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It's been a long time since space invaders first ousted pinball from arcade supremacy and banished it to dark and deserted corners of arcades and pubs the length and breadth of Britain.

A new game for the BBC differs from earlier conversions by leaving the design of the playfield totally up to the player.

The screen is divided into sections, the table itself, and the menu of options along the right hand side. The cursor keys are used to move a cross over the screen, placing slings, bumpers and flippers in just the required position. To construct the playfield, the player just moves the cross onto the selected shape on the menu, presses the space bar and then positions it wherever he desires.

Other options include 'bounce', which alters the rebound speed of the ball; 'flip' and 'tilt' change the strength of the flippers and the force that can be used while playing. The Z and / keys are used to operate the flippers and the Space bar flicks the ball into play - the longer the key is held down, the faster the ball emerges.

Once you have designed your masterpiece of pinball technology, the whole playfield can be saved onto cassette, making a library of designs easy to create.

My only criticism of the game is that it doesn't cater for the bone idle computer owner because it hasn't a ready made pin table built in. The graphics, however, are exceptionally good and very clear. The game's best feature is that it can be as easy or as difficult as you like.

BBC Pinball is as professional a piece of software as you are likely to find, and one that would grace any gamer's software collection.

Pinball is available for the BBC Model B from Kansas City Systems costing £8.95.