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It's ironic that one of the most enjoyable games I've seen in weeks should be written for the 16K Spectrum, but it proves that you don't need buckets of memory or state of the art graphics to produce a good game - just a good idea.

You control a little 'droid who must load a spaceship with cargo scattered around the four levels of a cargo bay. The levels are connected by lifts, and populated by killer toads. The bay is several screen widths across, and scrolls smoothly as the droid moves across the screen.

This might sound like just another platform/collect the object game, but it has a couple of neat twists. First, the cargo itself is deadly until de-toxified, and then must be gently nudged onto the ship. Also, there is a cuddly, mini version of the monster from Alien lurking in the cargo bay. This alien moves faster than your droid, and you can often find yourself face to face with him and having to frantically race to the nearest lift, wondering whether or not you'll make it.

In 16K it has to be a simple game, but it's not less enjoyable because of that. The graphics are colourful and have character, and trying to avoid the alien whilst manoeuvring the cargo into place combines strategy and arcade thrills in a way that many more complicated, and expensive, games fail to do, even with an extra 32K of memory.

F.J.