Producer: Activision
Retail Price: £9.95
Author: Steve Cartwright

It's fourteen months since Hacker first graced the Spectrum screen. Heralded at the time as a demanding and highly original game, it now has a follow up in the form of Hacker II. Once again it's been designed and written by Steve Cartwright, but this time on a much grander scale.

Your reputation as a computer boffin has prompted the United States government to seek your help on a top secret mission. The CIA have discovered a plot by the Soviets which could upset the balance of power between the East and the West forever. The details of their plan are contained in what have become known as the 'Doomsday Papers'. These are held inside a high security Siberian base. It is your task, with the help of three Mobile Remote Units (MRUs - similar to those used in Hacker), to explore the base and steal the plans before the Russians can use them.

The complex security system which the Soviets have installed must be hoodwinked. For this purpose you control a device which can monitor their four thirty-eight channel security cameras. Videotaping facilities are available so that recordings can be made and substituted for the original security film. Using this method it is possible to create extra time to manoeuvre, without being spotted by the security guards. Other features on this device include frame pause, and a vital preview function for editing purposes.

It's also possible to use one of the four monitor screens to display the area immediately around the MRU. Using this display it is possible to map the complex, which aids exploration. The display reveals the whereabouts of security officers and active monitors in the area.

The screen controls are situated on a panel at the bottom of the display. They are activated by moving an arrow over the desired option (using joystick or keyboard), then pressing fire or the M key. The selected option is then highlighted. The animated graphics are grey on black (with touches of red and blue), and give the impression of monochrome monitors.

One particularly nasty Russian weapon is the annihilator. A kind of anti-robot robot, it hunts down and kills MRUs. This must be avoided, as your limited supply of MRUs is all that stands between the free world and disaster.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Q up, A down, O left, P right, M push button
Joystick: Kempston, Interface 2
Use of colour: basic but effective
Graphics: simple effective graphics which add to the atmosphere
Sound: atmospheric spot effects that give a creepy and realistic effect
Skill levels: one
Screens: one

Aggggghh - they said that I'd be safe from games like this. Well it looks as though this has got through the guards (it sneaked through by hiding behind its arcade sequences). Joking aside, this is definitely a better game than its predecessor as it contains more 'in depth' plot. Unfortunately the game is not at all easy to get into so it didn't really appeal to me. The graphics and sound are not at all bad: the screen is well laid out and there are some nice effects. However, I'd only recommend it if you were a Hacker fan.
BEN

I really loved Hacker, so I was really looking forward to the sequel, and what an excellent job ACTIVISION have done with it. The video machine is something you have to see - the amount of detail that has gone into it is amazing - but it's a pity they used the VHS model as the vertical hold often needs adjusting! Everything has to be very cleverly worked out, such as putting the video on the monitors to fool the security guards. It's obvious that lots of thought has gone into Hacker II and it was worth it, it's a thoroughly enjoyable and addictive game.
PAUL

Despite the excellent polished exterior, I found Hacker II to be a little lacking in the gameplay stakes. The graphics are very good, and it's lots of fun getting used to (and playing with) the video recorder. It's a vast improvement on its predecessor, but something's still not quite right. The content isn't actually lacking as there is plenty to do, but after a while spent playing it I found I got a bit bored. Colour has been used excellently, and generally I find it hard to criticise any one thing in the program, but it does lack some vital element that could have made it into a smash hit.
MIKE

Activision
£9.99

For some strange reason, every time I mention this game the whole office dances around, waving chickens in the air, singing, "Hack-errr two, two, two, push pineapple, shake the tree..."

They're a facetious lot given to such levity, while I'm engrossed by weightier matters. I have to save the free world from those devilish Ruskies. Yes, Uncle Sam is calling and even their noisy little joke can't drown out his cry for help.

Down to business with the instructions. There's a small book to read before you can start. Deep in an installation in Siberia, Ivan has a notebook that could spell doom for the West. Probably why it's called the Doomsday Papers, really!

