Producer: Firebird
Retail Price: £9.95
Author: Torus

Hive puts you at the helm of an electro-mechanical 'Grasshopper' ship on Gamma V, a planet populated by insectoid races. The mission is hazardous: penetrate the hive of your enemies, the dreaded bees who threaten the very existence of your race, and kill their queen.

The bees are ready and waiting for invaders - the static defences of their hive are supplemented by guards and the labyrinthine nature of the hive itself makes penetrating it a tricky task. The hive consists of eight levels of twisting tunnels and includes locked sections that can only be entered if you hold a key.

The ship starts equipped with one laser, two pylons and three position markers (used for mapping the tunnels). To add to these there are useful items along the route which can be picked up and used. The most important of these are pylons which recharge the ship's energy banks. Carrying two pylons increases the Grasshopper's energy level, while carrying one serves to keep the power constant. Without the aid of pylons, the energy reduces slowly to a fatal zero. Other collectible objects include keys, shields, treasure and a telescopic arm.

The screen shows the view from front of the Grasshopper ship as it moves down the long, twisting passages. It can accelerate, brake, jump over obstacles in the floor and crouch under spikes hanging down from the roof. Complete rotation can also be executed, so you can explore the tunnels on all sides. The ship is not damaged by scraping along the hive walls.

The game can be saved at any time by pausing and recording a 16 character code which appears on screen. The Grasshopper ship re-starts at the appropriate place when this code is re-entered.

A control panel at the bottom of the screen shows which objects the ship is carrying. It also displays the life level, score, high score and contains two panels; one of these lights up as the ship passes a junction - the other flashes if the ship is being attacked from behind.

The hive contains a series of locked gates, which cannot be passed through without use of the appropriate key. The stronghold is inhabited by a series of insectoid creatures that have varied attack capabilities according to the level they live in. The locals can be eliminated with laser fire, but first you have to locate a laser... One guard, the jailer, is virtually indestructible - the Grasshopper's only defence against him is the Jail Card, which can also be picked up along the way.

Once the eight-levels have been negotiated, the mission ends when you lob a smart bomb at the queen.

COMMENTS

Control keys: N left, M right, S Up, X down, A fire, Q pick up, W drop, J Jump, K crouch, SPACE accelerate, V decelerate, Z rear view, L toggle controls, 1 Freeze
Joystick: Kempston
Use of colour: minimal
Graphics: functional and fast
Sound: none
Skill levels: one
Screens: large 3D play area

Despite lack of scenario and weird gameplay I really like the Hive. Perhaps it is the sense of not knowing what's going on that makes this so compelling. I can see myself getting bored with it in the distant future, but I'm sure that it'll keep me going for a month or so. Graphically this is pretty un-inspiring - loads and loads of blue circles with the odd something else cropping up every thirty seconds (a bit like Elite). As with most vector games, simple graphics create the best effects and these graphics are basic. The sound is poor - there are hardly any effects and no tunes. Torus seem to have done it again - I'm sure that Hive will become the cult game of 1987.
BEN

This is too much. I feel that Hive contains too many keys for the average player, which is a pity as I feel that it is very good apart from this. Graphically it's perfect: the wire frame graphics suit the maze feeling well, and movement is very good with the speed controls giving an excellent feeling of inertia. Hive is good fun at first but I got a bit bored travelling around the maze, and feel that the game doesn't contain anything very compelling or addictive. I'm sure that Hive will appeal to some people, but I couldn't get far enough into it to enjoy it. Worth a peep.
PAUL

Loads of little circles dashing about the screen - not the greatest idea for a graphical stunner, or at least that's what I thought at first sight! Ha! I was completely and utterly WRONG! They really do create an excellent effect as you feel yourself hurtling down step inclines, or straining up the hills. Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy the game itself quite so much. When the novelty of the tunnel effects eventually wore off, I began to get a little bored. I really don't think Hive has got as much to it as it could have - despite the neat effects, there's a not enough game content.
MIKE

WHERE DOES AN ELECTRONIC GRASSHOPPER GO TO GET A BUZZ? MARCUS BERKMANN STINGS LIKE A BUTTERFLY, FLOATS LIKE A BEE...

FAX BOX
Game: The Hive
Publisher: Firebird
Price: £9.95
Joystick: Kempston, Sinclair
Keys: Left N; Right M; Up S; Down X; Fire A; Pick up Q; Drop W; Jump J or G; Crouch K or H; Accelerate SPACE; Decelerate V; Look behind you Z; and there's more!

In The Hive, Firebird has come up with as fast and true an arcade zaparama as you're likely to find in a week of lunch-times. And it has two distinguishing features, neither to be sneezed at (unless you've still got that winter cold - glub?) - 1. It's different, and 2. It's brilliant.

