Thanks guys!
The story goes something like this . . .
Matthew Smith wrote Manic Miner in just a few weeks - Bug Byte Software published it and intended to pay Matt some money . . . a few months later no money had arrived so Matt threatened Bug Byte that he was going to take MM away! They then paid him something (rumours are that is was around £32k) . . . but because it was late Matt pulled the plug with Bug Byte anyway and created a company with two (i think) other people called Software Projects. He then re-published MM under Software Projects name with a few graphic tweeks and nothing much else! Again I guess that a few months went by and the money went, then Jet Set Willy was born! and money flowed back into Software Projects (although Matt claims he never got a penny from JSW!!!!). Things started to go wrong at Software Projects and it was disbanded, Matt never left with a penny apparently and owed money to the taxman!!!!!!!!!!! This incidentally was going to be the third game . . . Jet Set Willy meets the Taxman. After hearing him talk about this time and meeting him face to face, the story is this, he had it all, he had nothing and was nothing, ten years later people were asking for him and wondering where he was and then twenty years later he is a legend!!! He signed both my orginal Manic Miner (bug byte version) and my Jet Set Willy spectrum tapes so I shook his hand and wished him well for the future!!!!
Phew!!! I hope that helps!
p.s. the code for manic miner cheat 6031769 which made a boot appear so that you could easily go to any level was part of his driving licence number!!! Came from the horses' mouth - so to speak!!!
Drew
