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Felix was the star of three separate Micro Power games. I never really got to grips with his face-off against the Fruit Monsters, but both Felix In The Factory and his battle against the evil weevils are pretty spiffy pieces of software. There's nothing really much to them but, rather like Pac-Man, they just work well as ideas, and so you feel like loading them up time and time again.

Felix In The Factory has no real backstory. It's a ladders and levels game in which you must keep the generator (pictured bottom-right) topped up with oil. A can full of oil is placed randomly in the maze of ladders and platforms and you must wrestle your way over to it. Firstly you have to descend to the conveyor belt at the bottom of the screen and then leap the objects on it. Then once in the "factory" itself, you need to avoid the roaming monsters and jump underneath the oil can to grab it. Then, finally, return to the bottom of the screen for a second time and get back to the generator. The conveyor belt begins to churn in the opposite direction as soon as you've collected said oil can so now you have to leap the objects coming in the reverse direction.

Also scattered throughout the platforms are (a) a pitchfork and (b) a sandbag. The pitchfork can be grabbed in the same manner as the oil can and, once protruding from Felix's sweaty palms, the idea is to charge at the roaming monsters and impale them. If you can successfully do this, the monster will dramatically fall away to oblivion with a suitably demure sound effect. The sandbag is a little more bizarre as it's used to deal with the mouse who, now and then, scurries across one of the factory's platforms accompanied by a tinkle of notes.

There's no telling on which level the mouse will appear so most of the time he's merely an unfortunate irritation, suddenly making an appearance and forcing you to abandon your plans and quickly get out of his way. However, with only four platforms to choose from, if you do collect and drop the sandbag, you have a 25% chance of the mouse, when he does next appear, running headlong into the sand and awarding you a bonus.

Felix In The Factory has two big disadvantages which just prevent it being a must have. The first is that it gets too hard, too fast. Unlike most platform games, which have 'screens', this just keep on adding an additional monster to the mix every time you manage to bring the oil can back to the generator. When the game starts, there are three of them and even avoiding them alone calls for quite a bit or rocking and rolling on the game controls. It's not easy by any means. By the time there are five of them - just two successful forages later! - it's almost impossible to make it to the oil can and back without colliding with one of them. And if you're tempted to grab the pitchfork and make mincemeat of those monsters then be aware that the generator overheats at a furious speed. Every second "wasted" running after a retreating nasty is one second too many, if your ultimate intention is to see how far you can get.

And this is, ultimately, its second problem. Even if you manage to get to the oil can and back three times, by the time you start the fourth dash the generator is likely to already be pushing critical. You'll quickly depair of the fact that, after quite a short time (four minutes or so) the game just doesn't give you enough time to be able to do what you need to - if that generator just ticked up a tad more slowly...!

Felix In The Factory is one of the more ubiquitous titles. On the back of universal praise for the game (but a bit of hand-wringing for the strange key controls it includes), it not only sold well back in 1983, and it was also included on 10 Computer Hits 3. That also sold well. You can therefore (usually) pick up a physical version of it for less than £1. Note though, that if you try to play it via emulation, its keyboard controls don't match those of modern PC keyboards and you will have to play around with Elkulator's key-mapping features to get the game to work properly.