MinerVGA

MinerVGA is one of the oldest games I ever played. The game was launched in 1989 making it same age like myself. A 2D game where you dig a mine under the town, measuring 39 boxes width 114 boxes depth, boxes of minerals or dangers appear at random basis. The game also sucks from the way it is made, very prompt. To leave game you need to press X on map and no yes/no confirmation is required. To leave a building you need also to press X. Be careful to not press X twice.

I played MinerVGA starting from 1998 for few years, losing every time (been digging all boxes, finding numerous dangers, and the money earned from minerals was not enough to cover costs of digging). In 2016 I suddenly remembered this game, saw some walkarounds on YouTube, played it again in correct way, and won the game for the first time by finding the wedding ring to marry Mimi.

Download the game from myabandonware.com and if you have Windows Vista, 7, or never, play with DOS Box.

How to play Miner VGA

Enter in game, you start with $1,500. Go to General Store (1st house from right) and press E when you stand next to door. There are 7 items you can buy:

A – $100 – The finest of shovels (lower cost of digging)
B – $150 – A perfect pick, sir. (lower cost of digging)
C – $250 – A durable drill, sir (used to drill granite)
D – $300 – A Coalman lantern. (help finding objects)
E – $200 – A bucket for water. (used to remove water)
F – $100 – Be careful with fire. (help finding objects, and is needed for dynamite)
G – $300 – Not a toy. Dynamite! (no real purpose)

Buy items A, B, D, F, then go in mine and start digging first row of boxes. Digging each box of earth cost $20 normally and $8 if you have shovel and pick. Lantern and torch help you to see if boxes next to you contain an unknown object, they appear with a gray square. Occasionally you can see the actual object. Go around them and dig the boxes having no object. After having ~10 boxes with unknown object, go to elevator, leave mine and press S to save game.

Enter again in game, go back in mine and start digging the ~10 boxes with unknown object. If after few boxes you did not find platinum, or if you found a danger (spring, caving, etc), press T again to go to top line of mine, use elevator to go out of mine, press R to restore game and try again.

You can also dig boxes with unknown object one by one and restore game if you do not found platinum, but may be boring, as chances to find platinum are about 1%.

Note: going in mine by pressing down arrow in the elevator would cost you $30. Do not do this. Just press T in any part of map and you will teleport on top row of mine. Due to T glitch is important to have top row of mine clean of any bad objects, so when you need to leave mine you can do this quickly by pressing T and hold down right arrow. If you find a bad object on top row of boxes, leave mine, restore game and try again.

Good objects:
“You found streaks of Silver!!” (found 1-6 units of Silver)
“You found nuggets of Gold!!” (found 1-6 units of Gold)
“You found traces of Platinum!!” (found 1-6 units of Platinum)
“Sandstone Easy Digging.” (lower cost of digging)
“Volcanic Tough Digging.” (higher cost of digging)
You can also find a cloverleaf, water pump and diamonds (very rare)

Bad objects:
“Granite is too hard to dig!” (an impassible granite remains on map)
“You don’t have gills” (an impassible puddle of water remains on map)
“The mine is caving in on you!” (an impassible pile of boulders remains on map and a 3×3 or 5×5 boxes of mine fill up with dirt), occasionally you may get also “Los some Silver! / Gold! / Platinum! (losing half of the units you had from one mineral)
You have found a Spring! (an impassible spring remains on map and a part of mine fill up with water), occasionally you may get also “You lost a possession” (lost one of objects)

Note:
Caving mine produce new boxes of earth around you which may contains other caving mine, water, spring, granite, which may block your way out. Spring also fill your mine with water and may block your way out. Using the bucket or the drill would cost you $150. Just use the T glitch to teleport on top row of mine.

Bank:
After you find platinum or other minerals, go to bank, check the rates and assay the minerals one by one. You can leave bank and enter again until you find good rates. The rates are randomized between following values: Platinum $225-279, Gold $45-63, Silver $9.2-19.8. Diamonds are assayed for a fixed sum of $1,000.

Hospital:
Caving mine, springs and water also damage your health. You need to go regularly to hospital (4th building) to heal you up.

Saloon:
There is one more building, the saloon (2nd building from right), which opens only when you have $5,000 or more. What you can do:

press A for an audience with Mimi.
press B to have a brew a the bar.
press S for a night to remember.
press M for a square meal.
press C to purchase a condom.

The goal of game is to marry Mimi. Meal, brew and sex night are useless. Mimi likes rich men so you need to have at least $30,000 and the wedding ring to get married. Once you have these, press A and the game ends with a nice music.