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The Cruise Missile, Tom himself has done his stint in Top Gun and comes down to Earth for car racing action at 200mph around the Daytona racetrack in the game of the film.

As Cole Trickle, you're in the race for the Stock Car Championship Trophy against 20 other Stock Car drivers. Before each race, a qualification round determines your position on the grid for the race. A car status display (C64 version only) shows your tyre wear, and you'll need a pitstop to change them, repair the engine (C64 only), tweak steering (Amiga only) and refuel.

Finish a race with a fast enough lap speed and it's onto the next circuit. Cole's sponsor Harry Hogge, sends through telegrams judging your performance throughout the Championship. The Amiga version has external viewpoints including Sky Cam and trackside views along with options to define the number of cars (from 5 to 20) and laps (a minimum of 10), parade lap length and level of detail. A Player Vs. Player modem facility is also offered. For the race itself, the Amiga version has a first-person perspective while the C64 version has a third-person, behind-the-car viewpoint.

Nope, I don't know what went wrong but all the thrills and spills of 200mph Stock Car racing have been reduced to 20mph or so in the Amiga Days Of Thunder. With a totally unconvincing illusion of speed and barely adequate 3D car shapes, it just fails miserably to capture anything like the pace of the real thing; the graphical detail level option adding nothing to speed it up.

Hard Drivin' has got the realism, the convincing 3D effect and speed to beat this. With a very weak Dave Whittaker soundtrack as well, Days Of Thunder just doesn't get off the starting grid.

With the C64 version being a conversion of the Nintendo game, at least playability is assured. Unfortunately, it's all far too simple and limited in execution with pit stops being the only thing to offer scope for tactics. The cars lack much in the way of intelligence (or maybe their go-for-you tactics are meant to very quickly frustrate the player!), there's little in the way of backdrop variety and the speed effect doesn't match the car speed at all.

Pleasing gameplay and nice start-up presentation plus attractive crash scenes isn't enough to keep you hooked.

Days of thunder? You'll have days of boredom playing the Amiga version. As with Indy 500, driving round an oval track soon gets tedious. Unlike that game though there's very little challenge to even keep you playing. Robin got through to the last race in a few hours, only to be disqualified by a parade lap glitch.

The C64 game is a bit more interesting. I especially like the start-up and crash scenes, which flick to a speedy side-on view to show a different perspective. As with the Amiga game six looped tracks offer little variety, but the game is fast and plays all right. Presentation is good generally, with telegrams between races to tell you what your sponsor thinks. If you're a fan of the movie and don't mind the dated look of the racing, this should keep you happy for a while.

Presentation 51% Attract mode on the title screen, several game-specific and modern play options but mediocre presentation screens otherwise.

Graphics 45% Blocky cars accompanied by totally unconvincing road effect and snail-like pace, track views are mostly unnecessary.

Sound 33% A few dulled and dated tunes accompanied by limited, but meaty crash effects and engine tone.

Hookability 40% A car that drives like a tank (and looks as if it's driving along as fast as one) is not a good sign...

Lastability 37% ...and it doesn't get any better with a slow pace, five depressingly similar circuits and no reward for success.

Overall 36% Unconvincing speed effect and far too reptitive to capture the thrills of spills of stock car racing.

Presentation 62% Race-start sequence, sponsor messages, several play options.

Graphics 55% Limited colour scheme, nondescript cars.

Sound 52% Adequate title tune, typical engine FX.

Hookability 61% Simple driving action is fairly playable...

Lastability 43% ...but very repetitive with very similar oval tracks.

Overall 52% Slightly better than the Amiga version, but hardly the hottest thing on four wheels.