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This was the second Atari 2600 conversion from the dream team – programmer Antonio Savona, graphic artist Ste Day and composer Saul Cross. Antonio has made the source code available at github.com/tonysavon/Keystone-Kapers-C64 and the game closely follows the timings and patterns of the original Atari 2600.

Garry Kitchen's Atari 2600 original was inspired by the slapstick Keystone Cops movies produced by Mack Sennett.

Officer Keystone Kelly has to guard the shopping mall, because Harry Hooligan is out to steal all the takings. Kelly starts at the bottom right of the mall, with Harry setting off from the centre of the first floor. Harry's aim is to escape across the roof. Kelly can use the escalators at the end of each floor to move up, or he can use the elevator (lift) in the middle screen.

However, if he gets ahead of Harry, Harry will give him the slip and move down again. Kelly must avoid bouncing balls, shopping carts and bundles of merchandise. Contact with these costs Kelly valuable time in his chase, so he should jump over them instead. At higher levels, a toy biplane flies across the floors, and getting hit by it costs Kelly a life. Should he catch Kelly, the time remaining is converted into bonus points and the next level starts.

Kelly can also earn extra points by picking up the moneybags scattered around the mall. But hurry, time's running out!

The upgraded graphics of this C64 version do a really good job. The intro bitmap looks great, and Kelly is a well-animated if rather portly hero. What is clever is the way sprite priority is used to make Kelly appear behind some objects, adding depth to the screen.

The classic Activision "sunset" is also replicated behind an effective skyline. The radar display is very effective and useful.

The difficulty does a good job of increasing steadily; the option to restart at higher levels once reached (selected on the title screen) is a welcome addition. The music is superb, giving it a real ragtime flavour that fits with the slapstick theme.

There are a few flaws, most notably the long wait for the elevator (lift) that can make or break a game. While it is designed to be tactical, it does feel rather awkward.

There are also cases where objects appear too quickly on your level, making it almost too difficult to avoid being hit. After a few levels, it does get repetitive and lacks that little extra depth it needs to tempt you to keep playing. But that is a criticism that can be levelled at the original too. Achim Volkers' Rent-A-Cop has already shown this game was possible on the C64, and there is little to choose between the two.

I was really looking forward to this, and it turned out great. Now where's my big bag of money?