It's baffling. Why does a company with all the makings of a good version of this arcade classic release it before it's ironed out a couple of glaring faults?

The graphics are nice enough: good chunky asteroids that shatter satisfyingly into fragments when you fire at them (five different sizes of fragment, according to the inlay, but who's counting?).

As well as blasting the asteroids themselves, you can also fire at other unidentified flying objects to gain extra points.

There are ten different speed levels on offer, and on the fastest (1), the action is very fast indeed. I'd hesitate to call these skill levels, though, since as the asteroids slow down, you slow down too.

In practice this means that the slow levels aren't really easier than the fast ones, and have the added hazard that, once you have cleared the screen a little, you may nod off during the long periods where nothing happens. Nothing below level 5 is worth considering.

More seriously, beware of the thrust button. Press it and you spin wildly out of control, and taking your finger off the key has no effect. All you can do is relax and enjoy the scenery until you crash into something and are reincarnated (supposing any of your three lives are left).

Because you can't actually avoid any of the asteroids, the skill content of the game is drastically reduced. Much the best tactic, certainly until the screen has been cleared of the larger fragments, is to sit tight with your fingers jammed on the rotate and fire buttons. You can get quite a high score that way and, while you are spinning, you seem to gain some immunity to being hit.

The game usually ends when your fingers go numb and slip off the keybouard. There is an option to use joysticks, but it's probably fortunate that few ZX81 owners have them, otherwise the game could go on all night.

C.G.