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In those early days of the Electron, there were more than a few copies (in every sense of the word) of Icon Software's Bug Eyes doing the rounds in school playgrounds up and down the country. It was a simple game set in some bizarre spaceship where you had to avoid things and, eventually, make it to a generator. It was one of those "learn every route through every screen knowing to the last pixel where to pause and move" thingymegummies but, as it only had ten screens and not a lot of competition, it was just about bearable. And I think it's probably fair to say that it's the last game that anybody expected a sequel to. However, the boys at Audiogenic programmed one anyway, maintaining the whole simplicity of the original but creating something which is, well, definitely different. Come with me and I'll explain...

By the time Bug Eyes 2 hit the market, the Electron was going through a renaissance - the home computer market crash had obliterated all the cheap knockoff machines and resulted in quite drastic cuts in price. Acorn Computers had put a hold on all its Electron-related research and development projects and was frantically trying to clear its warehouses of Electrons by selling them below cost price. As a result of all this turbulence, a few new companies had entered the fray, sensing that the Electron was being heavily marketed as a cheap games machine, that it was, at its new low price, shifting in significant numbers but that Acorn Computers weren't actually developing any new games for it. Sensing a gap in the market, one senses Audiogenic took a look at the type of games that were either doing well on other 8-bit machines, or couldn't actually be done on other 8-bit machines due to hardware limitations, and plumped to focus its attention on bringing them to the army of Electron owners waiting in the wings for them.

Now that may just be conjecture on my part, but it's obvious just by comparing Bug Eyes 1 with Bug Eyes 2 that the programmers had decided to do something totally unexpected with the further adventures of Agent Starman. The first game is a serial, ten-screen affair in low resolution, four colour mode with standard-size sprites, five lives and a very solidly basic theme. The sequel is a multi-coloured, graphic adventure with giant-sized sprites, rooms connected by lift passages and bizarre, irrelevant animations and an energy bar system combined with a lives one. This approach, paradoxically, also makes the sequel much easier than the original. Let's face it, Bug Eyes 2 wouldn't actually need to be very forgiving at all to be more so that the "one false move equals instant death" formula employed by its predecessor. But the generous amount of lives and energy almost makes Bug Eyes 2 too easy. I was able to complete it on my fifth go, simply because, although it features puzzles, making a wrong move doesn't send you right back to the beginning like in the original.

And yet, for all these changes, this is very clearly the Bug Eyes sequel. The sprite you control is identical to the white-suited spaceman of the first jaunt, and all of the enemies you encountered therein make an appearance, including the "stampy stompers" everyone remembers waiting an age to get past. Like in the original, you're restricted to walking left and right and have to rely on floating blobs, elevator shafts or teleportation stairs whenever you need to go up or down the screens. Instead of accessing screens serially, the aim of the game is to collect up 25 keys which are scattered throughout "the rusting hulk of the Xxabanean flagship", making the game a flick-screen graphic adventure. Most of the keys are guarded by the same nasties from the original, who have now been blown up by a factor of 400% from their original size before being dropped paint-brush style into the playing area of Bug Eyes 2. Contact with any of them drains your energy, and each time your energy hits zero, you forfeit one of your five lives. There are some new giant, colourful patrolling baddies too.

Simply because it is so different with its huge sprites, it's sort of an odd game to play which, naturally enough, also makes it extremely interesting. When you move from some areas to others, for example, you get an animation of your spaceman being picked up by a powerful magnet, dropped into a Sinclair C5 and then driven speedily off-screen. This has absolutely no relevance to your quest at all and in fact, I find it quite tiresome, even though it's only two seconds long. But this is just another outward sign of a game that has defined its own rules. Name me any other Electron game in which such a baffling cutscene is present. Name me any other Electron game that features a Sinclair C5. Name me any other Electron game where you find Trogg (the caveman from Frak) making an unexpected cameo appearance.

You get the idea I'm sure. Bug Eyes 2 is actually one of those rare things, a sequel that's not only different but also a "genre-defining" title. Which is why I wonder whether or not the connection to the original actually did it any favours. My guess is that, if you'd played the original Bug Eyes, you'd be tempted to (wrongly) conclude Bug Eyes 2 would simply be more of the same, i.e. another ten tedious screens of pixel-perfect positioning. If you hadn't played the original and picked it up as one of your first Electron games, you'd find it an extremely imaginative collect-'em-up which really showed off the capabilities of your machine. In fact, is it really even a sequel? I think it veers more into being a reworking of the original mission into a fascinating, colourful extravaganza with some surreality chucked into the mix for good measure!

In closing I would say don't be put off by the fact that you will probably complete it quite quickly. This is actually a good thing. Bug Eyes 2 is a perfect Sunday afternoon game. There's no complicated backstory, it's just a straightforward walkabout which is immensely satisfying to play, and complete, in a short timeframe. The original BBC/Electron flippy cassette is actually pretty difficult to find these days; however the game was included on no less than three compilations and then re-released by Alternative Software in 1988. These versions are much more findable. Considering the original wasn't much to write home about, you might have thought both standalone versions might have waxed lyrical about all the improvements the sequel employed but no, they both feature some of the most drab cover art I've ever seen. Expect to pay around £20 for the original release (It's rare), £5 for the re-release and a few quid for each of the compilations.