Bear Bovver

Personal Computer News

Bob Chappell

FRANTIC HAZARDS Bob Chappell rolls out his trusty Spectrum to test five new games cassettes. Bear Bovver £5.95, Artic, [redacted], mail order/retail. BEAR BOVVER Teddy bears were never like this in my day. Ted has taken early delivery of Sinclair's new electric car and all he needs now are batteries to keep it running. No problem - there they are at the top of some scaffolding. Up he climbs to retrieve a battery, quenching his thirst from time to time with a swig of milk. Trouble in the shape of skin-headed teddy bears in bovver boots arrives, strutting around the scaffolding doing their best to hamper Ted's efforts and aided by upright crocodiles. Ted obviously thinks the birch is too good for these hooligans. Instead, he drops time bombs to drastically alleviate the harassment. Good graphics, a catchy tune and unusual plot make this Teddy Boys' picnic from Artic an engaging game.

Your Spectrum

Brian Pedlar 8/10

Dilwyn Jones 9/10

Ieuan Davis 9/10

Your Spectrum is continuing to scour the country's computer clubs to get the undiluted thoughts, feelings and impressions of dedicated games enthusiasts - in order to provide our readers with unbiased evaluations. Any club wishing to offer its reviewing services should contact Ron Smith, Spectrum Soft, [redacted]. We sent this month's batch to the Bangor Computer Club of North Wales, where their expert reviewers got to work; their plaudits and barbs can be seen over the following pages. First, let's have a look at the club and what it offers its members. The Bangor Computer Club was formed 18 months ago by noted author, Dilwyn Jones. He wanted to meet the needs of local home computer users, and holds meetings in member's homes on a spur-of-the-moment basis. There are currently 25 to 30 members whose ages range from 13 to 30 and, although there's no longer a fixed membership fee, those attending are expected to splash out towards the cost of the evening. Its members have the chance to try out each other's software and exchange ideas. Members can always call upon their colleagues to help solve problems. Anyone in the area who's thinking of joining the club should contact Dilwyn on [redacted], outside office hours. THE LINE-UP This month's reviewers are Ieuan Davis (25), Gerralt Jones (22) and Brian Pedlar (31); all three are long-standing members of the club and avid games enthusiasts to boot. They represent the 'Old Gold' strata of Speccy users, so we won't be expecting starry-eyed reactions to our selection of new games. BEAR BOVVER Artic Computing £6.95 Ted the bear has to fetch batteries for his (Sinclair Research?) electric car - but is hindered by several 'teddy boys' who insist on making things difficult.

Read it at Your Spectrum Unofficial Archive

C&VG (Computer & Video Games)

Getting Started 7/10

Graphics 9/10

Playability 7/10

Value 8/10

ASSAULT AND BATTERY! If you play around with your computer today, you're in for a big surprise. For all the bears that ever there were are out for a teddy bear's video game! Bear Bovver is a cute little game, based on that arcade favourite Burger Time. But instead of burgers and nasty tomatoes, you get batteries and Bovver Bears! Ted is out to find more batteries for his electric car which is rapidly running out of power. He comes across a Burger Time-style grid of ladders and platforms and must climb them to get the batteries and knock them down to power his battery car. All the while the Bovver Bears - complete with braces and big boots - are out to get him! Ted is armed with some time bombs which will help him fight off the bad Bovver Bears, but they soon come back and race after our hero. The graphics on this game are simple but very effective - the walking action of Ted and the Bovver Bears, is a real joy to watch. The author has come up with a nice line in typography too - the titles and instructions are really attractive. Game action is addictive and fast moving - you'll have to have a quick keyboard finger to stay out in front of the mean old Bovver Bears. One gripe, however. The inlay instructions included with the tape are just not adequate. Simply giving the control keys isn't good enough. When you reach the end of a screen, Ted is supposed to drive off in his battery car, but I just couldn't work out how to stop him running into the rest of the batteries dropped down from the ladder maze! No instructions about that anywhere! A nice feature of the game is the baby bear mode which enables you to practice the game without getting bowered! A great game for the younger computer game fan, Bear Bower comes from Artic Computing and will set you back around £5.50.

