Who would have thought five (two?) years ago you could have an Italian carpenter dashing up your TV screen, leaping over barrels and gaps in girders, smashing bowls of custard with a huge hammer and avoiding oily fireballs, all to save a feeble maiden from a mad gorilla. Pretty sexist, huh?

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The Donkey Kong style games are the state-of-the-art in BBC graphics. Donkey? Yes, it should have been Monkey Kong, but some Japanese gent made a typo and the name stuck.

Of the two derivatives for the Beeb, Killer Gorilla and Zany Kong Junior, Killer Gorilla wins it for me. It has crisper graphics and inventive if irritating sound effects (which can be switched off). And the action's faster, but then it is £2 dearer!

So up comes the first screen. PP's Mario is at the bottom of the screen. You use Z and X to move him along the upwards sloping girders; * and ? to make him climb ladders. Press RETURN and he jumps the barrels rolling down from the top, or the fireballs rising from the bottom. He can hide up or down broken ladders while the hazards pass by (you can't hide up the ladders on Zany Kong Junior).

If he jumps while standing under a hammer, he gets a few seconds of revenge - bashing the barrels and fireballs for points. With Zany Kong Junior you have to be exactly under the hammer; with Killer Gorilla you don't have to be so precise, a running jump will do it.

Zany Kong Junior uses the space bar for jumping and the fatter hero's reactions are rather slow - you have to jump well in advance of a hazard. But at least their gorilla moves when he rolls the barrels and the fireballs are more realistic. All the time, a bonus is ticking away. Take too long and you'll die of exhaustion.

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Get to the top and you're on screen 2. Here Mario (it's Maurice on Zany Kong Junior, by the way) has to climb ladders and negotiate conveyor belts, but doesn't actually have to get right to the top to progress to level 3. Here's a tip - on Killer Gorilla you can climb halfway up the moving ladders whether they're there or not, just mind a fireball doesn't get in the way. And take no notice of the gorilla, it's harmless. On this round you can collect bags and umbrellas along the way for extra points. Nice touch on Zany Kong Junior - revolving wheels on the conveyors.

Screen 3 is nigh on impossible. But persevere with the timing (press Z just a microsecond before you jump) and you'll be leaping from scaffold to lift like a frogger. And pray that fireball doesn't hang around too long at the spot you need to be.

Screen 4 took me by surprise. I didn't have a clue what to do. There are plugs that disappear as you go over them (you can jump the gaps they leave). When you remove the lot, old Kong collapses along with what's left on the structure.

But that's not the end. You're suddenly back at screen 1, only with gaps in the girders and faster hazards...

Both games have scoreboards. Killer Gorilla is full of odd names like Compo and Johnny Rotten. You need 1680 to get on the board; 6200 to become top. Zany's scoreboard is virtually illegible, in the Beeb's superwide Mode 2 writing.

Killer Gorilla was written by Adrian Stephens; Zany Kong Junior by Christopher Hyde.

Stuart Menges