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It's about time someone started a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Chefs' now that Burgertime is also available on a Spectrum.

Once again our intrepid hero is faced with the daunting task of completing the hamburgers.

The object of Burgertime, in case you've forgotten already, is to help the chef to make four burgers, which are displayed in layers on the screen and form walkways for the Chef.

Walking over a layer makes it drop down onto the waiting bun below. You are chased around the screen by a vicious fried egg and a couple of mean sausages.

Defence against three meanies comes in the form of a pepperpot which has five shakes left in it. Peppering a nasty will paralyse it for a few seconds while you make your getaway.

This version for the Spectrum features three burgers instead of four, but the screen layout is still good.

The most annoying point about the entire game was the awkward layout of the movement keys. The game uses the cursor movement keys for control which can be confusing.

There are no bags of fries to collect in this game. These are available on the original and are useful as they boost your dwindling supply of pepper.

The version of this program currently available in the shops is version two, which has better graphics for the Chef, a title screen while loading and also a better routine for peppering.

After playing version one, which we have in the C&VG office, there are a couple of things which I think should have gone in version two. Firstly, all action stops while a layer of burger drops down a level, which can be annoying. There is also an awful mistake in the spelling of the game title itself which remains on-screen at all times while you are playing. When I phoned Blaby about this and asked whether it had been corrected, they told me that nobody had noticed it before and that I was the first to complain.

Apart from all this, Barmy Burgers is a good game for any Spectrum-owning Burgertime fan. The cassette, from Blaby Computer Games, runs on a 48K machine and is available from WHSmiths. It costs £5.95.