Manic Miner is a platform video game. It was written by renowned British software developer Bug-Byte in 1983 and released for the ZX Spectrum. It is the first game in the Miner Willy series, and is one of the first titles in this genre. It was largely influenced by the Atari 8-bit family game, "Miner 2049er." Its graphics are also distinctively retro, as the player controls his or her miners through mines and crates.
The ZX Spectrum version of Manic Miner was made by Nenad Mihailovic, who recreated the original in 1987. It contains many of the original levels and was able to be played in black and white. The version for the Orao includes Nullsoft's installer and fixes several bugs in the guardian editor. The game also includes a room editor with animation speed control. The Orao version of the game is available in the Android app as well.
The gameplay of Manic Miner is very straightforward and is a classic ZX Spectrum game. Willy the Caveman must collect various objects by going through flashing portals in each cavern. These portals will lead the player to the next cavern. As the player makes their way through each cavern, they must avoid enemies, which move along predefined paths. Willy can die easily if he falls too far, and players must time their movements in order to avoid their attacks.
