Talk:Miner 2049er

Defense Command-Missile Command flaw

Defense Command was definitely not based on Missile Command, they are not even remotely similar.

Lode Runner? Jumpman? 68.117.11.106 (talk) 18:55, 21 January 2013 (UTC)

-er

What does the -er suffix mean? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.119.92.43 (talk) 17:47, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

It's a pun on the classic song Clementine: "In a cavern, in a canyon, lived a miner, forty-niner..." JIP | Talk 19:56, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

Of course, the original phrase "forty-niner" comes from the California Gold Rush of 1849. This game takes place in 2049, 200 years later. ✰^oaoɪɪ/talk 05:14, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Mobile version?

The article has a picture of a mobile version. What platform? I looked in the Android Market, but couldn't find it.108.23.147.17 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 07:04, 5 December 2011 (UTC).

Re-write

Did a big re-write of the article. I know some material is missing a bit (publishers of the many versions of the game in the infobox etc.), but I've tried to just expand more pertinent details now. I'm a bit too young to remember when this game was all the rage, but I tried to do some justice for what appears to have been a really big deal at one point. Thoughts? Andrzejbanas (talk) 07:41, 15 June 2023 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Miner 2049er/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Nominator: Andrzejbanas (talk · contribs) 16:14, 5 August 2024 (UTC)

Reviewer: Pokelego999 (talk · contribs) 21:59, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Will take this on in the coming days. Magneton Considerer: Pokelego999 (Talk) (Contribs) 21:59, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Six GA Criteria

1. Article is well-written. Very minimal mistakes if any at all.

2. No OR, all info is cited in the article.

3. Coverage is broad in depth and focus. Shows multiple aspects of the game.

4. Article appears neutral, and does not appear to hold a significantly negative nor positive stance on the subject.

5. Article appears stable. Does not appear to have had any major vandalism occur.

6. Article uses one fair use image and one fair use GIF with proper rationale.

Lead

-Looks good

Gameplay

-Looks good

Development

-Looks good

Release

-Looks good

Reception

-"noting the animated moving feet on Bob and how his facial expression changes as jumps." I assume it's meant to be "as he jumps"?

Correct. Changed. Andrzejbanas (talk) 05:20, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

-Hyperlink Big Top

Done. Andrzejbanas (talk) 06:37, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

Legacy

-Looks good

Overall

@Andrzejbanas:

-One last question: Is the Mountie hyperliked in the lead meant to the Canadian police officer? It doesn't seem to quite align with the game's interpretation of the main character as a prospector.

• • Yes. Despite his look on the cover, the manual describes him as a mountie, which is indeed short for an RCMP officer. There was very little to discuss this, but this is why I included the bits about how the "Miner" theme was included in the game in the development section and the info about him being the artist who drew the cover who never saw the game. This probably explains why the sprite in the game has the character in a wide-brimmed had opposed to any sort of mining helmet or beard. Andrzejbanas (talk) 05:20, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

-Overall the article is fantastic, and easily among the best written and interesting articles I've reviewed. Excellent job. I'll begin the spotcheck once the above minor issues are addressed, but due to the sheer volume of print sources, I will likely need to have you verify some contents with direct quotations for me if that's alright. Magneton Considerer: Pokelego999 (Talk) (Contribs) 03:24, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! Those are very kind words. I've made the few changes you requested. The changes few changes you made seemed like the right choice. Up to you @Pokelego999:. Andrzejbanas (talk) 05:20, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

@Andrzejbanas Reviewing 23 sources randomly: 49, 75, 39, 61, 42, 16, 27, 53, 38, 80, 84, 22, 90, 26, 31, 1, 10, 8, 63, 79, 81, 58, 21.

I'm fairly certain all of these are in offline sources, so could you clarify these when you have the time? Obviously holidays and all, so feel free to take your time with this. Magneton Considerer: Pokelego999 (Talk) (Contribs) 03:43, 22 December 2024 (UTC)

Oof. Might as well tackle these now or I don't know when I'll get time to.

