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Our Amiga's had all its going to take from you and has decided to turn the tables. Using the home-made laser digitisation equipment that you recently interfaced it with, the computer 'somehow' sucks you into its binary by-ways and plonks you behind the handlebars of a light-wheel for a game of Atron 5000. What a good plot. It makes you wonder why no-one's made a film like this (Irony Warning).

Atron is a battle to the death between you and another rider, fought in a series of scrolling arenas, littered with obstacles. Each light-wheel moves around the arena at a fixed speed, leaving a wake of pure energy (deadly to the touch) with which he has to fence in his opponent. Both riders' positions are shown on separate scrolling displays allowing each to keep an eye on whatever traps the other might be laying.

Clever riders can make use of icons which appear in the arena. Each icon is one of two colours, corresponding to the colour of a light-wheel. A red bomb, for example, erases the trail of the red rider, while a yellow bomb does the same for the yellow rider. An 'S' puts one light-wheel into turbo mode, consequently making it a lot harder to control, but also allowing skilful riders to enclose their opponents quickly. The 'M' arms its collector with a missile which can be used to blow an escape route through an obstacle. When a 'W' icon is activated, a wall is instantaneously built right in the path of your opponent, inspiring big laughs all round (i.e. HA HA).

The fire button activates a weapon. The fact that you can collect icons of your opponent's colour means you can make life fun for him by giving his light-wheel turbo speed just as he's approaching a wall. What a *nice* game.

If you're looking for fancy graphics and sound, don't buy Atron 5000; if you're looking for one of the simplest and most addictive games on the Amiga, look no further.

There's something about the way it's brought out the malicious instincts of everyone in the office this month - it's almost worrying to think your so-called friends could gloat so much when you slam into a brick wall!

It's so hard to put down - you're always coming back for 'just one more go' so that you can wipe the floor with a grinning Geordie, an out-of-her-tree Austro-Egyptian or a rad-lad from Flint. Quite simply, it's brilliantly addictive from the first time you pick up the joystick; but beware - it's the ideal way to lose friends!

As far as I'm concerned, this knocks pixels of any of the other Tron games we've looked at this month.

Its twelve different arenas give it the variety the others lack and the pickups lend the game an air of malicious fun. Nothing beats watching your opponent go up in flames after you've dumped a wall right in front of him. Nothing, that is, except watching him head towards the side of the arena then speeding him up at the last nano-second so he can't turn in time!

The graphics are even more sophisticated than they need to be, with bas-relief pipes and domes cutting down the space to manoeuvre, but sound isn't used particularly well. All you really get are a couple of digitised vrooms at the start - it would have been nice to maybe have a sample of the Nyeeeee sound from the film. Still, Atron's loads of fun, and at the price, well worth a purchase.

Wow! - two games based on one of my favourite films in one issue! It's enough to turn you pink with pleasure - when it's not making you so mad that you're going a nasty shade of bright beetroot puce, that is.

If you want to make new friends, don't invite them back to youor house for a nice cosy game of Alton 5000 - it's designed to bring out the worst in everyone. You just can't resist letting out a gloating snort when somebody else careers headfirst into a brick wall (and nobody laugh at me, or else...).

You wouldn't go out of your way to call the graphics outstanding though the clashing, bashing sound effects are pretty atmospheric - it's another one of those situations where gameplay is all that counts.

One reservation - the one-player option is slightly easy. But who cares when there's a whole stack of friends you can really annoy?

Presentation 86%
Single and two player options, along with three speed settings. Effective split screen display and high score table saves to disk.

Graphics 79%
Not brilliant, but differing arenas provide more variety than most games of this type.

Sound 65%
Good sampled effects and reasonable whooshing and cornering sounds.

Hookability 90%
Play is fast and the many cunning methods available for wiping out your opponent can make the action very satisfying.

Lastability 82%
Each game takes you through all twelve arenas, so there aren't any graphical secrets to uncover, but the urge to bump up your score is hook enough, and the two-player option will keep you going for months!

Overall 87%
An exceptional variation on the old Tron theme, especially addictive in two-player mode.