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Blagger is the justifiably popular arcade game, in the maze genre. The game progresses from screen to screen as the criminal hero, a sort of Raffles of the RAM, rifles the safes of various respectable organisations.

Roger the Dodger, as our red-headed hero is called, possesses the ability to leap fairly prolifically around the screen and this is his main weapon against the various alarm systems and obstacles which gyrate and flash all over the screen.

There are also some wonderfully weird watchmen achieved through some clever sprite definition, an Astronut-type spaceship, a train complete with smoking stack, an angry lavatory seat! Some luscious red lips conceal sharp teeth and there are ladders and conveyor belts and some more dubious bits of architecture.

The layout of each building is done in good old red brick in a graphics window about two thirds of the Mode 2 screen. Beneath this are current score, high-score, level and number of lives. The programming is sufficiently good to keep the character flicker of even many coloured Roger to a minimum.

The Electron version is in no way inferior to that of the BBC. One slight programming anomaly concerns Roger's ability to stand in mid-air without anything untoward occuring. This sort of thing is not of the slightest advantage when you are standing at the top of a floor, unable to jump anywhere but in the most difficult direction.

It's not the easiest start to any game I have played but like other similar games like Ghouls, Killer Gorilla and so on, the correct combination of leaps and bounds, once learned, can be repeated fairly easily until the next problem area occurs.

Roger's purpose on all levels is to get round the screen to pick up the gold keys which are secreted about the place and then to open the safe, then onto the next building. Roger is also up against a time limit for each screen. The seconds are counted off and displayed on screen.

Blagger proved a game which lasted the course, immediately attractive and entertaining, a difficult enough challenge to hold interest and fun to watch. You have to do well or everyone else wants a game.

Dave Reeder