• 49 quote: "Bill's input. "I honestly don't have any memory of the Game Boy Miner 2049er," Bill admits. "The developers weren’t integrating with me on a daily basis; there was more of a ‘We’ve done it, here it is,’ approach. I definitely did get a copy, but there was no way I could play it as I didn’t have a Game Boy.""
• 75 quote: "Miner 2049er Micro Fun/Apple II/48K disk...No previous Apple II game can match the fludity of Miner's control scheme." (p65) and "A hearty welcome to Miner 2049er, new king of the computer climbing games." (p66)
• 39 quote: "Availability Update: [...] Atari 2600 May x-Dolphin (ACTV) x-Enduro (ACTV) x-Flash Gordon (FOX) x-Keystone Kapers (ACTV) x-Miner 2049er (TGV)" The x indicates that the items has been confiremd released already during this period.
• 61 quote: "The graphics in the game of Miner are detailed and very colorful. To guard against repetition, the color of the framework changes from station to station as well as from game to game. One of the most dazzling visual effects I have seen on the Atari is the animation of Bounty Bob dematerializing as he teleports from platform to platform using the elevators. Miner does not push the Atari to its full graphics potential, but it more than makes up for that in its limitless playability."
• 42 quote: "Microlab has just shipped MINER 2049ER, a best seller, for the IBM PC"
• 16 quote: "Scattered throughout the mine are various articles that have been lost by previous miners. Capture them by touching them and you will be awarded points. Additonally, the mutants will turn into green happy creatures that are now edible. Quickly run into them before they return to their deadly forms and you will eliminate them and score points." and "At the top centre of your display is the "Miner Timer". This timer indicates how much time you have remaining to finish the station. [...] If you finish the station before it reaches zero you then receive the number of points that it shows."
• 27 quote: This source is viewable online at Archive.org here.
• 53 quote: This source is viewable online at Archive.org here
• 38 quote: "Miner 2049er hit the Apple game neighborhood, direct from a successful Atari engagement, at the end of December last year. It sold like crazy, debuting in Softalk's hit parade at number eight, hot on the tail of the highly touted, well-publicizied Ultimata II." and "The concept of Miner is original, even if the concepts of its components aren't. There's a touch of Pac-Man; there are hints of Donkey Kong; even some Apple Panic manages to dig in. An imitation of any one of these games might have gone unnoticed into the summer surplus blowout sales. Miner is no imitation; it's a conglomeration." and "Unlike many arcade games, Miner doesn't require you to get faster as the pace picks up in order to attain the next level It requires you to develop the different skills needed to survive. The game is tough, but novice players have as much chance at racking up the points as do experienced players, if not more. The keys to enjoying Miner are patience and finesse. Brute force won't do, and dexterous agility isn't enough.
• 80 quote: "Matthew Smith, a Liverpool-based teenager, was inspired by the Atari 8-bit computer game Miner 20r9er (1982) to write his own platformer for the ZX Spectrum."
• 84 quote: "Well, obviously I'm in no position to complain, what with me ripping off Hunchback and taking ideas from other games like Miner 2049er and Donkey Kong. It was almost a shared culture.""
• 22 quote: "During the late-Seventies and early-Eighties, clones of popular arcade games were rampant and they quickly began to spread to home computers like a cancerous growth. Krazy Kong was a surprisingly good ZX81 clone of Nintendo's Donkey Kong and was also the name of an unofficial bootleg of the very same arcade game, Snapper, Munchman, HanglyMan and Munchkin were direct rip-offs of Namco's Pac-Man, while Super Invaders, Cosmic Monsters, Space Attack and Space King were spin-offs of Taito's Space Invaders. In the early days of videogaming, many of these clones were left to leech off the arcade originals, growing increasingly fat off the efforts of the original creators. "
• 90 quote: The quote is already provided in the article.
• 26 quote: "With the advent of the Atari came anew style of game for Big Five, something it had never done before." and "The technical abilities of the Atari computers were much lauded at the time and Bill really wanted to ‘take advantage of this, especially after coming from the TRS-80. “I wanted to pack as much colour as possible into this screen. In fact, I wanted more colour than was actually possible on he Atari. If you look close you'll see at least 15 different colours on the screen at any one time, there were several ticks I used to achieve this. I guess I was a little obsessed with colour when Miner was programmed.
• 31 quote: "Like many games at the time, Miner 2049er was put together quickly. "І believe we had the gameplay sorted first, and then worked later to figure out what it was we had invented", laughs Bill. "We decided that perhaps our hero was stuck in a mine and - for reasons I cannot remember — he was a member of the Mounties in Canada. Actually, I wonder if that had something to do with a bar at the Disneyland Hotel that Jeff and I used to frequent - it had a definite Canadian wilderness feel to it..."" and "Bill reckons it was "more to do with Pac-Man than anything else", although he adds, "I was never very good at Pac-Man, so I'm not sure why І borrowed any elements from the game."" and "Bill notes that there are ideas in the game somewhat based on Donkey Kong - "especially the climbing aspect"" and "The most instantly recognisable as a version of Hogue's original game is Mindscape's Game Boy conversion, released in the early-Nineties. Bill notes, sadly, that this version "was a really poor sales performer", perhaps due to the original's impact waning significantly by the Nineties."
• 1 quote: Apologies, as this one cite is used a lot. "Miner 2049er ended up being licensed out to several companies for release on other platforms including Tiger Electronics, Micro Fun and US Gold in Europe and ended up being released for an incredible 22 different systems including a LCD handheld game" and "All of my prior games were written for the Radio Shack TRS-80 model I, which had fairly limited monochrome graphics, so this is understandable.”" and "[Miner 2049er] was inspired by the California Gold Rush of 1849, in which the miners were nicknames 49ers." and "Originally released for the Atari 8-bit computers in 1982 it was ported to no less than 22 different systems!" and "Bill was really pleased with how this turned out. “Just about every computer imaginable had a port. Barry Friedman of ICG did a terrific job licensing all those different versions.”" and "This was by far Big Five's biggest hit and "But Bill was quite reluctant at first to just do more of the same and was trying to come up with other ideas “The licensees of Miner were crying out for another game, so I worked with Curtis Mikolyski while we attempted to create an even better game than Miner 2049er. [The] problem was it was going to be pretty hard trying to top ourselves. So we came up with a vertically-scrolling game we called Scraper Caper. We did a fair amount of work on it. It had Bounty Bob leaving the mine and moving to the big city as a fireman. He'd also lost a little weight!"
• 10 quote: "THE TRANSPORTERS (Stations 3 & 7) These unique devices allow you to “beam up” to whatever level of framework you choose. First you must enter one of the transporter doors and stop moving. Make sure that you are all the way in or they will not function. Now use the keyboard and press 1,2, 3, or 4 to begin transporting" and "THE LIFT (Station 8) This device is essential to completion of the station. To activate the lift you must first jump onto it. Now press the spacebar on the keyboard. As the whir of the engines start up you are now under lift control." and "THE CANNON (Station 10) in this station the only way to get to the topis by blasting yourself out of a cannon."
• 8 quote: "You can almost hear Bounty Bob say “Beam me up!” as the futuristic transporters start to function." and "Jump onto the lift to “hoist” Bounty Bob to anywhere in the station you want!" and "Go into the TNT hut and load the cannon with as much TNT as you need to shoot yourself to any level of the station you want!"
• 63 quote: "Jumping has become a part of some of the latest games out - Donkey Kong, Pharaoh's Curse, Shame Case II, and Jumpman, but Miner 2049er ranks as the best. Miner is the cleverest, most imaginative game out. The animation is superb as it uses high resolution graphics and even the colours of the frameworks of the mine change. Atari's Mario the Carpenter in Donkey Kong does not match Bounty Bob in quality." (Note: Good catch, this cite should have been covering both pages, not just one, so I've adjusted that in the article.)
• 79 quote: "Many of the names that made it 'big' are now forgotten: particularly early hits like Miner 2049er, developed by Big Five Software, which popularized platforming games on the Sinclair machines before the release of Super Mario Bros. soon afterwards made it look like a fossil." (My personal note: ahh so true.)
• 81 quote: "Manic Miner was based on Miner 2049er, a platform game starring a Canadina Mountie, Bounty Bob [...] Several elements of Miner 2049er appears in Manic Miner - the underground setting and the oxygen level as a timer, for example - but in creating Miner Willy, Smith injected a particularly British spin into the game, with a surreal humour to the level and character design and a Pythoneseque boot that descents to squash Willy when the game is over."
• 58 quote: "Computer Section/Commodore 64 [...] Miner 2049er [...] "Overall Rating: 8""
• 21 quote: "Timeline 1980: Big Five Software is officially formed in Van Nuys, California by Bill Hogue and Jeff Konyu." and "In the early Eighties, there were no distribution networks or chains of stores for videogames, they were still a very new thing, so Bill turned to the new computer magazines that were popping up all over the place. “I started by placing ads in a few magazines. Initially they were just small ads but later as sales got better we were able to afford full-page ads. The later ones were even in full colour! Most of our orders back then would come in the mail by people sending us cheques. We even took credit cards over the phone later as we got bigger."

