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I don't want to alarm you but Mastertronic has just made escaping from Alcatraz about as easy as punching your way out of a paper bag.

OK, so it's only a computer game, but it's just as well. For if this were all that it took to escape from the world's toughest prison then those killers wouldn't be locked up for very long.

All you have to do is wander around a 20 x 10 grid collecting thirty items, dump them in a compound (none of the ropes, guns or ladders are used for anything!) and then pick a safe route to the north wall to where a hole in the fence has been conveniently ignored by the guards for you to escape through.

If you are expecting sharks, searchlights and sirens then forget it - all you get in Alcatraz Harry are a few static drawings of guards and dogs which are simple to dodge by plotting their popsition on a piece of graph paper!

If you stumble inadvertently into a screen with a guard in it for a second time, it's curtains. They're sporting chaps, the guards in Mastertronics' Alcatraz, for when you walk past them for the first time they stand completely still.

In order to escape, you have to ake with you some secret files that are hidden at the foot of one of the many grilles scattered around the grid.

This doesn't add any challenge though, as you are told which sector you are looking for at the beginning of the game.

If you are completely stupid and scramble down the wrong grille, you will have your head blown off by a firing squad.

Alcatraz Harry is written in Basic and lacks both speed and smoothness of scrolling. The animation is amongst the worst I have seen in a computer game.

Harry moves around screen as if doing an impersonation of one of John Cleese's silly walks.

Alcatraz Harry is about one hour's fairly boring entertainment for £1.99. It runs on the 48K Spectrum and is in the shops now. If you want a decent escaping, collecting, maze-style game then get Atic Atac - it's only just over twice as dear as Alcatraz Harry, but it's incompatably better.