New Miner Willy game releases after 28 years

After 28 years of neglect, Willy’s Great Adventure: ZX Spectrum has arrived on mobile devices, with the full support of Manic Miner creator Matthew Smith.

Willy’s Great Adventure: ZX Spectrum was created in 1985 by Terry Lloyd, apparently as an homage to Smith's Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy.

The game was never published, but in July last year Lloyd offered it to Elite Systems, which is currently working with Smith on an unrelated Miner Willy project.

"I can confirm it has never seen the light of day. Unless someone stole it off my computer and put it out there without me knowing," Lloyd said.

"I’ve been playing it through again myself to test it, and I have to say I think it’s one of the most complete and totally customized mods out there (in terms of all new rooms, tiles and sprites). Although there are some other good ones I’ve played, a lot of them keep the original graphics and just have new rooms, while some change the graphics but the rooms and map are very similar to the original.

"Whereas Willy's Great Adventure changed about 98% of the original stuff. Willy even has a new hat, an Indy style adventurer’s Fedora."

Willy’s Great Adventure: ZX Spectrum is available now on the App Store, Google Play and Kindle Marketplace for $2 or regional equivalent, and is also headed to Windows Phone and PC.