Manic Miner was a
great leap forward in
ZX Spectrum gaming when it was released. OK, so the
soundtrack was
painful, but that wasn't the point. The point was that it
had a soundtrack! It was the first game to play '
music'
and let you play the game
at the same time.
The game was written by Matthew Smith for Bug-Byte software. "Eugene's Lair" level was named after Eugene Evans, a fellow Bug-Byte employee at the time, who had told Matthew that he didn't think Manic Miner would work.
Manic Miner was also the only ZX Spectrum game that I was ever very good at. I played it every spare minute I had, and eventually got so that I could make a single game last 'for ever'. One Saturday I got up early and played the game for hours, building up a collection of 20 or so marching Miner Willies along the bottom of the screen. I was still going strong at 4pm when I had to do my paper round. I paused the game, leaving strict instructions with my Dad not to let anyone touch it and rushed aronud my paper route in record time.
When I got back to the house, I was eager to get stuck into the game again, but to my utter shock all the stomping Willies had vanished. I was suddenly on my last life. My Dad explained that he had "had a little go" for me, knowing I "wouldn't mind". Well, I did mind. I minded a lot. In my anger I failed to notice that the area of the screen where the spare Willies march had been obscured by a length of sticky tape. Imagine my relief when all the Willies were alive and well under the tape.
Luckily I saw the funny side, and went on to achieve fame and glory in the hallowed pages of Computer & Video Games magazine.
Pretty obsessive, huh?