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What an absolutely brilliant game! This must be the ultimate in high speed arcade action. The sound is excellent and the graphics superb. The screen is filled with laser bolts, flying debris, brain waves, mutating monsters and robots. It's got to be seen to be believed!

There are nine screens full of various nasties to be disposed of and people to be rescued. As you progress through each screen, the number of nasties increase and they get meaner and meaner.

You start off positioned in the centre, surrounded by assorted robots and monsters with nowhere to hide and only a laser pistol with which to defend yourself.

On screen one there are only robots plus a few obstacles. These can be quickly dealt with, in fact if you don't blast everything in sight within about five seconds then you have had it. Bonus points are gained if you pick up the two humans wandering around.

Screen two starts with ordinary robots, large indestructible robots, pulsating rings, people and more obstacles. After a short while the pulsating rings mutate into machines which hover about the screen firing spinners at you, so speed is essential.

Screens three and four are the same - only worse, that is there are twice as many robots and machines.

Screen five is a bit tricky. In addition to all the other obstacles and nasties, there are giant brains with tiny bodies and legs. These fire thought bolts or brain waves which home in on you and then mutate into another indescribable form.

Six is the same as four, which is a bit of a relief after the struggle to blast your way through five.

Seven is nearly impossible. There are pulsating rings - different to the previous ones - bouncing about the screen at high speed. They quickly mutate into giant frogmen's heads on tank tracks which emit spinning balls.

Eight and nine are like three except that there are far more robots - over 40!

There are the usual options available before the game starts - sound on/off, set start level, keyboard/joysticks and a two player game. Once the game has started there is a pause facility so you can stop for a second to get your breath back.

To play Robotron 2084 properly you will need a pair of joysticks (Plus 1 type). There is a keyboard option but it is impossible as there are four keys to move and another four to fire in each direction. The only way to play is to use the two joystick option. One joystick is for moving and the other to fire. You can actually run one way and fire the another. The problem with two joysticks is how to hold them though. I ended up strapping one to each leg!

Robotron 2084 is a highly recommended action packed arcade classic. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give it 11 for addictiveness.

Roland Waddilove