The idea is to infiltrate this secret base which isn't that secret as the CIA has an agent waiting outside the gates, and get your mitts on the little red book. But as you're a top computer security expert, and therefore a bit of a weed, you're not expected to storm the place, SAS-style.

Instead you can do your spying from home, using a Multi Function Switching Matrix that could take a little time to install, so here's one the secret service prepared for you earlier! It's a sort of multipurpose terminal gizmo, which lets you use the bases security cameras for your own ends.

As well as choosing the view on the four screens of this voyeur's delight, you can tap into the automatic cameras themselves, to get an idea of what the KGB is watching. Futhermore the MFSM contains a radar map, which tells you where you are.

But the device's most important function is to let you control one of three Mobile Remote Units, in your search for the safe containing the papers.

Despite the lengthy MFSM manual, you're left on your own as to how to tackle your task - much the same as the original Hacker. The first thing is obviously to make full use of its visual facilities. How you configure the screen is up to you - though it'll probably go something like this.

On one you'll have the radar, which centres on the MRU in operation, and indicates the movements of the human guards and the security cameras that are in operation. You'll need this information for the game of cat and mouse.

You'll also need a map of the base, but this'll have to indicate more than where the rooms and corridors are. If you know which camera covers which area you can be prepared for them, so you'll avoid alerting the guards.

I didn't mention the video recorder facility before, but you can use it for more than catching last night's episode of EastEnders. As well as allowing you to check all movements in an area during the last hour, you can play back a picture of an empty room to the security cameras, even while your MRU is investigating a filing cabinet!

All the pictures are time synchronised, so if you fail to use the Fast Forward and Reverse to match up the video with the reality, the commissars will have no question about whether it was real or Memorex! They'll liquidate your droid, which could bring tears to your eyes!

Hacker II has been well thought out. Despite the fact that it was originally intended for far more complex computers, the Spectrum conversion works very well. I wouldn't like to spoil your enjoyment, but do try to get the death of an MRU on camera - it's great fun.

So while the speed freaks won't find much to satisfy them here, more methodical players should have a ball. For my money, this is even better than the original Hacker!

Label: Activision
Author: System
Price: £9.95
Joystick: various
Memory: 48K/128K
Reviewer: John Gilbert

There you are busy hacking into Ronnie's CIA account one day when the US Government decides to contact you.

The CIA knows you're the world's greatest expert on computer security or lack of it - and wants you to steal the top secret Doomsday Papers from a Russian military establishment in Siberia. The papers contain a blueprint for the destabilisation of western civilisation and the ultimate world supremacy of the USSR.

Yup, you guessed it. Hacker II: The Doomsday Papers is an American piece of software, produced over there on the C64 and now converted to the Spectrum. And as you'd expect the plot reads like a cross between Rambo and Mission Impossible. Somehow the CIA has smuggled four Mobile remote Units - dirty great unprotected robots into the Ruski base. These are connected to your computer, via a satellite link, and you have to use them to find the filing cabinet in which the Doomsday Papers are stored. Guards continually patrol the complex and a deadly killer robot, called the Annihilator, is put into action if any of the MRUs are discovered.

Fortunately, your computer is equipped with four VDUs and a copy of the latest hacking software, Actisource. Your VDUs are controlled by a strip of icons at the bottom of the screen which are selected using a hand-shaped cursor.

When you first select a screen its picture will roll until you get to alter the vertical hold. Once the picture's clear you can either tune in live to one of the bases' 38 security camera, or select the monitor option which flips through a sequence of all the security camera pictures.

The video camera display is pretty realistic. You can choose to view a tape from any of the 38 cameras. There's fast forward and backward options which speed up the display and an on-screen clock, which has been active since the beginning of the game, acts as an index as you scan the tape. Watching guards run backwards down a corridor is just as funny as running a real video picture backwards.

Make one of your VDUs display the plan of the base with the positions of your MRU's, the guards and any Annililators blipped on it. The plan is not particularly useful in determining where you are - you'll need to find a local security camera for that - but it does give an early warning of enemy patrol and will help you to plan escape routes to avoid discovery.