I hope this is what you wanted. Andrzejbanas (talk) 00:14, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

@Andrzejbanas:

-61 does not align with the quoted content.

-I believe 80 and 79 are messed up, as 79 is not verifying the statement it is cited to, but 80 is.

-The aspect of piracy that 26 and 27 are cited to do not clarify piracy in either article.

-Citation 21's quote does not verify the TRS computer quote statements

Would appreciate clarity on these just to make sure I'm not missing anything. Magneton Considerer: Pokelego999 (Talk) (Contribs) 01:51, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

Sorry I can address these @Pokelego999:.

• 61: "Whereas Donkey Kong has only four screens Miner has stupeying ten separte boards, each with a different scenario."
• 79 is saying the game "popularized platforming games on the Sinclair machines", which is backs the statement of "Stanton said Miner 2049er contributed to the popularity of platform games on computers like the ZX Spectrum". The 80 quote does go into Manic Miner and is corraborated by the other cites next to it to clarify some details.
• Sorry missed this bit. From cite 26 On page 72 of the magazine "I also liked the fact that the Atari had cartridge slots so we could release products that couldn't easily be copied."
• Again I missed a key detail. For 21, I guess I missed the detail about the computers they initially made games for. "Seeing that the TRS-80 market was declining due to the more advanced machines com onto to the market, Bill and Jeff decided that they should move onto a new platform and they were particularly attracted to the Atari 400 and 800 computers." Andrzejbanas (talk) 04:44, 23 December 2024 (UTC)

@Andrzejbanas looks good. Happy to pass! Magneton Considerer: Pokelego999 (Talk) (Contribs) 04:47, 23 December 2024 (UTC)