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What the hell was that? Too late. Whatever it was it was big, faster than a rat up a drainpipe and packed a wallop like Ali with a brick in his glove. Encounter is a great game. Based on the old Battlezone where you take a view of 3D landscape through the front of a tank, instead of vector graphics like Battlezone this is in full solid graphics, four times as fast and unbelievably smooth.

The enemy, loosely described in the guff as a flying saucer, looks more like the ace of diamonds in the real thing. It works quite well, lending a certain surrealist feel to the game. The tank can be driven anywhere around the landscape, which is dotted with large cylindrical objects a bit like gas storage tanks. What they are is anybody's guess but if you fire at them your shots just bounce off. When you eventually manage to catch, and even more unlikely hit, one of the saucers it explodes impressively in a mass of fragments.

Access to each screen is a novel idea. Once one screen has been cleared, a gaping hole appears. Take a deep breath, head straight into it and once inside all hell lets loose. Large globes roar towards you and you have to avoid them all before getting on the next screen.

We could do with a few more like this for the Commodore; good games are sadly lacking.