Of course The Hive couldn't help but be different in certain respects. After all, it's not every game that places you in the role of an electronic grasshopper. And it can only be the very unluckiest of grasshoppers who finds his way into a labyrinth like this one - a huge sprawling network of interlocking tunnels and tubes, intestine-like in their complexity. And throughout the maze, ghoulish nasties hurtle about stinging, capturing and eventually killing you. To reach your eventual destination the bloated Queen of the Hive. (who thinks she's the bee's knees) - you must pass through eight increasingly vicious levels and cope with such dementedly destructive foes as the Bug Sting or Boom Dotties. Not that you're likely to get that far. According to the game's creators, Firebird, no-one is likely to get that far - certainly not this year. Yes, The Hive is hard.

BUSY AS A BEE

Not least of your problems will be mastering the keyboard. Barring surgery your best bet is practice. and lots of it. If you were born with an extra finger on each hand and have been wondering what to do about it, now's your chance to shine. The timely tapping of up to 13 different keys is needed if you're going to progress far into the game, or even get off the first level. Concert pianists will be at a distinct advantage! As for the game itself - well, it's swift. If you don't like stress, stick to stamp collecting. As in everyone's fave megagame Elite, you fly into the screen (not literally, you fool, and make sure you clear up the glass afterwards) blasting everything in sight and picking up various tools that you'll find vital to your continued progress. Shields to reduce the effects of the meanies, keys to get you past otherwise impenetrable barriers, and various strengths of laser are all worth a detour. Most crucial of all though, are the pylons, which must be picked up to restore your energy. Yes, pylons. I did say you were an electronic grasshopper.

DRONING ON...

The difficult part is that picking up and using these tools requires rare skill. To get them in the first place you must position your 'pick up' cursor in exactly the right place at exactly the right position from the object. The correct distance is usually just within the nearest hoop (on either side), while the right place is usually the object's dead centre. Troub1e is, while you're fiddling about getting to the best position, countless nasties will be buzzing in from every direction nipping you where it hurts.

Using your newly lifted tool is no less demanding. Pressing L toggles you between ship control and icon control, enabling you to select a weapon, key or whatever you want to use. If your want to change direction at the same time, don't faff about if you're to avoid those meanies.

And the nasties take on a fascinating variety of different forms. TV stings look like aerial TV sets, though fortunately Paul Daniels' face is nowhere to be seen. The Bug Sting blags you on level 6 - it's big and ugly and no fly spray in the world will get rid of it. And the Guard Stings, which appear on levels 2 to 5, not only rob you of valuable points but also fling you into jail on an isolated outpost of level 2. You'll need a jail key (amongst other useful implements to escape).

WAXING LYRICAL

One of The Hive's most intriguing features is its save/load facility. There's no mucking about with tapes. Instead, each location has a unique 16-digit code that you simply tap into take you back to where you left off, weapons and strength intact. Thls'Il also make cheating much more interesting, if you can describe it as cheating. If a friend reaches the fourth or fifth level and notes down the code, that same code will work on your version, and you'll be able to jump straight into the thick of things, ignoring all that tedious messing about on the lower levels. Firebird has made us promise on pain of death not to reveal any codes, but you can be sure that Hack Free Zone will be bursting forth with 'em over the next few months.

Meanwhile we'll all have to scrabble about on the lower levels picking off the triangular dotties. And we will. While it's a real walnut to crack, The Hive's as addictive as you can bear it. Okay, so it's not dissimilar to Elite (you noticed! it was programmed by the very same boffins) but it's an entirely different kettle of trout - inner rather than outer space, if you like. Jump to it, grasshoppers!

Label: Firebird
Author: Torus
Price: £9.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: Graham Taylor

Hive is (very nearly) completely original. A 3D journey through the endless passages of an alien hive.

Endless geometric tunnels and constant attack from the hive's inhabitants. These include not only insect-like objects but the occasional TV sets. Bizarre eh?

What you think about Hive is going to depend an awful lot on how you felt about Gyron. They've both been designed and programmed by the same team, Torus (who, incidentally converted Elite for the Spectrum). As you will have gathered. Torus are 3D wire-frame graphics specialists.

Some people absolutely loved Gyron, true they were mostly brainy nuclear physics types but there is no doubt it was a game of extraordinary complexity. I liked it in theory but in practice gave it up after about a week.

Hive is not exactly like Gyron, though. It isn't quite so austere for one thing: it has things to pick up and find uses for, it has things to shoot at that aren't abstract geometrical concepts. And it has a definite goal to achieve - find your way through a vast maze of tunnels to the Queen's chamber and destroy her.

Having said all of that there is something very geometric about the looks of the all two-colour game - the triangular aliens, square TV's zooming at you and the tunnel that forms the 'playing area' of the game is mostly constructed out of circles so positioned that it creates the illusion of 3D.

Hive, like Gyron, looks like it started life as a mathematical concept but got a little further than Gyron in the direction of a game.

The first time I saw Hive it reminded me of nothing so much as a sort of poor man's 3D Tunnel (one of the great ignored games of our time) by New Generation. Where that game created a tunnel effect using slabs of colour Hive features only circles.

The first impression was wrong, though. I began to realise just how vast the game is. It becomes apparent too, that there is a great deal more to the playing of the game than meets the eye.

It's a mapping job for sure. You'd better enjoy spending a lot of time, lost, confused and in the same cul de sac again and again and again.

