Genre(s) Maze Designer Jeff Minter Developers Jeff Minter, Llamasoft | Initial release date 1983 Mode Single-player video game | |
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Platforms Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit family, Intellivision, Microsoft Windows Publishers Jeff Minter, Idigicon Limited, Llamasoft Similar Jeff Minter games, Other games | ||
C64 longplay hover bovver the first level
Hover Bovver is a 1983 game written by Jeff Minter released for the Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit family, and a Windows version for the PC was released by Idigicon Limited in 2002. Like many of Minter's other games, it is notable for its offbeat sense of humour. The background music is based on the folk tune Country Gardens by Percy Grainger. It was arranged by James Lisney.
Contents
- C64 longplay hover bovver the first level
- Rob plays hover bovver c64
- Story
- Gameplay
- Later versions
- Sequel
- References
Rob plays hover bovver c64
Story
The purpose of the game is to mow the lawn (using the neighbour's mower) whilst avoiding static obstacles - the flowerbeds - and mobile enemies - the neighbour himself. Your pet dog will antagonise the neighbour and keep him away from you, but as the dog itself is vulnerable to the mower, care must be taken not to run it over.
Gameplay
The player controls their lawnmower with the joystick, and is required to mow every square of grass on the screen. The mower moves extremely slowly at first, but accelerates rapidly if the joystick is held in a single direction, encouraging the player to optimise a route to include as many long, straight lines as possible.
The player is pursued by "the neighbour," an enemy who always moves directly towards the player. If caught by the neighbour, the player loses a life, although this is represented as the neighbour taking the lawnmower away (it being, in fact, the neighbour's property) and the player having to borrow a mower from someone else. The player's lives remaining are indicated by the name of the neighbour from who the current mower has been borrowed: Jim, Tom and finally Alf.
As well as grass, the boards include blocking spaces through which the mower cannot be moved, and flowers. Mowing flowers results in a second enemy, the gardener, appearing who pursues the player in the same way as the neighbour. Unlike the neighbour, the gardener will not walk over the existing flowerbeds. Moving the mower too fast results in the mower heat gauge rising; if it reaches maximum, the mower will stop moving until the gauge drops back to a particular level. It usually resultsin the player being caught by the neighbour or gardener.
The player's only weapon is their dog. By hitting the fire button, the player can set the dog on the neighbour or gardener. This causes them to run away or freeze in place. The amount of time for which this can be done is limited (displayed as a Dog Loyalty meter). The dog also remains active, roaming randomly on the board even when not being used to attack. A Dog Tolerance meter slowly drops, representing a time limit. Once this reaches zero, the dog begins to attack the mower, causing an immediate overheat if he manages to bite it. If Dog Loyalty remains , the dog can be distracted from attacking the mower by commanding it to attack the neighbour or gardener instead. Also, if the mower collides with the dog, the Dog Tolerance meter immediately drops to zero.
Later versions
Idigicon released a PC version under its Kool Dog label. This version was not programmed by Jeff Minter and introduced a number of game elements seen as undesirable by many fans: most notably, the lawn was made to scroll and the mower's slow initial movement and later acceleration were nowhere near as pronounced. The player had 5 lives instead of 3, and the names of the people from which the mowers were taken were altered to those involved in the development of the game: they included George (George Bray, Producer at Idigicon at the time), and Jeff (Jeff Minter).
Sequel
In 2002 Minter released a sequel, Hover Bovver 2, for the PC and PocketPC platforms. This introduced a number of new features: