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

This game is very enjoyable and addictive. Artic say the graphics are of 'cartoon quality' - a statement which turns out to be fairly true! The animation of the bears is incredible, and the sound is very good with well known tunes played at any of 4 presettable volumes. Excellent.

At times, the bears in this game can be utterly infuriating, ganging up on you so you can bearly get out of the car. The detail and movement of the bears is amazingly well done. Other details appeal too, like the explosions when you squash a bear under a battery, or blow one up with a time bomb. Even the transmission drive shaft on the car revolves. As each screen gets cleared there are more bears - on the third a white robot-like creature resembling Twiggy from Buck Rogers joins in. It all gets very heavy! Frustrating, challenging, addictive - great!

Addictive and fun to play - maddening in fact. They include a 'Baby Bear Mode' for training purposes, but once you get down to the real task in hand it's very difficult. The graphics are excellent, really excellent, so are the tunes. A fine game - one of Artic's best.'

Artie Computing/16.95 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.

Dilwyn: Fantastic graphics and animation accompanied by the Teddy Bear's Picnic' tune - which can be turned off once it gets to you. The only problem is the marring of the colour resolution where two colours meet. 9/10

Ieuan: Quite addictive and wonderful animation considering all the action involved. Bear Bovver uses a posterstyle set of letters which is quite attractive. 9/10

Brian: Not too bad. Well thought-out, with the bonus drinks and the fact you're able to deter the opposition by dropping time bombs or burying them under a battery! Good sleeve notes are an advantage. 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.

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.

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.

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.