Miner Willy, while prospecting down Surbiton way, stumbles upon an ancient, long forgotten mine-shaft. On further exploration, he finds evidence of a lost civilization far superior to our own, which used automatons to dig deep into the Earth's core to supply the essential raw materials for their advanced industry. After centuries of peace and prosperity, the civilization was torn apart by war, and lapsed into a long dark age, abandoning their industry and machines. Nobody however thought to tell the mine robots to stop working, and through countless aeons they had steadily accumulated a huge stockpile of valuable metals and minerals, and Miner Willy realizes that he now has the opportunity to make his fortune by finding the underground store. Can YOU take the challenge and guide Willy through the underground caverns to the surface and riches. In order to move to the next chamber, you must collect all the flashing keys in the room while avoiding nasties like POISONOUS PANSIES and SPIDERS and SLIME and worst of all MANIC MINING ROBOTS. When you have all the keys, you can enter the portal which will now be flashing. The games ends when you have been 'got' or fallen heavily three times.

This remake supports the following keys for playing the game:

While looking at the opening screen:

• Enter - Start the game.
• L - Start the game at a chosen level (choose one you already reached in the past). This feature works only for the first 4 levels in the unregistered version of Manic Miner for Windows. Register the game to use this option for all 20 levels.
• K - Toggle kids mode. See more information below.
• F1 - Get Help.
• ESC - Exit to Windows.
• CTRL+W - Switch between Full Screen and Window mode.

While playing the game:

• Q, E, T, U, O, or Left - Move left.
• W, R, Y, I, P, or Right - Move right (The Q to P row keys are used alternately for left/right movement.)
• Space or Up - Jump.
• ESC - stop current game.
• A, S, D, F, or G - Pause.
• H, J, K, or L - Pause/Resume Music.
• CTRL+W - Full Screen/Window mode.
• Enter cheat mode - see this page for more information.

Have fun...

It seems that some of the more articulate skills that were needed to play Manic Miner are not found a lot in kids these days. Today's games require different skills. This makes Manic Miner less appealing for kids of the 21st century (the retro graphics should also be considered for that).

This is a shame, since many parents, who played Manic Miner as kids, want to expose their kids to their gaming days, but it just doesn't work as expected. To partly solve this problem, I've added two Kids Mode (Regual and Easy) that are less compatible with the original game, but (according to my few tests) make the game more appealing for kids.

When you play in Regular Kids Mode:

• You can get closer to nasties and other creatures - you won't die the moment you touch them.
• Your jumps are a little longer.
• You can fall a bit more without being killed.
• You start with 2 more lives
• You have more air in the Solar Power Generator.

When you play in Easy Kids Mode, you get all the "benefits" of the Regular Kids Mode. In addition, the levels are a bit easier - a thorny bush removed there, a conveyer belt removed here, etc. Just try playing the Central Cavern in this mode and see the difference.

Note: Kids Mode is only available for the first 4 caverns. You'll have to register the game to be able to play in Kids Mode in all the caverns.

Final note: One might be offended that the easier modes are called Kids Mode, since kid usually beat us, adults, at any computer game. If that's the case, consider Kids Mode as the mode that lets you relive your childhood, when you had faster reflexes, and could beat Eugene with one hand tied behind your back.