Matthew Smith
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The first big game by Matthew Smith that made a great success was Manic Miner. It's a multi-screen arcade where you have to lead a miner called Willy (yep, that's him!) to collect all the items thrown about through 20 caverns. To get to the next cavern (level), you have to collect all the items from the cavern you are currently in. But hurry - the oxygen is running out! Thus the Manic Miner legend was born. Alan Maton, then despatch manager for Bug-Byte, wanted a game similar in concept to Donkey Kong, which had been an enormous success in amusement arcades. Matthew suggested a game with eight or maybe even 16 screens. Such an arcade game had not been attempted before, not with fixed layout screens. Matthew got to work on Manic Miner, using a Model III Tandy, with colour and sound. He did 16 screens, and then worked out a way of adding another four. It was finished in August 1983
" Rich from his past mining exploits, Willy has bought a huge mansion with over 60 rooms, most of which he has never seen. There's been a mammoth party and the guests have left the place in a dreadful mess. Willy just want to go to bed, but his housekeeper, the nightmarish Maria, won't let him until every bit and piece has been picked up and tidied away. "
That was the epitome of the Jet Set Willy, the legendary game written in the 1984 for the good ol' ZX Spectrum, that was translated later on for C64, Amstrad and other popular 8-bit computers. Unlike other computer games, it had a unique quality: it was not only a game that was to be played - It was a game to be explored, a game to be hacked! It is a game that you will be returning to over and over again! Cheers Matthew ...WHEREVER YOU ARE!
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Last updated: September 12, 2001.Thanks to Emulation Unlimited for providing the web space.
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