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Dragon's Lair was the first laser disc arcade coin-op. It caused quite a stir when it first appeared thanks to the cartoon style animation of the screens and the original gameplay.

It wasn't easy to play, and people soon got bored trying to get to grips with the thing, even though it did look extremely pretty.

It would take a brave programmer to try and attempt a conversion of this particular coin-op, despite the current trend towards turning arcade games into computer hits.

Software Projects were the brave people to attempt it - and their programming team included none other than Andy Walker from the now defunct Taskset software company.

The computer version features many of the "challenges" from the coin-op original. There's the falling discs, the skull hall, the burning ropes, the weapons room, the Giddy Goons, the tentacle room, the chequerboard and, of course, the dragon.

It also features the incredibly irritating "death sequence" where Dirk, the hero, collapses into a pile of bones and reforms every time you lose a life. This wastes time and is boring after the second time.

And you'll be losing lives nineteen to the dozen when you begin playing - just like the coin-op! I'd have thought it would have been better to make the game easier at the start just to get people into the swing of things. But oh no, you have to struggle to stay on the first falling disc as a stupid genie tries to blow you off. And more often than not he succeeds.

I doubt if many people will want to play through to the end of the game where Dirk has to rescue the maiden from the fire-breathing Dragon.

Each different section, which has to be loaded from tape each time you want to play, faces the player with a different combination of joystick/keyboard controlled moves which have to be learnt, adding to the general confusion.

Dragon's Lair proves that some arcade games just aren't worth converting - or if you really want to have a crack at it, not to stick slavishly to the original concept which - as in this case - wasn't that great anyway.

The C64 version of this game has the benefit of prettier graphics and better sound. The Spectrum version is simply too difficult to get into and not very attractive.

A brave attempt which doesn't come off. Sorry, Software Projects...