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Gamers as old as myself will recall PSS's Maze Death Race for the 16k variant of the Spectrum. It was a bland affair, but I stuck with it back in the early 80's as that's all there was as a substitute for the arcade classic Rally X. Some argue that Ultimate's Trans Am was far more arcade-like and certainly more fun. But for me, although brilliant, the house of Sabreman played too loosely with the concept and delivered a much different experience.

Gone were the confines of the maze and the player was racing across the American continent, as suggested by the title. Surprisingly, it has taken all these years for a good rendition of this classic to come out on our beloved home computer. Is it too little too late? Or does it fill the void which remains unfilled?

Way back in 1980, Namco continued on with their success of Pacman, and by using the same arcade board, they created a similar concept of a maze game. Gone were the ghosts and power pills, gone was the static single screen maze, instead they replaced it with cars, clouds of dust and a scrolling playfield. Although not as successful as the aforementioned Pacman, arcade lovers look fondly upon this title as one that is iconic of its era.

Game developer Tom Dalby has been dabbling in game development on the ZX Spectrum since 2011. He has entered mini game comps as well as creating full games before the release of Death Rally-X. He has been credited with a number of game titles including: 2k RGB Challenge (2011), 4k Tap-N-Join (2011), Catch The Cash (2011), DNA 1k (2012), Drag'njoin4k (2012), Fadv: Flynn's Adventure (Never Released), Flynn's Adventure In Bombland (2011), Lost In Maze (2011) and The Order Of Mazes (2015).

The premise is very simple in this title. As the driver of a rally car you must locate all the flags hidden within the 4-way scrolling maze and avoid the enemy cars that give pursuit. To aid you in your search for the flags, the right hand side of the screen displays a scanner showing the location of each flag. It doesn't show you the maze pattern, but it is a good indicator of "as the crow flies" how to get to them.

That may sound like an easy task, but there are many dead ends to the maze and perilous rockfalls also block the way. If that wasn't enough, you have to remember that there will be cars tailgating you and you need to use the scanner wisely to evade them as they are indicated on it too.

However, there is a handy, limited smokescreen that you can fire upon the enemy allowing you to stun them for you to escape their grasp. Once all the flags are collected, it's on to the next level where there are more cars than there was before. The landscape and maze also changes as you progress.

Although there are differences, when compared like for like against the arcade version, this wonderful Speccy version is convincing enough to make you believe you are playing the real McCoy. With its vivid colours, fast scrolling screen and addictive gameplay, the spirit of the arcade is captured perfectly. It's very responsive to play and keeps you coming back for more. Obviously, this version takes ideas from both the 1980 original and the redux 1981 version called "New Rally X", which on the 128k version, you get to hear the AY rendition of the chirpy tune. The sound effects are good too, without distracting from the background music.

It is a dated style of game in comparison to what has been released on the Spectrum in recent years. What I mean by that is, it's not attempting to be a technical marvel.

The single best thing this remake does is convince the player that it is a title that could have easily have been released back in the day, rather than be a modern homebrew title. It shows what was capable of the Speccy in a way that was possible back then.