if you lose a life you must start that level again. This feature

while, but the game is well worth a little perseverance.

Deathstar is an excellent conversion of the arcade game Sinistar, in which you are the pilot of a solitary mining spaceship in search of crystals. Shoot the asteroids to release them - once collected they act as bombs.

Competing with you are the Worker ships, which use the crystals to assemble, piece by piece, the dreaded Deathstar. The Workers are defended by Warrior ships that shoot at you at the slightest provocation - remarkably accurately. Deathstar's most impressive feature is the 16-way scrolling: As you move, the screen moves with you. A great blast.

In Thrust, you jet around the galaxy in search of vital power pods. Unfortunately, for once you are subject to the real physical laws of gravity. You move around by burning your limited supply of fuel which can be replenished from tanks dotted around each planet.

The many hostile gun emplacements are problem enough - but your troubles really start when you manage to capture a pod, because then your ship's handling changes dramatically. To finish a level you must destroy the planet's reactor before blasting off with your prize into the void. Great, but very tricky.

Bug Eyes II is an arcade adventure in which you, Agent Starman, must collect the 25 keys dotted around and about in order to release your predecessor, Agent Zelda, from prison. Jet-packed lizards, scissors, snakes and worms all bounce around merrily intent on robbing you of your precious oxygen supply. The superb music and special effects are let down by a rather weak game.

Needing no introduction is Repton. In this, his first adventure, you must collect diamonds while avoiding falling boulders and Repton-eating reptiles. Some of the diamonds are hidden in safes, and needless to say the key is never easy to find. Playing number one again rather leaves me looking for the transporters, skulls and fungus - but it's as addictive as ever.

In The Mine you tunnel in search of buried treasure, hampered by the mine's many other inhabitants who are all out to stop you. You can easily dispose of them with your neutraliser, but time is always against you. The Mine is a fairly average implementation of Dig Dug, quite fun, but not for very long.

Blagger is a Manic Miner-style platforms and ladders game in which you run and jump around 20 increasingly difficult levels. As burgler Roger the Dodger, you must collect all the keys and rob the safe before progressing to the next level. Although Blagger is fun, it is quite slow and jerky and compares unfavourably with more recent offerings.

Ghouls is another Miner-type platform game. This time you are ina haunted house and must watch out for spiders, poisoned spikes and collapsing floors. Although it was very popular in its day, it never grabbed me. It still doesn't.

Killer Gorilla is an implementation ofthe arcade machine game Donkey Kong, in which you chase the gorilla up increasing difficult sections of scaffolding in an attempt to rescue the fair maiden from its clutches. The movement is jerky and the sound rather basic, but it's a game I still go back to on occasions. I think you will too.

Released as a competitor to Yie Ar Kung Fu and Way Of The Exploding Fist, Karate Combat is a martial arts game. Although you can play against the computer or a human opponent, the practice mode is very useful, because there are some 17 manoeuvres to be mastered: Thank Buddha for joysticks.

The graphics are finely detailed, but somewhat on the small side. Although Karate Combat was well received first time around, it lacks the technical merits of its competitors.

Hac Man