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Atari Games surprised a number of people with their coin-op hit Super Sprint. It seemed to offer very plain driving entertainment with viewed-from-above graphics - when OutRun and the like were setting the world alight with fast-moving 3D thrills and spills in gasp-quality pictures.

Perhaps the explanation is that Super Sprint is just about the nearest thing to Scalextric you can get on a video screen. You are presented with an overview of the whole track with the formula one racers appearing as tiny moving specks - about the size of an ant.

Given their minuteness, steering control is that the game is all about. Very slight taps and adjustments to the stick are required to right the car after taking bends. Just like Scalextric, you press the joystick button to accelerate - hurtling down the strait and speeding away from bends.

Each race is at least four laps long and - should you lap the drone cars - a new, more difficult, tack will be randomly generated.

You can choose the difficulty level of the first track you want to start on by turning a steering wheel towards the track of your choice on an opening screen.

The real fun of Super Sprint is in the business of lapping. This is an advantage the game has oever the conventional 3D race games. You can always keep the other cars in your sights and plan what part of the road you want to be in to take the lead.

On the later screens, certain hazards appear to make life more difficult. A chopper buzzes the track - making a pass from left to right at great speed across the screen and blasting any racer that happens to be in its line of fire.

There are also bridges and tunnels to be steered through - the secret here is to line up your car and speed through - driving 'blind' until your car appears at the other side. There are also oil slicks, and gates that open and close offering a risky short cut.

For real dare devils there are ramps to be jumped.

As well as all the obstacles, there are items dotted around the track that you can collect which help you build up your racer.

Three golden spanners, for instance, will enable you to choose an extra feature at the end of the race. This may be higher top speed, turbo acceleration, increased scoring, or super traction.

The program is at its best as two or even three players game. In three player mode, two people can race with joysticks with another on keyboard. This creates a great forum for jibes about each player's performance.

Super Sprint is such a simple game that the quality of ST graphics son't make it a much better game than any other version. Sure, it does look better - but the game never really majored on graphics anyway.

Fans of the coin-op will welcome this competent conversion to the Atari ST library.