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Deep in outer space, terrorists have overrun a space colony. The only hope for the isolated inhabitants are - The Quartet. This deadly foursome of Edgar, Lee, Mary and Joe each has their own special abilities, but only two characters can be controlled on the mission.

The action takes place over the space colony's 22 horizontally scrolling levels. To progress through a level, the player seeks out the mechanical monster who holds the key to the next level, destroys it and grabs the key to the exit.

Throughout each level, terrorists leap out of portals and attack the dynamic duo. If they aren't blasted and manage to touch a character, his or her power, represented numerically at the top of the screen, is reduced and the character disabled for a few seconds.

Littered throughout the space colony are springs, shields, jet packs, score multipliers, smart bombs and anti-alien timers which are automatically picked up when touched and added to the character's armoury for the duration of the level.

When all 22 levels have been conquered you find that the terrorists have just reclaimed the space colony, and consequently the battle begins again.

A simultaneous multi-player platform game has a lot of potential for success, but one of this quality certainly doesn't deserve any. I played it for a while on my own, and found it a great disappointment - and even when I played it with someone else I found that to be only a minor improvement.

The game itself isn't enjoyable, the graphics are pretty ugly, and there is a severe doubt about the lastability. There is surely no more than a few hours interest contained in this package - and for a full price game, I consider that pretty appalling.

I've played Quartet in the arcades quite a few times, and can quite honestly say that this "officially licensed conversion" is nothing like it.

Duet (well, that's what it should be called, as only two characters can be controlled at once) is a shoddy and unprofessional waste of money. I can't understand what Activision are doing releasing it in its current state.

The game slows down when there are more than a couple of sprites on screen, the scrolling constantly speeds up and slows down and the firepower doesn't vary from character to character.

The graphics are absolutely awful, with indistinct sprites (especially the monsters) and backdrops so bad that they look as though they've corrupted.

The original's playability has also disappeared. My first go went on for hours, and after a couple of games I'd gone round the levels a couple of times and become totally bored. Go to the arcades if you want to play Quartet, and buy something else if you want to play a good Commodore game.

I suppose Quartet can be likened to Gauntlet in that it features "two players on-screen at one time-o-vision", and also because it involves the negotiation of maze-type screens, collection of keys and the destruction of creatures.

Mind you, that's where the resemblance ends; Gauntlet was pretty good and Quartet is really awful. The characters and aliens have been reduced to meaningless sprites, and their movement around the screen is awful. The single redeeming feature of this rubbish is the music - and that isn't that brilliant either.

Presentation 67%
Reasonable on-screen presentation, but long and annoying delays throughout.

Graphics 29%
Awful sprites and backdrops which do not justice to the arcade original.

Sound 74%
A few decent tunes and jingles.

Hookability 32%
Too easy to play, with the first game going on for ages.

Lastability 15%
The poor playability and boring gameplay generate no desire to return.

Overall 15%
A badly-programmed arcade conversion which has lost all of the original's fun and compulsion.