1983
Bug-Byte
Manic Miner
Guide Miner Willy through twenty deadly caverns, collect every flashing item and reach the exit before the air runs out. The game that defined the British platformer.
- Year
- 1983
- Genre
- Platformer
- Original
- ZX Spectrum
02 — A little history
The Retro Games Story
From a physicist's oscilloscope to the last days of the 8-bit home computer — four decades that invented video games as we know them.
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1958–62The pioneers
Physicist William Higinbotham wires up Tennis for Two on an oscilloscope, and MIT students create Spacewar! on a PDP-1 mainframe. Video games are born in the laboratory, years before anyone imagines selling them.
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1971–72Games go commercial
Nolan Bushnell's Atari puts Pong into bars and arcades, and the Magnavox Odyssey — built on Ralph Baer's "Brown Box" — becomes the first home console. For the first time, you can pay to play.
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1977The cartridge revolution
The Atari 2600 brings interchangeable game cartridges into the living room. One machine, endless games — the model that still defines consoles today.
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1978–82The arcade golden age
Space Invaders, Pac-Man and Donkey Kong turn arcades into a cultural phenomenon that out-earns Hollywood. Taito, Namco and Nintendo become legends; a coin shortage hits Japan.
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1982The home computer boom
Sir Clive Sinclair's ZX Spectrum (from £125) and the Commodore 64 bring programmable machines to millions of homes. In Britain, a generation of bedroom coders starts writing games at the kitchen table.
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1983–86Crash and cassette gold
The North American console market collapses under a flood of poor games. Meanwhile Europe's cassette scene thrives: Matthew Smith's Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy define the British platformer on the Spectrum.
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1985–89Consoles strike back
Nintendo's NES and Super Mario Bros. revive the console industry, while the 16-bit Amiga, Atari ST and Sega Mega Drive raise the bar for graphics and sound. The 8-bit machines begin to bow out.
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The 1990sEnd of an era
The SNES, Doom on the PC and finally the PlayStation close the chapter on the 8-bit age. But its games never die — emulators and remakes keep the classics one click away, which is exactly why this site exists.