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If you read my Fist preview you might remember me telling you about games that cause a stir when they come into the office. Since we got hold of a copy of 1942 a couple of weeks ago, I don't think it's been off the screen longer than an hour. Never in the Commodore User offices has a game been played so often by so many...

So what has 1942 got that most of the other games we receive for review haven't? Certainly not originality, no, the answer is total, unputdownable addiction. Every time you finish a game you feel you can beat your last performance, or you're so disgusted that you want to wipe out its memory.

There can't be many of you who haven't seen it in the arcades, there's even been a couple of rip-offs on the C16 of all things. It's that kind of game as well. There's nothing really to it.

The scenario is set in the Pacific during the campaign against the Japanese in World War II. Your mission is to fly a daring solo raid to weaken the enemy and secure the upper hand in the air. This involves suffering wave after wave of big and small aircraft coming at you from all directions. The result is pure trigger twitching action based on a mixture of skill and reflexes. And you never know when to stop.

It's all down to high scores really. You notch them up by completing levels for bonuses and, obviously, shooting down the enemy. Thus there's always the temptation to pick off just one more, with the result you make an error or get too greedy and end up buried in a ball of flame.

You begin by taking off from the aircraft carrier, and after that it's a question of building up enough experience to work your way through the game's twenty-four levels. Each section contains about five or six different formations of aircraft, all of which describe different patterns around the screen. If you manage to get through them, you'll land back on the deck of the carrier and take-off for the next session of nerve wringing.

You get three lives and that's your lot. Lose one and you go back to the beginning of that level. Often, if you're not concentrating hard enough you'll lose the rest just as quickly. There's no time to relax in this game.

The coin-op's great gimmick was the roll which the plane will execute here at the press of the space bar. This is always a bit of a pain but I haven't found anything I can't handle yet that necessitates using it. No doubt that'll come when you boil down to the last handful of levels.

The graphics are fine, no glitches, plenty of colour and most important of all in this game, the screen scrolls very smoothly. The sound is Elite's best attempt yet. The game music is a furious rendition of '633 Squadron' complete with buzzing effects all of which adds to the hectic atmosphere of the game, and blow me if you don't find yourself humming it all day! One small whinge - if only Elite had put a save option on the high score board. It's such a shame to see your best ever effort wiped off at the flick of a switch. Nevertheless an unreserved screen star.