It's four years since his last adventures but Rockford, hero of Boulderdash and Rockford's Riot, has returned in the conversion of his own arcade machine.

The game consists of five worlds which are accessed individually and carry their own different themes. Each has four levels, and comprises an underground landscape of boulders and strange inhabitants. The object of the game is to tunnel past the precariously balanced boulders in order to collect a specified amount of hidden treasure within a given time limit.

Each location has its own unfriendly natives and while all cause death on contact, some explode, when strategically squashed, to create more treasure.

If Rockford's task becomes too exhausting, the player can always try playing Rockman, a platform game featured on the reverse side of the cassette and which scored 69% when it was first released in 1986.

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: colourful but dated, with jerky scrolling
Sound: insignificant title tune and spot effects
Options: definable keys, one or two players

'The new features In Rockford prevent it from being just a simple Boulderdash clone. Such a lot of attention has been put into the presentation, though, that it's a pity the game falls down on technicalities: the scrolling is jerky and the controls are sometimes insensitive. These were problems in the original Boulderdash and instead of improving they seem to have become worse. These niggles don't completely spoil the gameplay but they do contribute towards making Rockford an average budget game instead of quite a good one.'

'The graphics on Rockford might have been passable in the days of the original Boulderdash (Crash issue 12) but now they're only to be laughed at. The animated characters and colour haven't been changed, and the only real game differences are a 128K tune plus new screens. Despite the amateurish graphics the playability and addictive qualities are still there, though, and with the inclusion of Rockman it may be worth a look.'

I've always been a great fan of the now-aging Boulderdash and while some of the monsters from that famous game rear their ugly heads here, there are many new features and fiendish screen designs. Graphically the game is quite good, being bold and colourful, although Rockford himself does tend to look rather small and splodgy. Not 'The ultimate version of Boulder Dash' as it claims on the inlay but a pretty decent imitation.'