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The Bear Essentials

Download The Bear Essentials (free 2016 version)

Download the docs

We've also released a special extended version of the game on 5,25" disk and tape.

Both versions come with a download link to a .d64 image of the extended game, for use with a 1541U/U2/U2+, SD2IEC or emulators.







Graham wrote a dev diary while working on the game, you can read it here:

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5



The Story So Far...

Poor old Bear!

He's just spent the summer being incredibly lazy, and ignoring all of his chores. Mrs. Bear has finally caught up with him though, and is demanding that he finds enough fruit (326 apples should do it!) for them to last the approaching Winter.

He won't be allowed home until his task is complete. To add to his troubles, all of the other animals are looking for food too, so best steer clear of them!

Venture out into the wild to find all of the fruit from the areas around Bear's home. Yes, even the strange glowing fruit from the abandoned mine that Bear has been itching to explore lately.

Rumour has it that the mine was sealed up back in the 80's after a whole SPECTRUM of problems...

What could be down there?!



Controls

Use a joystick in port 2 to move Bear left and right, and the fire button to jump. Pressing Run/Stop or the 2nd fire button will pause or unpause the game. While the game is paused, you can toggle the music on or off by moving the joystick left and right, or you can reset the game by holding down the fire button.

You will start the game with 5 lives, but there is an extra life to be gained in each area of the game from Bear’s very close friends - you should recognise these familiar characters so be sure to head over to them if you spot them.

Continues can be gained by discovering the special check point rooms that separate the different areas of the game. Continuing when all lives have been lost will let Bear keep all of the fruit collected so far, but he will be taken back to the last check point room he visited.

You will be given passwords at certain points in the game, the first of which will allow you to continue the game from the start of the mining area. Be sure to try out any other passwords you spot to see what they do!

You are free to explore the areas in any order, but the mine will only open after all other areas are complete. Make a note of the location of the mine entrance when you discover it. Infinite continues will be granted in the mining area, and you will continue from the current room. This will be very handy, you’ll see!

Oh, and be careful down there... It's pretty MANIC!




Credits

Programming, sound and graphics:

Graham Axten


Manual cover illustration:

Charlotte Bradberry-Axten


Packaging illustrations
and tapeloader music:

Vanja Utne



Beta testers:

Vinny Mainolfi
Eric Nelson
Roy Fielding
Craig Derbyshire
Anthony Stiller
Andreas Gustafsson
Vanja Utne





(C) Graham Axten & Pond Software Ltd. 2016 - C64 TTF font by Style