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I bet the success in the charts of the Ultimate trio is being watched with interest by other software houses. If the two year old Atic Atac can repeat its Spectrum success then how about Software Projects' Lode Runner?

Broderbund's multi-screen madcap dash has been pretty well implemented on the BBC by Tim Lanigan.

After the multi-coloured sprites of Magic Mushrooms or Firebug, the four colour screens with single 8 by 8 characters can look a bit bare. However the action makes up for lack of visual impact. It's a real eyeball exerciser!

You are a "Galactic Commander" out to recover gold ingots from the Bungeling Empire's secret underground treasury. Its minions (who look horribly similar to yourself) chase you non-stop (almost) around every screen (and there are 40 of them in memory and another 120 on tape!) Don't they every get tired, you ask? Not before you do, is the answer.

You can go into any screen from the menu screen and there is no discernible "level of difficulty". The minions do get more numerous and the screens more complex but your powers of leaping, hanging from your fingernails and other athletic actions do not diminish nor does the minions' homing algorithm improve.

Running flat out around the screen won't get you far. Tactics have to be devised, usually to group the minions as far away from the last ingot as possible.