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At last! The program that jealous C64 owners have been looking for. Ever since Elite turned up on the BBC Micro about nine months ago, every computer owner has been lusting after it.

I'm sure that everybody has heard of the BBC version and knows it to a certain degree so I will concentrate on the additions to the Commodore implementation. There are three Acorn implementations at present: BBC disk, BBC tape, and Electron tape. The disk version is the most complete and the tape versions have certain bits removed; in the case of the Electron version, quite a large amount.

The BBC has half the memory of the Commodore 64 and needs to make a lot of disk accesses to make up for it.

The Commodore 64 can accommodate Elite in its entirety, and then some more. So no extra disk use is necessary... and with the laboriously slow Commodore disk unit, that is probably just as well!

The main difference in the controls is that it doesn't use proportionate joysticks and the way the keys are laid out is a bit different. One extra function turns off the planetary lines for extra speed. On speed for a moment most people's worst expectations were not realised, as this version is not as slow as I feared.

The screen display is similar to the BBC original, there are more colours of course and there is a different sight for each type of gun - i.e. military lasers have a different sight to the original pulse lasers.

Music and sound effects abound, different sounds for different lasers, and docking music like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Trumblies are another problem altogether.

Trumbles are modelled on Tribbles from Star Trek. To the uninitiated, a Tribble is a little furry and loveable creature that multiplies like crazy, until they eventually take over your ship.

Trumbles are the same, once you get one in your hold you end up with thousands after they breed, and breed, and breed. You pick up up one by buying it! For 5,000cr no less! Getting rid of them is harder, and Firebird aren't telling anybody. Even ejecting doesn't get rid of them entirely.

As they fill up your hold, you cannot carry as much cargo because they take up so much room. After they fill up the hold, they move onto filling up your cabin, and eventually start covering up the screen thus reducing your available view. Ever tried fighting with a trumble annoying you on the screen?

There are no words to express how amazing this game is, despite the hype. The Commodore version is a great improvement over the BBC version. Get it now!

Note: Having had a quick peek at the Spectrum version (due out in a few months) I am not so impressed. The Spectrum just cannot handle this type of game. There may be more missions, but the hardware cannot cope. Go get a C64 instead.