One of the features of this aspect of the game are the various special ways you can help yourself not to get lost. You have three markers - literally numbers that you can drop wherever you want so that you will know when you've passed over that spot before. More useful still is a system of codes which change as you pass through 'gates' in the maze (a bit like checkpoints in a car rally). This code is automatically updated and by noting it down you may subsequently get back to the same spot just by entering the code again.

It was only through being armed with a dozen or so of these codes that I was able to investigate the later sections of the game. This revealed that though essentially you still get the same overall effect, the game livens up considerably with blocked exits and massed assaults from assorted alien hoards. Actually even the bee orientated alien hoards have a strongly geometrical look about them.

You are a sort of battle space hopper which can not only hurtle down the maze in the usual up-down-left-right-faster-slower manner but can also duck under stalagtites and jump over stalagmites, poison webs and other obstacles.

There are a number of special objects you can pick up which may be useful later on in the game. These are selected on a neat icon grid. Items include various sorts of shield, a 'freeze' device that stops insects in their tracks and long-range grabbers that enable you to reach for objects that are 'behind' areas of the maze shut off by steel bars.

Some of the later levels feature obstacles that aren't entirely bee related - like television sets. These hurtle through the maze and threaten to brain you. Television sets are rather geometric shapes. Even the giant faces that come towards you and can only be destroyed by several blasts to the eyes are em... well, you know.

Sometimes the graphics look very impressive, sometimes less so, the 3D effect is for the most part quite convincing. If the screen shots don't look too incredible part is due to the fact that the 3D effect is achieved by the constant movement - the concentric rings expanding from the centre to fill the screen.

The game is certainly a challenge. My star rating for this one reflects my doubts that somehow the gameplay doesn't quite crack it, that all that mapping is going to get tedious. But I'm prepared to concede that for those people who adore complex mazes and mapping the game might well be a classic.

MACHINES: Spectrum/Amstrad
SUPPLIER: Firebird
PRICE: £9.95/£17.95 (Amstrad disc)
VERSION TESTED: Spectrum

"Myrtle Rowbottom always enjoyed the summer months in the Oxfordshire village of Upper Slaughter."

What? Has my brain slipped a gear? This was not the beginning I had expected to Hive. I read on and found myself in a setting strongly reminiscent of John Wyndham's excellent science fiction novels.

A huge metallic hive - about the size of a tower block - has descended from space and settled in the Oxfordshire countryside. Now this is enough in itself to send the council planning chiefs into a fury but when huge insects come roaring Out of the hive to terrorise everyone, something had better be done - and quickly.

The authorities respond by sending in The Grasshopper Ship, able to enter hostile environments. Officially called the S.E.A.C. Mk II, it got it's nickname because of its ability to jump and crouch.

The mission is seemingly simple - to enter the Hive, locate and destroy the queen bee. Easy? You must be joking!

The game opens with you sitting in your Grasshopper Ship in Hive's entrance. The top two thirds of the screen is taken up by a view of the tunnel.

The instruments are as follows:

Code Display: This is used for noting your position in the game. It saves loading and saving your position on tape.

Junction Indicator: This lights up when there is a junction behind you.

Your Ship: This shows whether the Grasshopper is stationary, moving or crouching.

Life Force Indicator: If it reaches zero, you're dead.

Armour display: Shows how much front and rear armour the Grasshopper is carrying.

Icon Selection Display: As you travel around the Hive various bits and pieces of equipment can be picked up. This display shows what you've got and the item currently in use.

Your ship also carries three markers which can be dropped to help you map the tunnels. The ship is powered by electronic pylons which are scattered throughout the Hive.

Besides the myriad of electronic insects roaming around - and attacking you - three stings, spikes, webs and tripwires to cope with.

This Firebird game is a real goody. Excellent game play and a mapper's delight. Enter the Hive and you're in an absorbing, sometimes frustrating nightmare world of creepy-crawlies. Hive is the bee's knees. Send help. I need it.

Firebird
£9.95

The Queen of the hive must be slain and it's your job to do it in Firebird's latest twist to the maze game. The Queen is in the middle of a three dimensional hive that turns and spirals through eight complex and entangled levels.

You pilot a versatile electromechanical Grasshopper ship that runs, jumps and crouches its way through the maze.

just running through the maze is hard enough without the need to map (to make sure you don't run around in circles) and avoid or blast the nasties that are naturally out to get you. These include swarms of electronic insects, giant demonic jailers and spikes, webs and stings that block your path.

Contact with any of these will drain your energy that can be replenished in you have two or more energy pylons that can be found in the maze to replace your original supply. If you have only one pylon then damage is not repaired, losing them all brings the inevitable end as your energy is quickly drained away.

The screen display shows your view down the tubes and instruments that show your current energy level, score and any objects, pylons, shields and weapons you may have collected.

Lurking underneath the 3D display is yet another maze game that has been complicated by the unpleasant key controls that make steering the Grasshopper a major achievement.

Finally should you want to save your efforts then you only have to copy down a code number that can be entered when a new game is loaded.