Elite Systems - News Archive

Xbox Live Indy Game ‘MANIC MINER 360’

Submitted for “Peer Review”

Date: May 2012

Elite Systems, the long established UK based developer and electronic publisher of games for portable, mobile and other devices has confirmed that its very first Xbox Live Indy Game, MANIC MINER 360 has been submitted for �Peer Review�. Manic Miner for the ZX Spectrum (an 8-bit personal home computer released in the UK in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd, which sold in excess of 5 million units worldwide) is one of THE defining games of the 1980s. $\"MANIC$ MANIC MINER 360 is the near-100% original ZX Spectrum game, as written by Matthew Smith in 1983 and is being brought to Xbox Live Indy Games as an officially licenced product. Commenting upon the submission Elite� MD, Steve Wilcox noted, �The submission of MANIC MINER 360 to Xbox Live Indy Games is the next exciting step in bringing classic ZX Spectrum games to a new audience, via new devices and platforms and in the process restoring some order to the market. We began doing this some 18 months ago with our ZX Spectrum: Elite Collection Apps for iOS devices and in the intervening period there have been more than 100,000 paid instances. Assuming the �Peer Review� process is completed successfully, we�d hope to see MANIC MINER 360 available from Xbox Live Indy Games later this month and if that goes well, for it to be followed by more classic ZX Spectrum Games.� MANIC MINER 360 features: - full-screen and bordered portrait play / display modes - pixel filtering on / off option - �auto-save�, on exiting the game - authentic \'Spectrum\' sound - infinite lives option For further information please contact: Steve Wilcox, Elite� Tel. + 44 (0) 154 326 8826 Mail paperboy@elite-systems.co.uk Web www.elite-systems.co.uk Twitter @elite_systems About Manic Miner: Manic Miner is a platform game originally written for the ZX Spectrum by Matthew Smith and released by Bug-Byte in 1983 (later re-released by Software Projects). It is the first game in the Miner Willy series and among the pioneers of the platform game genre. The game itself was inspired by the Atari 800 game Miner 2049er. It has since been ported to numerous home computers and video game consoles. At the time, its stand-out features included in-game music and sound effects, excellent playability, and colourful graphics, which were well designed for the graphical limitations of the ZX Spectrum. On the Spectrum this was the first game with in-game music, the playing of which required constant CPU attention and was thought impossible. It was cleverly achieved by constantly alternating CPU time between the music and the game (which accounts for the music\'s stuttery rhythm). The in-game music is In the Hall of the Mountain King from Edvard Grieg\'s music to Henrik Ibsen\'s play Peer Gynt. The music that plays during the title screen is an arrangement of An der sch�nen blauen Donau (popularly known as The Blue Danube), a waltz by Johann Strau�. Manic Miner contains 20 rooms or caverns. In each of the twenty caverns are several flashing objects, which the player must collect before Willy\'s oxygen supply runs out. Once the player has collected the objects in one cavern, they must then go to the now-flashing portal, which will take them to the next cavern. The player must avoid enemies (listed in the cassette inlay) as Poisonous Pansies, Spiders, Slime, and Manic Mining Robots, which move backwards and forwards along a predefined length at constant speeds. Willy can also be killed by falling too far, so players must time the precision of jumps and other movements to prevent such falls or collisions with the enemies. The game ends when the player has no lives left; extra lives are gained every 10000 points. About Matthew Smith: Matthew Smith (born 1966) is a British computer game programmer. He is best known for his games Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy for the ZX Spectrum, released in 1983 and 1984 respectively. Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy are two of the most famous and popular ZX Spectrum games of all time. Matthew created this game when he was 17 ... About Elite�: Elite Systems Ltd was incorporated in England in 1984 and is one of Europe�s most long established developers and publishers of entertainment software. Tweets ... Pre-release (with link to press release): �MANIC MINER 360� for Xbox Live Indy Games � submitted for �Peer Review� tinyurl.com/bls9cwl #ManicMiner360 On Release (with links to XBLIG): �MANIC MINER 360� for Xbox Live Indy Games � available weekend of (tbc) http://tinyurl.com/... #ManicMiner360 Copyright MANIC MINER 360 TM & (C) 2012, Elite Systems Group Ltd. ELITE� is a registered trademark in the UK (#142270) and elsewhere and is used with permission. All rights reserved. MANIC MINER TM & (C) 1983-2012 Matthew Smith et al, its successors and assigns. All Rights Reserved.

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