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Guns, tanks and battleships don't sound like the ingredients for a highly original game but, unlikely at it may seem, they have combined to produce the USA's best selling game of 1983.

Beach Head won the award for best graphics and sound effects in a computer game in a poll published by the influential American music paper, Billboard magazine, as well as topping the sales charts for several months.

The object of the game is to guide your fleet of ships through the island's air and sea defences, negotiate a mined harbour and land a whole division of tanks on the beach.

The award for the best sound effects was well deserved - the bombing and engine noises are so realistic you could quite easily believe you're smack in the middle of the Battle of Britain. But the graphics, though impressive during the first two phases, become progressively more strained and less sophisticated during the latter scenes.

Having said that, Beach Head leaves 95 percent of British Commodore software standing and any shoot-'em-up fanatic will love the game.

Beach Head is the first of a new range of software called US Gold being produced by the Birmingham-based company Centresoft. It costs £9.95 on cassette or £11.95 for the disc version.