Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
V. Jet Set Willy 64 (JSW64)
Games using John Elliott's JSW64 family of game engines for the 128K Spectrum
07. Ultimate Manic Miner
Author: Igor Makovsky
Year: 2006
Language: English
Ultimate Manic Miner was Igor Makovsky's first game using the JSW64 game engine. It was gamma-released in February 2006.
The game takes place in the "near future", in the Stonehenge Mine Complex (SMC) which the "world government" built near the famous megalithic monument. SMC is shrouded in mystery; it is used for many purposes, but they are all secret, and the workers, who all live inside the complex, are not allowed to ever go outside. The complex provides the workers with many amenities aimed at making them happy and places to relax, like the Manic Miner Pub. SMC is guarded by mutant penguins who have human abilities and no-one has ever managed to get out of it alive.
According to the author, Ultimate Manic Miner has "an unrepeatable atmosphere of a JSW horror and a new playing style". Its objective is no longer to collect items, but rather to escape from SMC. Collecting items (whose count is not displayed) mainly serves to activate various switches. The player can obtain extra lives by collecting "medikits".
The game uses Variant [, Hacklevel 12 of the JSW64 game engine. Each room has 16 cell types, up to 31 guardians and up to 8 unique sprites per room. This makes the game extremely rich graphically. Furthermore, Ultimate Manic Miner explores the possibilities offered by the JSW64 game engine (such as switches that trigger sudden events) and numerous quirky features of the engine (such as moving platforms created by invalid arrows). According to the author, the game "is not recommended for people with weak nerves" and should probably be rated 17+ because of scenes of corpses, blood, gore and acts of violence.
Number of edited rooms: 64
Number of items to collect: N/A
(Collecting items is not the purpose of the game. The number of items that have been collected is not displayed.)
Bugfix needed after original release? NO
Spare lives at the start: 2
Bonus lives awarded? YES
Number of bonus lives the player can gain: 10
Completable without loss of life? YES
Starting time: 10:41 pm
Best documented completion time without loss of life: 11:35 pm
Download links
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Game file in TAP and TZX formats |
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The game's page on WoS |
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The game's page on Spectrum Computing |
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The game's map on Speccy Screenshot Maps |
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RZX walkthrough of the game showing the best documented completion time |
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RZX walkthrough of the game on the RZX Archive (showing a completion of the game which is inferior to the best publicly available recording) |
Video
A walkthrough of the game on the JSW Central YouTube channel
A complete screenshot gallery will be presented on this page in the future.