Miner 2049er - Miner Alternative Sprite Edition

[Level42]

Excellent job!

 

Something you may or may not know. Miner 2049er was released on almost every platform BITD except for the Intellivision, until this year,

 

Elektronite will be releasing Miner 2049er CIB shrink wrapped for the Intellivison very soon. All 10 original 8-bit levels, the extra Colecovision level, plus 11 new levels created by the original level designer, Curtis. These 11 new levels will be unique to the Intellivision.

 

You can read about it in this thread

Normally I wouldn’t pay 50/60 bucks or euros for a game, but I definitly would for an Atari 800 version with the extra Coleco and new Intellivision levels done by the original level designer.

[_The Doctor__]

 

Why not ?

Bounty is a perfectly fine name for a miner

Because you have taken The Mounty 'Bounty Bob' and replaced him with a miner.... that looks like a the evil trapper he is suppose to capture... but somehow the yellow swedish beard is now blue....

 

Mountie in a miner hat... maybe.... just play up the mounty flair and garb a bit...

Edited September 16, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[+Cafeman]

What kind of alt history is going on here? Bob is on the cover of his games and bearded he be. Check this link for a picture of Yukon.

 

http://www.bigfivesoftware.com/atari/BBSB/History/history.htm

[TIX]

I agree !

I don't know if he is a miner or a Mountie in disguise,

I always though that the bearded fatty on the cover is the good guy Bob !

[_The Doctor__]

I agree !

I don't know if he is a miner or a Mountie in disguise,

I always though that the bearded fatty on the cover is the good guy Bob !

red shirt under tan orange red flannel, red-brown white beard, blue metal cap with light and suspenders.. that be a mounty in disguise, like I said who says a mounty can't were a miner's cap

Edited September 16, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[doctorclu]

red shirt under tan orange red flannel, red-brown white beard, blue metal cap with light and suspenders.. that be a mounty in disguise, like I said who says a mounty can't were a miner's cap

 

True. In the backstory (in one of the manuals) Bounty Bob was tracking Yukon Yohan into some old Uranium mines where there was a cave in. Figured Bob picked up some miner equipment (and attire) throughout the mines. And was there so long he grew the beard... or had the beard as a mountie already.

 

I agree !

I don't know if he is a miner or a Mountie in disguise,

I always though that the bearded fatty on the cover is the good guy Bob !

 

Well a mountie in miner clothes at least.

 

And the bearded fatty was the hero as you see on the Scraper Caper advertisements.

[jc13]

Will there be an XEX version for the 8-bit?

 

 

I think I did this right -it works in Altirra... I used the Rom2Exe from here.

 

Edit: It works when I launch it from Side2 in Altirra with U1MB.

 

When I try to boot the image directly, it crashes the emulator - unless I'm doing that wrong. Haven't ever tried to run a XEX directly within Altirra.

Miner 2049er AS08.xex

Edited September 16, 2018 by jc13

[Level42]

True. In the backstory (in one of the manuals) Bounty Bob was tracking Yukon Yohan into some old Uranium mines where there was a cave in. Figured Bob picked up some miner equipment (and attire) throughout the mines. And was there so long he grew the beard... or had the beard as a mountie already.

 

 

 

Well a mountie in miner clothes at least.

 

And the bearded fatty was the hero as you see on the Scraper Caper advertisements.

I put a link to the original Atari 400/800 etc. manual in my post but apparently its too hard to click it or read what is written in that manual.

 

That manual constrains the original story. Id say the story clearly explains whos who.

I blaim the artist who did the artwork for the screw up. Then, people saw the picture and thought that that was Bouny Bob. So for any next games commercially it was smarter to let it that way.

Most people look at pictures quicker than reading stuff....and this is one of those things that havent changed over time....in fact, I think it only has increased over the last decades.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Level42

[doctorclu]

I put a link to the original Atari 400/800 etc. manual in my post but apparently its too hard to click it or read what is written in that manual.

 

That manual constrains the original story. Id say the story clearly explains whos who.

I blaim the artist who did the artwork for the screw up. Then, people saw the picture and thought that that was Bouny Bob. So for any next games commercially it was smarter to let it that way.

Most people look at pictures quicker than reading stuff....and this is one of those things that havent changed over time....in fact, I think it only has increased over the last decades.

 

Well the artist was probably commissioned for a game called Miner 2049er and logically drew a miner.

[Level42]

LOL yes I bet it went that way

 

And to be honest....it's great artwork ! And I can somehow imagine that a miner as drawn like in this case offers more creative freedom than this:

 

I still think that this is about what the original player's character looks like and what Bill Hogue had in mind according to the story.

 

The answer to our "quest" is actually already answered by the artist himself in a little interview I just found:

 

 

 

https://archive.kontek.net/miner2049er.classicgaming.gamespy.com/scottross.html

 

Please click on that link there to read it

The last two questions perfectly confirm what we thought had happened

Bottom line is you had fun designing this updated character and other people enjoy it. That's all that really counts. Some other later versions (Gameboy, Windows) also went the Miner- look way....

It's fun, but I still prefer original. That's why I do love projects like arcade DKjr where people try to get closer to the original arcade looks of converted games. But Miner was new, original, no conversion.

And if there is one feature I loved about the original Bounty Bob it was his arms movement which still makes me laugh....

