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The June issue of C&VG carried an interview with various Atari dignitaries who revealed the company's plans to re-launch a much better version of Atarisoft.

Well, the first batch of Atarisoft ST releases has hit the streets and, predictably, they contain a number of veteran titles, including Joust, Star Raiders, and that highly addictive evergreen - Crystal Castles.

If you've been orbiting the earth in Intell-sat or pot-holing in Cheddar Gorge for the last three years, you could be forgiven for never having heard of Crystal Castles. So, for astronauts and cavers everywhere, here goes.

You play Bentley Bear as he tries to escape the endless maze of alleys, lifts, and stairways that make up the Crystal Castles.

The only good thing about these castles is that they're enchanted, being covered with glistening gems and, even more exciting for a hungry bear, large pots of honey!

Not surprisingly, Bentley is being chased by various gem guardians including crystal balls, nasty trees, gem eaters, ghosts, skeletons, swarms of bees (really after the honey - but you'll do!) and worst of all the evil witch Bethilda with her deadly steaming cauldron, just big enough to make broiled bear.

Before Bentley can escape, he must pick up every gem in each of the 37 castles in the game. This he does by running over them - rather like in a 3D version of Pacman! The first nine levels each contain four castles. The final castle, level ten, is the most hairy one of them all. Luckily, strategically placed 'warp doors' mercifully let you skip levels.

Bentley can be controlled with either joystick or mouse (the original coin-op used a track-ball), and pressing fire allows you to jump any nasties that may be after your hide. Jumping trees stuns them but they recover after a few seconds. But gem eaters aren't so lucky, because you can turn them to dust if your jump over them while they're actually eating!

This version of Crystal Castles has been programmed by Hungary's Andromeda Software and an excellent job they're done of it too. It has excellent sound effects, sprite animation, choice and use of colours, and all the playability of the original coin-op. ST Crystal Castles is as addictive as ever and shouldn't be missed by any self-respecting ST arcade freak.