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Cranking the machine beneath me up to 140 mph I broke out of the bend and rocketted away from the other riders, up the long straight. The surrounding scenery blurred into coloured smudges as the bike hurled itself forward, stretching every cylinder to breaking point.

I reckoned I was doing really well, because it takes a fair bit of imagination to get that excited about Super Cycle.

The game was initially programmed on the Commodore in the States by Epyx, the people who brought you the splendid Games series of sports simulations. Now it's been converted across by US Gold and, compressed from a multi-load 64K program to a single-load 48K.

And as might be expected, it's a disaster.

Not really a surprise then to find the conversion's been done by Ian Weatherburn who's responsible for other dodos like Ocean's Highlander and it's a Knockout.

Super Cyle is really Pole Position on bikes.

Finding yourself on the grid, flanked on either side by a mysterious rider - looking exactly like you - the clock begins to tick, and you're off.

"Racing has never been so furious" burbles the text. Rubbish! Even more ridiculous is the statement: "Push it over the limit, and you crash." it's almost impossible to crash. You can ride right through other players without any fear of even being bumped a bit. The only way I found to crash was to ride straight at one of the big signs on the side of the road. This is not the mark of a good game is it?

Label: Epyx Price: £7.95 Joystick: various Memory: 48K/128K Reviewer: Jim Douglas

***

A major disappointment. Everything is just very, very adequate. Epyx should try to get its name taken off it.