Hover Bovver

arcade action game for Commodore 64, 1983

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Use Control Port 1.

Summertime in England.....and all across the land lawns are
growing and men's thoughts turn to mowing. So it was with
Gordon Bennet. But when he want to investigate, he found to
his dismay that his cylinder mower had rusted into a heap of
junk.

'No problem', he thought. I'll pop round and borrow Jim's
'Air-Mo'. (For of course, borrowing the neighbour's mower
is a traditional aspect of English suburban life).

So Gordon popped round to Jim's house, abstracted Jim's mower
and began mowing his lawn. Unfortunately, Jim has decided he
wants his Air-Mo back and no sooner has Gordon begun his task
than Jim sets out in hot pursuit intent on retrieving his mower.

Your task is to guide Gordon Bennet on his mowing mission,
trying your best not to annoy your dog Rover or the gardener,
and avoiding your neighbour's unwelcome attentions.

PLAYING THE GAME

You manoeuvre Gordon and his Air-Mo using the joystick. Your
task is simply to mow the green areas on the lawn displayed on
the screen. However, certain things occur as you attempt to mow.

These are as follows:
  1) There are hedges on the screen. Gordon, Rover, the Neighbour
     and the Gardener cannot pass through hedges.
  2) At the start of each lawn, the Neighbour begins his pursuit
     from the upper left. Rover roams around in a random fashion,
     starting at upper right.
  3) Rover is annoyed by the sound of your mowing. His tolerence to
     your mowing is indicated by the Dog Tolerance scale at the
     bottom of the screen. When the Dog Tolerance scale reaches
     zero, Rover will run after you, ampting to attack the mower.
  4) Should Rover hit the mower, you will be forced to do an
     emergency stop and as a result your mower will overheat.
     You will be immobilised and must wait until the Mower Overload
     scale goes down. All Dog Tolerance is also lost.
  5) As you mow, the mower heets up. The faster you mow, the hotter
     it gets. If you let the Mower Overload scale reach maximum, you
     will be immobilised until the Mower Overload scale goes down.
  6) You may let your mower cool either by standing still, or by
     passing over terrain already mown.
  7) Rover is a well-trained dog. He will never run over a flower bed
     unless you have mown a path through with the mower.
  8) Should you mow over any flowers, the Gardener will appear at top
     of screen and start to chase you, aiming to relieve you of your
     mower before you do any more damage.
  9) The Gardener has a healthy respect for your flowers. The
     Neighbour couldn't care less.
 10) The Gardener is not afraid of Rover unless he is barking.
 11) Upon pressing your Joystick button. Rover will run after the
     Neighbour, barking. The Neighbour and, if present, the Gardener,
     will both run from Rover.
 12) All the while you ere setting Rover onto the Neighbour, your Dog
     Loyalty scale is counting down to zero. When you run out of Dog
     Loyalty the dog will no longer respood to your commands
 13) The Neighbour has a healthy respect for the dog and will try not
     to get too close to him. Remember all these factors as you mow.
     Keep an eye on your Dog Loyalty, Dog Tolerance and Mower Overload
     scales.

SCORING
1 x Lawn number - for each square mown.
Constant increase in score whilst the dog is actually biting the
neighbour. Canine Fidelity Bonus at the end of wave for any
remaining Dog Loyalty. (This is calculated on the remaining Dog
Loyalty and the Lawn Number achieved).

DANGERS
Should the Neighbour or the Gardener catch you, they will make off
with your mower. You can borrow mowers from Jim, Tom and Alf. Once
you lose Alf's mower, the game is over.

PROGRESSIVE DIFFICULTY
Once a lawn is cleared, you receive any Canine Fidelity bonus due, and
then progress to the next lawn. There are 18 in all.  Neighbour and
dog speeds increase. You must dodge the neighbour more nimbly, but as
compensation, when you set Rover onto the Neighbour he goes like a
canine rocket. Should you complete lawn 16, the speed is put at
MAXIMUM and you start Lawn 1 again. To complete Lawns 9 - 16, it is
necessery to mow through flower beds and thus incur the wrath of the
gardener.

SYSTEM CONTROLS
To play HOVER BOWER, you should use a joystick in the one player
joystick hole(Port 1). Pressing the FIRE button during the
introductory animations or whilst the Top 5 scores are on display
will cause the Start/Setup screen to appear.

On this screen you may use FIRE to set the initial Entry Lawn
(1-8 are selectable; you must play Lawn 8 to see Lawns 9-16)
Pressing OPTION sets Number of Players(1 or 2).

Pressing SELECT sets Number of Joysticks. This is usually set to
one, even for a two player game (Players pass the stick back and
forth between plays). If two sticks are available, each player may
to use his own stick. Plug the Player 2 stick into Port 2/B and
set STICKS to 2 with PLAYERS at 2.
Pressing START starts the game.

CONVENIENCE CONTROLS
Certain controls are provided for your convenience. These controls
respond only during the time you have control of the mower.
Typing + letter P will freeze the game action, allowing you to
answer the phone, swat a fly, turn your bicycle around etc.
Pressing ANY OTHER KEY will restart the game. Pressing M will
mute the theme music, leaving only sound effects such as dog
barks, mower noise etc. To regain the tune, simply type M once
more.

HIGH SCORES
The top 5 scores are recorded and displayed on the Top 5 list.
Should you achieve a position on the list you will be asked to
enter your initials. Moving the Joystick left and right will select
the initial, and pressing FIRE will enter it.

END OF GAME
At the end of the game, after any high scores have been entered,
your score is shown under the heading PLAYER ONE at base of screen,
in the same position as it was during game play. At the conclusion
of a two-player game, both scores are alternatively displayed on the
screen.

STRATEGIES
Bear in mind the relationships and behaviour of the various
HOVER BOVVER characters. Use hedges to hide behind and let your
mower cool down. When the dog is after you, use a quick jab on the
dog button to send him behind a hedge.
In setting the dog onto the neighbour, ensure that
a) the dog's eager pursuit does not lead him to collide with your
   mower end
b) neither the Neighbour or Gardener will, by evading the dog,
   run into you!

Use the Neighbour's reluctance to get near the dog. Placing the
dog between you and the Neighbour can make him stop in his tracks.
(Flower beds come in very useful here).

Save up Dog Loyality. It can be useful for getting you out of
tight spots. Don't be tempted to savage the neighbour too much.
The extra points are few in relation to a nice big Canine Fidelity
bonus at the end of the wave.

When you are immobilised due to overheating, use the dog to keep
the Neighbour from getting his mower back.

Happy mowing!

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Some useful keyboard shortcuts
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       [PAUSE] - stop/continue game
          [F9] - quick load game state
         [F12] - quick save game state (still stored after leaving the site)
         [F10] - toggle performance meter
         [F11] - toggle fullscreen mode
  [ScrollLock] - quick switch control ports
    [PageDown] - make a screenshot (320x200)