Bear Bovver.

CrashCrash Smash

Use of Computer 93%

Graphics 96%

Playability 89%

Getting Started 82%

Addictive Qualities 86%

Value For Money 95%

Overall 90%

Unknown

Unknown

Unknown

Producer: Artic Memory Required: 48K Retail Price: £5.95 Language: Machine code Author: J. Ritman If you've seen those ads with a cheery bear hanging off a ladder with a T on his shirt, you may have wandered what it was all about. Well it turns out to be Artic's latest game, possibly their best yet. Ted is thrilled - he's just taken delivery of a new Sinclair electric vehicle. Unfortunately the batteries don't last very long. The car stops beside a building site, where there are three large shiny batteries for the taking. Unfortunately there are also three nasty Bovver Bears roving the ladders and platforms as well as a green dinosaur (scenarios get odder and odder, don't they)? The object of the game is to get Ted out of his car, up the scaffolding and knock the batteries down on at a time and into the car. A battery descends one platform when Ted walks through it, killing off a bovver bear if one should be underneath at the time. It's only a temporary setback however - they soon reappear. Once a battery is in the car, Ted can get in again and drive forward to collect the next battery. To help him on the scaffolding there are some time bombs which can leave behind to blow up a bovver bear (temporary again, sigh). Clearing the screen results in a different layout and four bears. On each screen drink appears in the form of milk, beer and other beverages - it's thirsty work. Oh - and of course, it's worth avoiding bears or dinosaur - they kill. COMMENTS Control keys: Q/A = up/down, O/P = left/right - but there are other options. Bottom row or 0 = time bomb Joystick: Sinclair 2, Kempston or Fuller Keyboard play: very responsive Colour: very good Graphics: fantastic! Sound: excellent Skill levels: 2 but progressive difficulty Lives: 4 Screens: several

Ted's battery car runs into some bovver.

Read it at Crash - The Online Edition

Personal Computer Games

Graphics 7/10

Sound 6/10

Ease Of Use 7/10

Originality 8/10

Lasting Interest 5/10

Overall 7/10

Steve Mann 7/10

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K JOYSTICK: Optional CATEGORY: Arcade SUPPLIER: Artic PRICE: £6.95 From Artic comes this novel game in which a bear driving a car(!) appears at the bottom right of the screen. The car slowly draws to a halt, and the player takes command of Ted the Bear, who must climb around on various levels of scaffolding in an attempt to retrieve the batteries he needs to make his electric car (a subject dear to Sir Clive's heart) run. To make his task harder, he must keep out of the way of the Bovver Bears, who are out to thwart him. His only weapon is his supply of time bombs, which may be set off in the paths of his attackers. The batteries are retrieved simply by manoevring Ted so that he walks across the level on which each is sited; this causes the battery to drop to a lower level, and eventually the car may be manipulated so that the batteries fall into the back of it. A nice feature in this game is the 'Baby Bear Mode', in which the player can get used to moving Ted around without having to deal with his attackers. Artic has given users the choice of Sinclair, Kempston and Fuller joysticks in addition to simple keyboard control. The graphics are very good and, for the first few games at least, Bear Bovver makes a refreshing change from the more usual type of arcade game. My only reservation is how long the interest will be sustained; I suspect that after a few games the novelty will begin to wear off. Still, this is definitely one of the more unusual Spectrum arcade-type games and certainly merits inspection.

Sinclair Programs

June Mortimer

SOFT FOCUS New this month. Softfocus will be a regular feature, providing short reviews of the newest software for the Sinclair Computers. This month the focus is on the way ahead for software. Late last year, programs produced for the Spectrum Christmas market pointed the way for software in 1984. Ant Attack by Quicksilva and Android 2 by Vortex both included stunning animated graphics routines, setting a new standard for other programmers. Artic Computing has now produced Bear Bovver for the 48K Spectrum, a shining example of animated graphics, which are used in an arcade-style game. Satan's Pendulum by Minatron Computing (48K) also includes animated sequences and, for keen programmers, gives a guide to how they were produced in the accompanying booklet. While such excellent original software is being produced, software houses which cling to versions of Space Invaders and Pac-man are looking more and more outdated. The Romik Galactic Trooper and 3D Monster Chase are competent and bug-free games but do not have sufficient new ideas to make them attractive in 1984. Realistic screen displays are becoming more and more common. Wheelie, from Microsphere for the 48K Spectrum, sends the player hurtling past obstacles and through caverns in search of the ghost rider. In the program, crash sequences are very graphic and tend towards the tasteless, while in Deathchase from Micromega - 16K Spectrum - the view from a motorcycle is shown in realistic detail but the death of another rider is not depicted at all. Problems as to how players should be made to suffer for the misdeeds of their on-screen persona, whether they should watch deaths in graphic detail or miss them completely, are resolved in the new Automata game for the 48K Spectrum, Pi-Eyed. The hero, the Pi-man, wanders from pub to pub, drinking beer and avoiding obstacles. Wandering into other buildings for safety results in the telling of very bad jokes, a fate far worse for the player than any graphics representation could be. With programs such as the Legend Valhalla (48K) and Melbourne House Hobbit (48K) on sale, other adventures fade into insignificance. The Island, produced by Virgin Games for the 48K Spectrum, is an enjoyable adventure, with added sound effects and short games contained in it. Demon Lord by Javlin Software is an enormous adventure, made up of four 48K adventures on two separate cassettes. Pictures are given, in painstaking detail, of each location, but the vocabulary is small, making it extremely difficult and very frustrating to play. Computer magazines receive a constant stream of letters enquiring about software other than games for computers. Mansfield Park and Nineteenth Century England, both by Sussex Software for the 48K Spectrum, act as secondary-school-level revision aids. Their subjects are those suggested by the titles and each subject is divided into different areas, for which questions and detailed answers are given on which the user can be tested. New ZX-81 games, so plentiful a year ago, are becoming rarer and rarer. Contrast Software has produced Fort Apache, a 16K strategy game, in which the player takes the part of a general with 300 men to command, laying siege to an Apache fort. It is a game involving thought and forward planning rather than fast reactions. Cyborg Wars, by Stratagem Cybernetics, is a more complex 16K strategy game involving up to four players in an imaginary galactic conflict between four nations of androids. The game relies more strongly on the instruction booklet than could be expected from a computer program but it is a carefully-thought-out and exciting game. Three games for the ZX-81 are included on the cassette accompanying the book ZX-81/TS-1000 Programming for Young Programmers, published by McGraw Hill. Bomb Run, written in machine code for the 1K ZX-81, is a version of the popular City Lander type of program in which the player must bomb buildings from an aircraft to avoid running into them. Mazer, also for the 1K ZX-81, is a simple maze game in which the aim is to avoid the ghost for as long as possible. More complicated is Golems, on the same cassette, for the 16K ZX-81, a strategy and fantasy adventure in which the aim is to outwit the Lord of the Black Tower. More detailed reviews of all these games, together with their respective Gilbert Factors, can be found in Sinclair User.

Sinclair User

Gilbert Factor 8/10

Memory: 48K Price: £6.95 Joystick: Kempston, Fuller The idea that teddy bears are cuddly has been dispelled in Bear Bovver for the 48K Spectrum. Your quest is for the batteries which will drive your car and the only way to get them is to climb the framework of ladders on the screen. There are three teddy bears just waiting to get you the moment you step out of your vehicle and a strange-looking creature with a long tail, which we have assumed to be father bear. Before leaving the safety of your car you should plan your strategy to avoid the hairy miscreants. The only way in which you can kill the bears is to drop a battery on them or plant a bomb which should explode to good effect. On the way up the scaffolding you can collect various bonus treats which include milk, cups of tea and Coca-Cola cans. All serve to illustrate the thought which has gone into the design of the game, which is a shining example of animated graphics. Once you have put all three batteries of one screen into your car you can move to the next screen, which is even more complex than the previous one. The game will continue in that way until all your four lives are lost. Bear Bovver has a brilliant new concept and without doubt will get into everybody's top ten games. It can be obtained from Artic Computing.

Read it at Sinclair User Magazine Online