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Here it is, arcade freaks - the game you've all been waiting for. A pulsating shoot-em'-up featuring no less than 42 separate attack waves, unsurpassable graphics and sound, and more laughs than Kenny Everett.

Our exclusive, pre-release viewing of the game caused a sensation in the office and almost caused a breach of the peace, so great was our excitement.

The game is a sequel to Llamasoft's Attack Of The Mutant Camels in which you used space ships to try to stop advancing alien camels - a scene cribbed from The Empire Strikes Back.

In Revenge Of The Mutant Camels the tables are turned. You are the camel who has to advance through wave after wave of extraordinary assailants. And when I say extraordinary, I mean extraordinary.

You start off happily enough with birds flapping across the screen and dropping 100-ton weights on top of you. But then come the rain-clouds which rain cats and dogs - literally.

The next attack is 'Manic Minter', an animated drawing of the programmer himself, accompanied by his favourite llamas.

Succeeding attacks are: whacky whackers, mutant-mutant camels, Tardis-like telephone kiosks, kangaroos on skis, exploding sheep, music stands, fried eggs, and Atari joysticks.

And that's only for starters. When he put this game together, Jeff Minter decided that anything and everything he came into contact with was suitable material.

Jeff lives close to Greenham Common, so naturally enough, cruise missiles and CND protesters make up one attack wave.

Another attack wave is made up of alien cigarettes which turn to stubs when zapped and teapots which try to pour tea on to you.

But the main source of ideas is the world of micro games itself. Our heroic camel is assaulted at one point by clearly identifiable Spectrum computers. (If you hit them, all the rubber keys fall out and bounce all over the screen.)

Another familiar attacker is the original Pacman, accompanied by his chasing ghosts, while the 38th alien wave is called 'Attack of the Awful Software'.

As in Manic Miner, you will also see a dig at Imagine's heavily-hyped teenage programmer Eugene Evans. Speaking of Manic Miner, I wonder where Minter got his ideas for attacking toilets with flapping seats, and telephones with jiggling receivers?

It's all great fun until you remember you're supposed to be destroying these aliens.

To destroy an alien, you spit fire at it by holding down the fire button, and pointing your joystick in the direction you wish to fire in.

You can also get your camel to jump or duck in terrific, fully animated style.

The graphics are indeed remarkable. Throughout the game, your camel is walking along against a beautifully drawn background which scrolls smoothly right to left. The background features futuristic buildings, twinkling stars, palm trees, and pyramids with blinking eyes.

And don't forget the sound. The game opens with the best piece of music I've ever heard on a micro - specially supplied by a friendly concert pianist.

Just before your camel embarks on his voyage, you get a chilling, bass tone which lets you know in no uncertain terms that the next few minutes are going to be daunting.

As soon as you've got any good, each game will last at least half an hour. That's because you have five camels in all, and each one has a protective shield, which can withstand a certain number of alien hits.

Even so, it'll take you days of practice to get past about the 10th attack wave. Another attractive feature of the game is that you can set the first 32 attack waves to come in random order. This means you won't get bored by going through the same order each time you play.

However, if you do use this random option, you're still left with the final challenge of ten unknown attack waves when you've mastered the first 32.

Of course, if you do ever get through the lot - and it could take years you simply go back to the beginning, but this time you have twice as long to survive in each wave.

All in all then, Revenge Of The Mutant Camels is a miracle of programming which should provide hours of high-quality entertainment. This game shows conclusively that the Commodore 64 has come of age as a games machine.

Indeed, Commodore ought to give Jeff Minter a medal. His program is the best reason I've yet come across for buying one of their machines.