In each of the twenty caverns, each one screen in size, are several flashing objects, which the player must collect before Willy's oxygen supply runs out.

The player must avoid enemies, listed in the cassette inlay as "...Poisonous Pansies, Spiders, Slime, and worst of all, Manic Mining Robots..." which move along predefined paths at constant speeds.

[19] The BBC Micro version does not have the Solar Power Generator, instead containing a completely different room called "The Meteor Shower".

Also, the last screen (which is still called "The Final Barrier") is complex and difficult (unlike the Spectrum version, which is considered to be fairly easy) and has a completely different layout.

The Dragon 32 version, programmed by Roy Coates, had two extra rooms (i.e. 22 altogether) and a cheat mode accessed by typing "P", "P", "ENGUIN".

[21] The Commodore 16 version was limited in a number of respects - this was mainly due to the initial lack of developer material for the C16 machine, and a two-week deadline to produce and test the game, then generate a master tape for the duplication house.

[31] In 1991, ACE magazine listed Manic Miner and its sequel Jet Set Willy, along with Hunchback, Impossible Mission, and the Mario series, as the greatest platform games of all time, calling Manic Miner "the first great home computer platform game".

Software Projects also released a game in the style of Manic Miner for the VIC-20 called The Perils of Willy.

[40][41] A homage to the Manic Miner loading screen appears in one episode of the 2005 British sitcom Nathan Barley.