Resource centre for ZX Spectrum games
using Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy game engines
Versions and minor mods of the original Manic Miner
Manic Miner Shuffle
Author: Allan Turvey (Highrise)
Year: 2019
Language: English
A "simple mod" of Manic Miner in which all the rooms, apart from the first and last one, are shuffled every time you play the game, so the order is different every time. It is meant to "add a little bit of variety for the more casual gamers that struggle to get deeper into the game".
Allan created an 18-byte table with numbers from 1 to 18 and placed it in the code space which is unused in the original MM. A small routine takes these numbers and shuffles them like a pack of cards. This routine is run when the title-screen tune plays at the start of the game. It also resets the start point for the random sequence. When the player completes the level, the code is diverted to choose the next room in the randomised sequence, and then pointed back to the regular code. Thus the player gets a random cavern, but never the same one twice.
The author states that it is "just a quick patch" and that it is uncertain if it will work in every instance. In the JSW Central walkthrough which can be downloaded below, it was possible to complete the whole set of caverns, but the game crashed after "Central Cavern" was completed as the first room of the second set of rooms. Furthermore, "Central Cavern" was played twice in the first set of 20 rooms, while "The Endorian Forest" was never played.
Manic Miner Shuffle is based on the Bug-Byte version of Manic Miner. It was released as a SNA snapshot in November 2019, with a bugfix following almost immediately after the original release. The file currently hosted on Dropbox, however, seems to be the original, unfixed one (where the random order of rooms does not work). Nevertheless, a tape version based on Allan's fix (where the random order of rooms does work) is available for download below.
Number of rooms: 20
Highest documented score:
- upon reaching the swordfish sign: 37,836 points;
- upon first re-entry into the first cavern: 39,112 points.
Download links
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Game file in SNA format (buggy version where the random order of rooms does not work) and the Readme |
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Game file in TZX and TAP formats (with random order of rooms working) |
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RZX walkthrough of the game showing the highest documented score |
Screenshot gallery |
The game is not visually different from the original MM apart from the status bar - the number of points and spare lives will be very different in most caverns from what it can be in the original game.
The order of the rooms presented below reflects an order that happened during an actual playthrough of the game. Since it is randomised except for the first and last room, it should be different every time the game is played.
