First up there's Superkid, starring young Tom Essex, brother of the singing David. This little chap has extraordinary strength and can fly since he drunk his clever uncle's latest special formula - he thought it was a bottle of lemonade!

Meanwhile, the Mayor of New York is well racked off with the violence on the city's streets, particularly all those bully boys roaming around blasting each other, and anything else that gets in the way for that matter. Yep, the situation's getting pretty heavy and there seems no stopping them. That's where Superkid comes in as the last stand for law and order (yawn).

This is a neighbourhood watch scheme on a grand scale. Young Tom flies around cities rescuing maidens in distress. This entails grabbing silly young girls marooned on the city's rooftops and lowering them safely to Earth. He's got to escort the OAPs on their ramble back from the library to the rest home and presumably rescue pussies from trees as well. Needless to say, he punches the living daylights out of all those nasty hooligans as well.

Basically, this game supplies a few giggles and a bit of fun zipping around the screens in pursuit of justice. Although doing little for your score, punching the old bids is particuarly enjoyable.

Spooky Castle, on the other hand, is rather devoid of anything that might be construed as enjoyment at all. But if you're a fan of frustrating and pointless platform games with naff graphics, this might well grab your attention.

Back on the plus side is Crack-Up. The title's probably derived from one's usual reaction to Break-Out games, and this is one such ball-bouncer. In my humble opinion, this is possibly the best ever version! It's just bouncing a ball against a load of bricks, I know, but it's got loads of special features and different screens to give the idea a new lease of life.

Finally we've got Crossfire, for all budding armchair snipers out there. You play a policeman during the wild days of mob rule in Chicago. You're up against the likes of Al Capone, Legs Diamond and other unspeakably treacherous villains (is that the Ed on the screen there?) and you're among the last coppers who remain law-abiding and upstanding (and probably poor - pillocks!).

And what better way to keep the peace than annihilating all the crooks? Yes, it's the 'get them before they get you' syndrome as the villains appear over walls, in windows, etc, poised to shoot. You gun 'em down from a sniper's-eye view. But don't wipe out the innocent citizens (who are daft enough to keep on popping up in the line of fire) or you'll lose points.

As it's rather tricky to spot the difference between a crook and an innocent citizen, you end up blasting a lot of old men, pregnant mothers etc from the face of the Earth (so much for justice!). Other than this petty complaint, there's some degree of entertainment to be had wiping people out in Rambo-style proportions.

Although a couple of the games are a bit naff, this is one hell of a bargain, with something in there to suit anyone (apart from a disembowelled frog, possibly).

These budget software houses really know how to make the most of their games. They were all good value for money when released separately but now they've been gathered together you just won't be able to resist them!

There's a good range of game styles in the package: shoot-'em-up, arcade adventure and Break-Out, so there's no excuse for being bored.

My favourite has to be Superkid. Written by the Shaw brothers, programmers behind many an Atlantis game, it's a great little arcade romp. The graphics are small but cute and there's lots of colour on the buildings and backgrounds. 4 Game Pack No. 1 may not include the best Speccy games but it's superb value at £3.99. That's under £1 per game - amazing!

Overall 70%
Simple but addictive games for an unbeatable price.