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An unusual game, written in Basic, which shows what the Spectrum is capable of without recourse to machine code.

The main section is a variation of Bagatelle. Your character, Gordon, rolls barrels along the roof. When you press space they fall to the ground.

If you press when the barrel is immediately over a drainpipe, you unblock it. Your task is to unblock five drains.

Sometimes if you miss, Gordon's dog Flash will retrieve the barrel and give you another try.

If you succeed in unblocking all five drains then you get a "surprise" before the next sheet in the form of an unrelated problem or game, for example, mini Space Invaders.

Colour, sound and graphics are all reasonably well used but unfortunately for Games Machine, the big boys have set the standards of animation which we expect from a commercial program.

Although this is a competent and enjoyable game, it lacks polish; each of the sections are of the standard of good magazine listings.

But younger children or inexperienced gamers would enjoy this game.

R.E.