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A game of 'wander round the caves avoiding the nasties and collecting the goodies' genre, but once all the objects have been collected you have to discover what to do with them. A game made harder for this poor reviewer, dear reader, by the lack of detailed instructions supplied in the pre-production version we received!

No matter, I girded my loins and sallied forth (not as paintful as it sounds). Seriously though, even with the lack of instructions, the game was good enough to get me to spend a lot of time trying to work out what to do.

The plot is to locate the computer memory bank which is in nine bits and hidden in a massive (thousand plus locations) asteroid. Only when this is done can you get the information you need to save manking from the invading aliens.

The top of the screen shows various details of time, status and position plus icon windows showing items carried, such as batteries and bits of paper. There are interesting adventure-like features such as Help, Pick Up and Drop. Some nice touches are that you have to find objects to ensure success, you are not automatically given a gun, you have to find it and before you can save your position you've got to find a cassette.

The game has good graphics with smooth movement and superb animation, especially the stooping to pick up an object and the transporter sequences, colour is limited to a single overall colour on the animated action screen, but the objects and scenery are so well designed that no confusion was experienced.

The aliens come thick and fast and even on the few screens I managed to explore there was a very varied and evil selection to contend with. I particularly liked the lightning throwing clouds. Messages are scrolled along one line of the top of the screen, but I did find it hard at times to read the redefined character set.

This is an excellent game of its type and I must admit that I am looking forward to receiving full instructions so that I can go back to it in earnest. Probably the reviewer's highest accolade, I do have a desire to go back to this one and I am sure each new challenge will be as well designed as the initial screens, the desire to see what the programmer has in store next is a major contributing feature to the addictiveness of a game of this sort.