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I'd played the original Atari version of Ballblazer and, as soon as the rules were explained to me, I was hooked. I was hopeless mind, and the computer-controlled droids walked all over me but I was hooked nonetheless. Now that it's available on the Spectrum, Ballblazer is only marginally less fast and furious and still very addictive.

Ballblazer is the name of a futuristic sport somewhat like rugby or football, played in the 31st century by the inhabitants of many worlds. You represent the planet Terra in the finals of the Interstellar Ballblazer Championship in the year 3097.

Strapped into the seat of your rotofoil the view screen in front of you shows both your own view of the huge chessboard-like playing field and the view that your opponent has. Your view occupies the upper half of the screen and your opponent's the lower, with a small area that shows the score separating the two views. Your rotofoil is a small one-man space craft that zooms around the field in pursuit of the Plasmorb, a small ball of energy which you can control with your rotofoil's own energy field. The purpose of the game is simply to blast the Plasmorb through your opponent's goal before he, she or it does the same to you.

It sounds fairly simple I know, but the excitement of the game comes from the speed at which it all happens and the skill required to control both the Plasmorb and rotofoil. David Levine, creator of the original version of Ballblazer, has said that the game is a true simulation of the physics involved in such a game. This might sound a bit high-faluting but what it means is that the programmers have tried to create the same speed and sensation that you would exprience if you were strapped into one of the high-speed rotofoils. The amount of maths involed in all this is a bit much for the Speccy's little Z80 chip and it can't process it all as quickly as the more powerful machine that Ballblazer was originally written on, with the result that the Spectrum version is marginally slower and the grahics not quite as smooth as on the Atari. Even so, this version is still action-packed and the skill levels varied enough to challenge even the most hardened arcade addict.

It's a game that might be a bit tricky to get the hang of at first simple because it does move so quickly, and the droid opponents that the computer offers don't hang around waiting for you to work out which way is up - they just grab the ball, zoom past you and blast it into the goal while you're still spinning aroun dizzily. Still, there is a two (human) player option and this is the sort of game that probably works best if you play it with a friend and should liven up a few rainy afternoons.