Producer: Silversoft
Memory Required: 48K
Retail Price: £5.95
Language: Machine code
Author: Iain Hayward

Silversoft produced a highly successful oddity of a game in Worse Things Happen At Sea - a recent CRASH SMASH. Now they return to more traditional arcade pastures with Hyperaction - the name of the game is in the name of the game, a fast and furious compilation of ideas which have been put together in such a way that they transcend the individual ingredients.

If you want an identifying slot for Hyperaction, then it would be Pengo meets Pacman, a randomly generated series of mazes in which certain of the square blocks can be pushed or burned away so that 'you' can score points while avoiding the chasers. What is attractive about Hyperaction is that each maze is in effect a different game with changed game rules.

Sometimes, having collected the objects on screen (usually four), you may have to make your way to the centre of the screen and a flashing block to get to the next level, sometimes just completing the task like eating all the blue in Artic Jellyfish, is enough. Each screen has its own title like Snapper Trapper, Artic Jellyfish, The Hampton Nightmare, Return of the Jelli, and so on. One rule which is standard is that you must not push a block over a useful or collectible item, nor over a chaser, or you lose a life. This means you have no weapons and must survive on skill, speed and a good eye. Another point is the time limit for each screen, which affects your score and that all important hi-score overall. If it runs out completely then you lose another life.

Pushing the blocks around is simple enough using direction and fire. The blocks, unlike in a Pengo game, only move one square per push, so they can be used easily enough for tactical blocking. Should a block meet another block or the screen edge, then a further push will burn it away.

COMMENTS

Control keys: Z/X left/right, O/K up/down, 0 to push
Joystick: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Keyboard play: very responsive and good positions
Use of colour: excellent
Graphics: varied, large, smooth - very good
Sound: very good
Skill levels: 1
Lives: 5
Screens: many

Hyperaction is a good old fashioned action arcade game, but it's a lot tougher than most you'll find on the arcades, and although it is old fashioned in the sense of being a sort of Pacman and Pengo or Freez'Bees, it isn't at all old fashioned in the sense of YAWN. In fact it's one of the most challenging games I've played for ages. For a start off, the graphics are marvellous, large and fast as well as detailed, for another the chasers are very, very intelligent, and once one is on your tail you're as good as dead. Strategy is the only tactic to use, moving the blocks about to trap the chasers. I like the fact that each screen is different - I don't know how many there are because I haven't got through more than four at this point - but that fact alone keeps you wanting to have one more go to see if you can get onto another screen. A simple idea that is very playable and maddeningly addictive. Great!

Beautiful colours and lovely, well animated large graphic characters which move smoothly, make this a very playable game. In fact the colour is just spot on. This is a very difficult game and well worth the money for the hours of fun it's going to provide, and I certainly haven't got all the way through yet by any means. The sound has been well used as well to add to it. A good combination of two older game types to make a new modern one.

Hyperaction certainly means what it says! Frustrating isn't a word I've used to describe a straightforward arcade style game for ages, but this one definitely is! The combination of no defence and chasers that are as mean as any I've ever seen makes it a sweaty game to play. The fact that you can't squash your pursuers makes life very hard and there are a number of times when I've lost a life because of that natural reaction to try and get one of them. All the graphics are excellent, and the way the mazes are generated for each screen is a delight. I liked this game very much.

Ross: Silversoft's more recent output has tended to be colourful, well writen and fun to play - and Hyperaction is no exception. At first glance it seems a sort of cross between Pacman and Pengo, but it's actually different again. To begin with, each screen cleared means another almost totally different game, strategy-wise.

In screen one you're a spider in a maze consisting of blocks of greenery separated by patches of mushrooms. Also tucked up inside the maze are four 'ZX' symbols and the object is to collect all of them and return pronto to the centre of the maze. The only problem is that Pacmen also live in said maze and if they touch you - whoops, there goes another life. You can push around the blocks of greenery to alter the maze and block in the Pacmen - but watch out!

The next game has you trying to destroy all the blue maze pathways by walking over them. The following screens are variations that get increasingly more difficult. I couldn't get past screen five, where marauding 6502 chips soon polished me off.

Good graphics and a fun game. Careful thought is needed if you're going to be good at it. 4/5 HIT

Dave: A nice Pengo variation with good graphics. Possible a bit too fast but very addictive. 3/5 HIT

Roger: I'd like to say it only had one screen, but that'd just be an excuse for my bad play! Pure arcadia in the best sense of the word. 3/5 HIT

Use of Computer: 77%
Graphics: 82%
Playability: 89%
Getting Started: 80%
Addictive Qualities: 91%
Value for Money: 85%
Overall: 84%

Hyperaction followed hot on the heels of Silversoft's previous release Worse Things Happen At Sea, but instead of a totally original game they turned back to using a more traditional arcade type of game.

Hyperaction is best described as a 'Pengo' meets 'Pacman' type game. You move around a randomly generated screen collecting objects (usually four) but you have some nasties chasing along after you. What makes Hyperaction is that you can't actually kill the baddies only trap them by pushing the blocks that form the maze in their path. Each screen is a game in its own right and subsequently has its own problems - sometimes collecting the objects will be enough to finish that screen or it might require you to eat all the blue out of the Artic Jelly fish.

Pushing the blocks is easy enough, just press fire and push the block in the direction you wish it to go; should the block meet the edge of the screen or another block then a further push will burn the block away. The blocks are an important of the game but on the last screen there are none and you have to survive on skill and speed alone.

