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It had passed through my mind at some time that there was a lot of life left in some of the earlier games for the Spectrum, and now Elite has seen fit to market what to us old hands are indeed classics.

This program was originally produced by Micromega and received much acclaim in its time, so how has time treated it?

Before going into personal opinion, I think a description of the game is in order. It is a motor cycle racing simulation in perspective 3D and you have control over left/right turn and lean, accelerate and brakes either via the keyboard or joystick. You can choose to race any one of ten circuits, all of which I am assured are authentic representations, selecting the number of laps and practice or race mode.

Your view is of the track stretching out from the bottom of the screen and providing you are racing, other bikes disappear or loom larger as you are overtaken or overtake other riders.

In the sky, area information is given on the track, lap number, speed and position. You will skid if you take a corner too fast, slow down if you run off the track and stop if you collide with any of the other rides, a frequent event for me as they weave around unpredictably.

There is a bit of flicker, especially on the other rides and some colour clash when your cycle goes off the track, sound is a rather high-pitched blipping which, with a bit of imagination, passes for an engine noise. None of this spoils the game to any real extent and you soon get absorbed in trying to beat those computer controlled machines, all 39 of them!

It was great to replay this game, one of my old favourites, the original of which lurks in the depth of my program box, and it made me wish I'd kept it closer to hand. No, it hasn't lost any of its magic and I'd still recommend it to you even if it was still at the original price. At £2.99 it's a snip if you haven't already got it.