the difference is that the graphics for the vertical nasty have been changed to Software Projects' logo, an impossible triangle), and, appropriately for Manic Miner 4, one of the toughest Manic Miner screens to crack until you've got the timing right. ROOM 17: "Amoebatrons' Revenge (Version 3)". The third of three screens from Manic Miner 1 that differed when Software Projects issued the second edition (the difference, again, is that the graphics for the vertical nasty have been changed). I further modified it myself (hence Version 3) by adding an escalator, as I could see that Matthew Smith had intended to have one - look ever so closely at the corresponding floor in Manic Miner 1 and you'll see the third row down of pixels moving! ROOM 18: "The Heimlich Manoeuvre". A tribute to the phenomenon in tennis known as `choking', where a player has a huge lead and looks like they're about to close out a match, but gets so nervous that they can't finish it off and end up losing (this screen was renamed to avoid reference to anyone in particular). It's all very well to be able to dodge the dreaded gremlins of doubt, collect the tears and get to the top, but can you make that last awful jump to the trophy or will you choke and fall right back down to the bottom? Chokers who play this on an emulator will probably cheat by making a snapshot when they get to the top ledge! ;-) ROOM 19: "Red Room". The grand finale, and a tribute to the red room in Twin Peaks. Although there are no moving nasties, it's full of invisible floors, walls and static nasties, so it's quite a challenge if you're going to finish Manic Miner 4! Collect the items and find a way to the golden chair - if you do, your reward will be an angel, unless you cheated by using level-skipping! Note that the air does not run out in this screen, even at the end (so the Spectrum locks up). This is intentional, as are the red blobs at the top that show through from Manic Miner's picture for "The Final Barrier", which is also the picture for the title-screen. Internet -------- I currently have a website at http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/. Some relevant pages within this website are: * http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/ Top-level index of my Spectrum pages. * http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/willy/ My Manic Miner/Jet Set Willy pages, including a list of Spectrum MM/JSW games (which I try to maintain as complete and up-to-date as possible - please inform me of any I have missed), various other MM/JSW documents, and links to other MM/JSW websites. * http://www.geocities.com/andrewbroad/spectrum/download/ My download page. Currently contains my other games, my Manic Miner Screen Editor, and my Java toolkit SPECSAISIE. Also has previews of forthcoming software (mostly MM/JSW games). I founded a Yahoo! Group for Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. Its URL is:- http://groups.yahoo.com/group/manicminerandjetsetwilly/ It includes a message-board for discussing MM/JSW, picture galleries which members can upload to, a bookmarks page and a calendar. Anyone can visit the Group and look around its public areas, but for full privileges you have to join the Group as a member. This prerequires signing up for a Yahoo! account, which you can do, free of charge, over the Web. I encourage all members of the MM/JSW community to join the Group. I recommend the comp.sys.sinclair USENET newsgroup as a place for discussing MM/JSW and other Spectrum-related topics. It's worth at least browsing through the headers each day (says he who has long since lost touch with USENET :-o ). The newsgroup is archived at http://groups.google.com/ for those who don't have access to a news-server - in fact, it's worth surfing there even if you do, as not all news-servers receive all newsgroup postings! http://www.mailandnews.com/ (a free Web-based email-service) also provides access to newsgroups over the Web. Copyright Notice ---------------- Manic Miner 4 is, of course, my copyright, but I don't mind you putting it on your own website or redistributing it otherwise, provided that no money is charged, and that you acknowledge that it is the copyright of Broadsoft (1997). This document must be included with all copies of the game. Modifications are discouraged but not forbidden, and you should state specifically what you have modified. I don't mind you reusing some of the rooms, graphics, &c. in your own games, or converting the game to another computer (e.g. for JSW-PC). However, the accompanying documentation must state that the reused material is the copyright of Broadsoft - failure to do so may be construed as plagiarism. I would like the documentation to be quite specific about this, e.g. "Graphic X in Room Y was taken from Manic Miner 4", or whatever. Please let me know if you do put Manic Miner 4 on your website or reuse bits of it - it's not that I'd have any objections, I'd just be very interested to know what follows from releasing my game! Version History --------------- 30th September 1997: Manic Miner 4 was originally released as a raw snapshot with an extra byte on the end (but no extra charge!). It was later refined to be a zipped snapshot of the correct length. However, nowadays there is great popular demand for TAP files instead of snapshots! 25th February 1998: Lee Tonks (aka Blood), who wrote Manic Miner 3 (aka Tales from a Parallel Universe), kindly converted Manic Miner 4 into a TAP file for me (my emulator at the time, Mac Spectacle 1.8, cannot create TAP files), with a BASIC loader and the machine code loading in a compressed format. I thus reissued Manic Miner 4 along with these notes (Manic Miner 4 was originally released without notes). The game itself is completely unchanged. 30th November 2002: Manic Miner 4 reissued with PC-sympathetic newlines, updated Internet section and copyright notice, and various other changes to the documentation. The TAP file is renamed but otherwise completely unchanged. 2nd August 2003 (Karina Habsudová's 30th birthday): Special Edition uploaded at my new website: title-screen graphics, end-game colour-attributes, scrolly and in-game tune have been edited. The room-data (45056-65535) are identical to the original release.