Hyperaction is certainly the name of the game for this horrendously fast 'Pengo' variant. The graphics are very colourful and move smoothly, which makes this game a treat to watch. Sound is used well and the whole game has a very polished look to it. Hyperaction is highly playable and quite addictive though it is probably a bit too hard. Overall it is still a good game by today's stanndards and will doubtlessly appeal more to the younger players.
RC

Silversoft took a bit of risk with this one, using older ideas and simple looking graphics, but they certainly aimed to make a tough, fast and highly addictive game and they succeeded. Because of those rather 'timeless' qualities, it has hardly aged at all and still represents excellent fun for anyone with fingers sufficiently nimble and eyes adequately bright
LM

(Rob) I would keep the playability the same and lower all the other ratings by 10%.

(Lloyd) On the whole I think I would leave well alone, except on the graphics, which in all fairness are not worth the rating they got, but that was probably due to the system then in use in CRASH.

MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
CONTROL: Keys, Sinc, Curs, Kemp
FROM: Silversoft, £5.95

At first glance, Silversoft's latest Spectrum release appears to be nothing more than a hybrid of Pacman and Pen go. However, play it a few times and you realise it offers a totally new and quite entertaining challenge.

The idea is fairly simple. You play the part of a nicely-drawn spider who must travel around a randomly generated maze either collecting objects or filling in the corridor in a certain colour. Naturally you are not alone, the maze being populated by the four obligatory nasties (thankfully not ghosts) who chase you in the usual anti-social manner.

However you can push the walls of the maze across passages, changing its shape and trapping nasties. You must be careful not to crush either them or the objects you must collect, for this loses you a life. Thus a significant strategy element is introduced, half the tactics being to trap the creatures in a small part of the maze, allowing you a clear run.

Silversoft have also apparently caught the Minter disease, for the stages have such names as 'Return of the Jelli' and 'Attack of the Mutant Chips'.

Graphically, the game is done well, with detailed backgrounds and smoothly animated characters. The sound isn't a let down either, with some quite, satisfying noises being coaxed out of the Spectrum's pitiful speaker.

The spider is very easy to control and even if you don't own one of the supported joystick interfaces, the keys are sensible enough.

Overall, Hyperaction is a really rather playable game, the arcade feel being tempered by an interesting strategic element. There are a number of screens, each with randomly generated mazes, so the program's appeal should last. Nice one Silversoft.

This is is most definitely a maze game in and despite having lots of different screens and constantly changing mazes it cannot be disguised as anything else.

Not that I didn't like it, it was just extremely difficult to play, particularly the first screen.

The game is well named since you have to think very fast under pressure.

BOB WADE

This is an exceptionally hard game to get to grips with.

The sound is not brilliant, and another thing I didn't like was not being able to crush the nasties with the blocks. If you do so, you die. However, persevere, you'll enjoy it.

SAMANTHA HEMENS

Hyperaction proves that a game doesn't need an elaborate plot to be addictive.

The clear, colourful graphics and imaginative sound effects show a polished finish to a game of blistering pace.

A very exciting and tricky game which manages to combine a need for thought with fast action and with different screens, each requiring different skills. It should push the most competent player to the limit. Excellent.

MARTYN SMITH

There was a time when the Spectrum software market was full of games involving ice blocks and penguins, the idea of which was to protect the player by sliding ice cubes around the screen. Hyperaction from Silversoft takes this theme one step further.

Each level of the game involves a maze in which blocks must be shuffled around for protection. The aim of the game is sometimes to cover four points, sometimes to reach five, and sometimes to eliminate one colour from the board. The common denominator is the maze.

On each level you begin with several lives and, if you fail at a maze, it will be redrawn in a different pattern. The chances are that you will see a very large amount of versions of the first few mazes, without seeing the later ones more than once or twice.

If your ambition has always been to be reincarnated as a penguin, then this game is for you. If mazes and monsters drive you screaming up the wall, as is more probably the case these days, then avoid it like the plague.

Hyperaction was written and produced for the 48K Spectrum by Silversoft, 271-273 King Street, London W6 and costs £5.95.

Now we come onto Hyperaction, a game of intrigue and wits for the 48K Spectrum. Produced by Silversoft, we should expect an arcade quality game, but do we have it?

First of all, a minus. In these days of first impressions etc, etc, etc, an introductory screen is very important. It not only makes the waiting for the program to load acceptable, but it also impresses the player with a taste of the game to follow.

This game has got various screens, although I only managed to progress to the second, but perhaps those with nimble fingers or joysticks should get onto to more.

You are a spider with only 6 legs, I suppose the Spectrum's graphics handling made the decision on the last two and are faced initially with a grid, which turns into a random maze after the computer has knocked out various holes.

In the first screen there are acorns and mushrooms along the path of the maze with the letters ZX hanging around the screen. Your task is to gather all the ZX's in order to get to the next level. Pacmen have been sent in order to prevent you from doing this and they have been well trained in their mission.

You can change the paths of the maze by forcing the acorns to form different paths, but you need to be careful not to force an acorn onto a ZX or a Pacman as you will lose a life.

The first screen is very hard to master at first, but once you get the idea it is very hard to stop playing. You need to design your own way of approach, but I decided to block out the opposing pacmen in the first screen, by moving the wall and then gathering the ZX's.

The same idea is on screen 2, but there are Arctic Jellyfish instead of Pacmen and this time you have to cover all the blue ground on the screen (ice), but as you are still in the maze, you can move walls etc.

If the first two screens are anything to go by, the rest should be very good, I am still trying to get onto screen 3.

There is quite a bad point in between each new attempt, there is a delay while you are introduced to Pacmen, Jellyfish etc, and the name of the next screen, but this should not hinder your excitement.

Hyperaction is an excellent and original arcade game, with Sinclair, Cursor and Kempston joystick compatibility.