Jet Set Willy

Cult hero Matthew Smith followed up Manic Miner with a seminal platform game. Having struck it lucky in the first game, Willy now owns a lavish mansion with over 60 rooms linked together, and must tidy it all before his housekeeper will let him sleep.

Unlike in Manic Miner, here all the rooms can be freely traversed from the start. Each room has its own hazards, such as spikes, guardians (ranging from demonic heads to giant penknives), and ropes which can be climbed and grasped in mid-air. Touching a monster or a stationary hazard, or falling a great distance, causes instant loss of a life and places Willy back at the room entrance.

The route through the house must be navigated carefully, due to the multiple entrances to some rooms - this is perhaps the first action game where mapping is an advantage. Another innovation, to the chagrin of players everywhere, is manual protection - a sheet of colour-coded numbers.