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Cuthbert goes to Court could well be the next chapter in the adventures of Microdeal's computer game character, if rumours of legal action can be believed..

The fuss concerns the third game in the Cuthbert series called Cuthbert In The Jungle, which is identical to Activision's Pitfall game.

With both versions currently on sale for the Commodore 64, we thought it was about time someone told you which one to buy.

First on screen was the original Pitfall from Activision. This game is the first computer game from the American manufacturers who began by making cartridges for dedicated video games machines.

It was a shame that the game did not use any of the new high speed load techniques developed for the 64 - taking a good five or six minutes to load.

I first played Pitfall on the Atari VCS and enjoyed it immensely so I was looking forward to a deluxe version on the C64 with greatly improved graphics and sound. This wasn't the case. Activision appear to have tried to convert the game exactly — without adding any frills -- not using the 64's extra capacity.

But there is one useful improvement over the original game. When you lose all your lives you don't have to go back to the very beginning of the game.

For the uninitiated, Pitfall is a simple to understand arcade-style Adventure game. You play Pitfall Harry, a jungle explorer who is racing against the clock to dash through the jungle collecting treasures. Obstacles like rolling barrels, crocodiles, flash floods and scorpions have to be jumped over. But if it's easy to understand the objective, the game certainly isn't easy to beat! Pitfall is fun and challenging.

Cuthbert In The Jungle is not a patch on Pitfall though. It's just not as smooth as the original. When you attempt to use the ladders to the underground passages, you tend to get stuck on the ladder on the way back up.

The graphics are not as pretty either — the crocodiles and scorpions are much too small. One other annoying frill is that every time you want to start a new game, you have to listen to a silly jingle.

C&VG's advice – if you want to have fun in the jungle, get Activision's Pitfall and beware of imitators!