D
uring the golden age of
the 8-bit home computer,
a select few programmers
became almost as famous
as the games they single-handedly
created. Thanks to Manic Miner, which
he knocked together in just six weeks,
teenager Matthew Smith became
synonymous with the burgeoning
platform genre and by far the biggest
celebrity on the Spectrum scene.
The aim in each of the 20 one-screen
levels was to collect all of the flashing
items and reach the exit. Pixel-perfect
timing was required, as the slightest
touch from a wandering enemy or any
part of the environment that wasn’t
the floor meant instant death.
Without variable speed or momentum
to contend with, Miner Willy’s jumps
always took exactly the same parabolic
arc, travelling exactly the same
distance. Beating a level meant finding
the precise point from which to jump in
order to clear a hazard, and there was
no room whatsoever for improvisation.
It was brutal, but the cheat code for
skipping levels remains etched in the
minds of a whole generation of British
gamers.Skylab was an early space station that was steered
into the earth’s atmosphere, four years before
Manic Miner was released, in an attempt to safely
burn it up over an uninhabited area. Due to a NASA
miscalculation, pieces of it ended up striking the
ground near Perth, Australia. Topical!CLASSIC MOMENT