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Frak is a unique game. It features a yoyo-wielding caveman who is under relentless attack by daggers and balloons as he journeys left-to-right over a succession of scrolling screens. You play every second of every game with your heart in your mouth, trying to anticipate whether any move you make puts the caveman in more or less danger than he was previously. And, ultimately, you usually die only a few screens in, because of its fiendish nature.

Before diving into the mechanics of the game in detail, it's worth noting a little about the history of the Electron version because it's very different from the BBC B one. If you know your Acorn Computers history, you'll know that the BBC B came out first and was around for just over a year prior to the Electron's release. Frak for the BBC was written in that early period, it was written to the strengths of the machine and it gained quite a "What The Frak?" following... because there truly was nothing else quite like it. Not only on the BBC, but on any computer! It managed to simultaneously wow the Acorn press with its colourful yet detailed graphics, its almost painful addictive qualities and the tongue-in-cheek humour that rippled throughout it. When the Acorn Electron was released, Orlando revisited the code but realised the Electron wouldn't run it fast enough due to the differences in architecture between the two machines. No matter though, because he kept the detailed graphics and the same level structure but just rewrote the game to run in the Electron's monochrome mode.

With all the memory for colour on the BBC now free on the Electron, he then added a screen designer to the Electron version. He left this feature completely undocumented, meaning it may well be one of the first recorded "easter eggs" included in a game. In fact, it was a number of months before anybody even discovered it. And, when they did, and after the Acorn press reported this and noted that the Electron version also worked on the BBC too, BBC owners went out and bought the game a second time!

This backstory alone reveals just how revered Frak was in the early Eighties. And what's so special about it is that it is (or at least was) one of the world's first truly addictive games. Its cast of characters, consisting of Trogg the caveman plus aliens Scrubbly, Hooter and Poglet, may only be passive cartoon characters with huge anime eyes, and the movement around a series of platforms may seem positively banal, yet it has this incredible hook factor. Basically, all you have to do is get from one side of the screen to another. That's it. The aliens don't do anything at all, they just sit there on the platforms looking cute and impeding your progress.

To remove them from the field of play, you must draw level with them, either by standing on their platform or face them on a platform adjacent to them, and let loose with your yo-yo. If you can reach an alien, it vanishes. The screens are laid out in such a manner that you often need to traverse one section merely to remove a Scrubbly who is blocking the way in a different section. When this happens you must retrace your steps. The problem is that, from the top-right of the screen, in a diagonal path, shoot daggers, and from the bottom of the screen in a vertical path, float balloons. These objects appear quasi-randomly as you attempt to cross and re-cross every screen, and as soon as they make contact with Trogg, he shouts "Frak!" and loses one of his three lives. Similarly, if you mis-time a jump, "Frak!" If you fall more than a very small way (and even if you land on a platform!), "Frak!". If you run out of time, "Frak!". You get the idea.

The reality of this gaming "experience" therefore, is that, for every person who sees Frak as a fiendishly addictive masterpiece of 8-bit programming, someone else will see it as a pointless, unfair, despair-inducing game of luck rather than skill. Personally, I'm in the second camp, and the fact it's the only Electron game with an Easter Egg (the screen designer) doesn't change my opinion at all. In fact, considering one has to work out how to use the screen designer by trial and error anyway, I'd have to be some sort of nutjob to want to fiddle around with it!

And as for the game itself, it's purposefully made all the more infuriating by plunging the whole screen into darkness after a certain period of time. Plus, the random nature of the daggers and balloons often means you have to just spend a great deal of time scurrying around out of their line of sight.

Finally, there's the collision detection which isn't great, and the responsiveness of the game to keyboard controls which, also, isn't great. Occasionally Trogg doesn't jump when you order him to and so just sails off the edge of a platform rather than attempt to jump off the end of it.

Of course, all of these problems are, to hardened Frak-bashers, not problems at all. They are, so they say, what make Frak a beautiful piece of art, because they can all be overcome with stealth and cunning, and repeated gameplay and the odd smile from lady luck.

Overall therefore, Frak is a love it or hate it game; there's no middle ground. I hate it but that doesn't necessarily mean that you will. The only way to be sure is to give it a whirl. It still retains its cult following after all these years, and its original "golden box" release for the Electron still sells for at least £10. There is an Alternative budget re-release too, which features the BBC version on one side and the Electron one on the other - quite a prize in itself considering how radically different the two versions are. This is hard to find though and you can expect to pay even more for this one.