Stealth is the name of the game and you'll need to play Hacker II several times before you develop a feel for it. The best method of play is to move an MRU one room at a time around the complex. Guards rarely look into any of the rooms unless you're moving around a lot.

Take note of the monitor sequence while you are moving around the base. As you get further into the game you'll be able to spot familiar locations and list the locations of the security cameras. When you've done that you'll be able to find you way around the complex very quickly and reduce the risk of being found.

When you've found the filing cabinet which contains the security papers, punch in the security code and remove the documents. It's then simply (!) a matter of evading the guards, moving the MRU out of the complex and delivering the papers to a government agent.

Granted there's a lot to do in Hacker II but, once you've read through the technical documentation and learnt how to use the monitors you'll find the game is easier than you first thought. The snag is it can get repetitive with its search move, search/move mode operation.

Hacker II beats They Stole a Million, its closest competition, for action but, despite initial impressions, both games are let down by the staying power of their gameplay. Strangely, too, the play isn't that dissimilar from Electric Dreams/Activision's other recent release, Aliens. For mobile robots substitute a team of space marines. There's a ton more action in Aliens though, and it's a much more exciting game.

ACTIVISION'S LATEST CASTS THE HACKER AS HERO.

Activision
£9.99

A cassette labelled Actisource, an incomprehensible technical manual and no instructions would not seem the obvious beginnings for a great game But to my great surprise, these ingredients make Hacker 2 one of the most sophisticated releases I have played for ages. It's American, of course.

In this game's prequel, you hacked your way through numerous obstacles to prove yourself one of the world's finest hackers, but your endeavours did not go unnoticed. Loading the Actisource tape, you log on to what seems a normal enough Micronet style service - until the menu is interrupted by a message from the CIA! As the leading expert on breaking security systems, they have a mission for you. The Russians have developed a simple but devastating plan to topple the US government (trust those scheming commies). The details are enclosed in a document - "The Doomsday Paper" (sort of thing the Ruskies would call such devious plans). Your task is to retrieve these papers from the military complex in Siberia (where else? As you may have guessed, I do not entirely approve of the typically paranoid American scenario). How can you do this, if you're sitting in front of a screen back home? Via the miracles of modern technology, that's how. Hidden within the base are three Mobile Remote Units (MRUs, droids at your disposal), and the Multi-Function-Switching Matrix (MFSM), which controls the MRUs. The MFSM is linked by satellite to CIA's central computer, which is connected by modem to your computer. On your screen you see a mock-up of the MFSM.

Security at the base is not so slack that MRUs can wander around undetected. Guards patrol the corridors, and there are thirty-eight security cameras scattered around. Two electronic monitors flick through these successively, checking that no unidentified objects are in the picture. With the MFSM, you can view what any of the 38 cameras see, what either monitor is registering, or a plan of the immediate area surrounding the MRU. The clever bit is, the MFSM also includes 38 video channels. If you synchronise correctly, you can bypass a camera with a recording of what it should be seeing, and sneak your MRU in unnoticed. You have to check several things at once, so the MFSM has four screens.

Sounds complicated? I've simplified it considerably! Hacker 2 is an extremely complex piece of software; it's difficult too, and challenging, though not especially intellectual. Quick thinking and intelligent mapping are required. What makes it so unusual is the incredible attention to detail. For example, you have to set the vertical hold on each of the TV screens. The video simulation is so authentic you even get noise bars when you fast forward. And the CIA manual is convincingly confusing (not that I've ever seen a CIA manual). Real efforts have been made with this game to create realism: something very rare with British software.

The few animated graphics are adequate rather than stunning (slightly chunky); otherwise Hacker 2 is perfectly executed. Patience is required, but it does pay off. Instability is questionable, but I reckon this will provide value for money for most people. Activision's Spectrum conversions are usually lackluster affairs (remember the lamentable Ghostbusters?), so congratulations are in order; at last they have created a winner!