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Micromouse is an excellent, fast-moving arcade game for the ZX81. It is written entirely in machine code, and the display is in high-resolution graphics without the need for any additional hardware.

The hi-res graphics give a screen display which is more effective than can be achieved using the graphics characters in the ZX81 ROM, and the machine code programming enables a fast, responsive game. High resolution programming is becoming quite common now and can be used to particularly good effect in arcade-type games, it is certainly breathing new life into many a trusty ZX81. Indeed, one wonders whether the limit of the machine potential has been reached, or whether further innovative programming might lead to still better software. The ZX81 seems far from being on the shelf.

When the program is complete it will run and you progress to the next level. To make things difficult, there are bugs which move around the program stealing letters, but which you can destroy using "data kill" (but Micromouse cannot carry both letters and data-kill). If more than a certain percentage of the program's letters are stolen, there is a system crash and you have to staart again - this usually happened to me. It is not an easy game, but perseverence can lead to a long game and a high score.

Micromouse is a first-class high-resolution arcade game.