Miner Willy

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Miner Willy wears a top-hat in Jet Set Willy

Miner Willy is the protagonist of a series of platform games for the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64 home computers. The first two games of the Miner Willy series (Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy) were written by computer game programmer Matthew Smith, during the early 1980s.

The series started in 1983 with the release of Manic Miner, and was followed up a year later with Jet Set Willy (one of the best selling video games of all time) and Jet Set Willy II. Another game in the series, The Perils of Willy, was released solely for the Commodore VIC-20. In addition quite a few unofficial sequels, remakes, homages and updates have been released, even up to this day.

The games in the Miner Willy series were among the most popular games ever created, and are often credited with bringing platform games to the forefront of video gaming.