Edited September 17, 2018 by Level42

[doctorclu]

OMG.....someone killed Good ol Bounty Bob and put an imposter in his place!

 

The really sad bit is that you got it wrong...

 

Bounty is NOT a Miner, he is a Mounty, a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (hence the large hat, essential,for the games collision detection).

 

The Miner pictured on the box is the villain Yukon Yohan !!

 

http://www.atarimania.com/8bit/files/Miner_2049er.pdf

 

So this is like putting a Donkey Kong sprite as Jumpman/Mario on the DK game...

 

[Edit note: This response was written while the other response was being written apparently.]

 

Went back and read your original message after the "link that was too hard to click" statement. I hear your outrage over the confusion over the debate of the ages with Bounty Bob and is he a Mountie or is he a Miner. (And is he "Bounty Bob" or "Peyote Pete" as I remember one copy I had of Miner 2049er back in the day... but that is another conversation.)

 

I think we said before there was a mix up with the cover artist. The game is "Miner 2049er", but he is a Mountie, so the "Bounty" part. Hey it's the eighties, things were being made in a hurry, concepts being changed while in development, yadda yadda.

 

Clearly in the 80's Bob has the off colored Mountie look in a lot of the revisions. It might please you know that I, being a more a personal fan of the Mountie part of Bob's story, plan on giving Bob more a true color mountie look at some point.

 

 

But I can respect TIX's version because Bob in more recent versions of Miner 2049er (again thanks to that cover artist in the 80's painting more a miner look) has had this look:

 

Gameboy:

 

And this catchy remake with I believe was for the Android:

 

So my overall theory of how it all relates: He's a mountie on the trail of Yukon Yohan the fur trapper. He follows Yukon into the uranium mines, the entrance thanks to the explosion is made impassable leading Bob to explore the mines for another exit. At some point he finds miner clothes of Nuclear Ned who originally owned the mines and gains the miner look.

 

Being a fan of the Bounty Bob character I think both the mountie and miner look have a place.

 

 

The answer to our "quest" is actually already answered by the artist himself in a little interview I just found:

 

 

https://archive.kontek.net/miner2049er.classicgaming.gamespy.com/scottross.html

 

 

Please click on that link there to read it

 

The last two questions perfectly confirm what we thought had happened

 

 

Editing this into my original message to say... nice find! Thanks for sharing that.

Edited September 17, 2018 by doctorclu

[Level42]

post-4709-0-55299100-1537173864.png

 

Me like !

[Level42]

Something else:

Scott Ross made/makes great artwork IMHO....love his style. I am positive that this artwork sold a LOT of extra games ....at least I remember seeing the ads in magazines and they stood out of a lot of other ads.

 

Have a browse through his website: http://www.scottross.com/178.html

 

If you click that link you will start in the "oldies" section and see a very very familiar donkey......then again....his style is clear enough thoughout all the other artwork, look at some of the pirates who clearly are cousins of the Miner pictures on Miner2049er artwork.


By the way. For me, Miner, and especially Bounty Bob Strikes Back is still one of my top 5 games on any platform ever.

Edited September 17, 2018 by Level42

[doctorclu]

post-4709-0-55299100-1537173864.png

 

Me like !

 

If I have one vote for this graphical hack I'll make it happen.

 

Yeh one of my top favorite platformers too. I finding the Atari 2600 version I thought it was pretty cool, but Bob had no helmet, so I gave him more the Atari 800 look. And later made "Fire Fighter" a hack to be something of "Scraper Caper". In all this hacking I've not only come to remember how Bob was my favorite mascot/platformer before Bubsy, Sonic, and Mario, but how others like him and continue to like him as well.

[_The Doctor__]

How about a sprite change during game?

 

when bounty bob first enter the mines he is the best mounty bob sprite ever and then later on as he got deeper in, add a text during level flash, Bounty Bob found miners gear, very helpful! or some such blurb... then switch to miner sprite!

 

that would be awesome and make history! The continuity of the whole franchise would be fixed!

 

please consider this my vote of go ahead for both!

Edited September 17, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[doctorclu]

I like the idea, would just have to make a game where you had two sprite sets. Not quite that level just yet.

 

But I can make the Mountie version soon.

[TIX]

truce ?

Edited September 17, 2018 by TIX

[_The Doctor__]

love them both, and side by side you can see it's Mounty Bounty BOB!

[Rybags]

Without being anal, a slight problem with the storyline of this game...

 

They refer to "Yukon Yohan" (which should be spelt Johan but that's not the point).

Miner 2049'er is obviously based on the Californian gold rush of that period. But the Yukon/Klondike didn't have a gold rush, or probably any knowledge of gold being there at all until the mid 1890s. So the reference would have been meaningless at the time.

[_The Doctor__]

while it's true the rush is the popular story folks love to talk about and all movies and books etc. Gold was mined quite nicely there for some time before 'the rush' and in fact it was the mistake of a couple fellows to show their two bags of gold off at port in 1896 that led to all the craziness and the rush that followed.

[carlsson]

Hey, I thought the character in Miner 2049er looks like this?

 

[_The Doctor__]

I sure hope not, reminds me of a child like tweedle- just add the spinner on top. Wait! or maybe that's Bob the builder!

Definitely not either one of the main characters is this game.

Edited October 29, 2018 by _The Doctor__