Manic Miner

In each of the twenty caverns, each one screen in size, are several flashing objects, which the player must collect before Willy's oxygen supply runs out. Once the player has collected the objects in one cavern, they must then go to the now-flashing portal, which will take them to the next cavern. Poisonous Pansies, Spiders, Slime, and worst of all, Manic Mining Robots..." which move along predefined paths at constant speeds.

Willy can also be killed by falling too far, so players must time the precision of jumps and other movements to prevent such falls or collisions with the enemies. Extra lives are gained every 10,000 points, and the game ends when the player has no lives left. Above the final portal is a garden. To the right is a house with a white picket fence and red car parked in front.

Manic Miner was developed by Matthew Smith following a request for a Donkey Kong style arcade game from Alan Maton, Bug-Byte's despatch manager. It was Smith's second game for the publisher following Styx. Both games were among nine titles launched by Bug-Byte at The Computer Fair at Earls Court in June 1983. Initially Manic Miner had sixteen screens until Smith found a way to add four more, finally finishing the game in August 1983.

While Styx had been sold outright to Bug-Byte for £3000, Manic Miner was published under licence and Smith was able to cancel the licence later that year. On 28th November, Software Projects - a company formed by Smith, Maton and Liverpool businessman Tommy Barton - released their own version of Manic Miner. Minor alterations were made to the graphics, changing some enemies from Bug-Byte logos and changing others to Penrose triangles (Software Projects' logo). Bug-Byte were able to continue selling their version of the game over the Christmas period with the Software Projects release not becoming the most circulated version until early 1984.

In August 1983, sales of Bug-Byte's original ZX Spectrum release of Manic Miner took the game to the top of the UK video games charts replacing Jet Pac. The Commodore 64 version, released by Software Projects, reached the number one position in early 1984. It went on to become the best-selling Commodore 64 game and third best-selling ZX Spectrum game of 1984.

The SAM Coupé version scored 84% in Your Sinclair and 88% in Crash.

Unofficial ports exist for the Acorn Archimedes, Acorn Atom, Acorn Electron, Atari ST, Cambridge Z88, Commodore 128, HP48, Linux, Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, MS-DOS, Neo Geo Pocket Color, Nintendo 64, Orao, Playdate, PlayStation, PMD 85, TRS-80 Color Computer, VIC-20, Zune, and ZX81.

The sequel to Manic Miner is Jet Set Willy and was followed by Jet Set Willy II. Software Projects also released a game in the style of Manic Miner for the VIC-20 called The Perils of Willy.