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An intriguing software house, Interceptor. Their early games for the C64 were pretty lousy and won them a bad reputation, which wasn't enhanced by their running feud with Llamasoft's Jeff Minter.

But recently the standard of their releases has improved dramatically with the likes of China Miner, Wheelin' Wallie and Burger Chase - games which aren't particularly original but which offer impressive graphics, good sound and plenty of fun.

Tales Of The Arabian Nights continues that trend and this time there's a genuinely original feature: speech. Without the benefit of any add-on unit, the program generates a marvellous, throaty pirate's voice announcing the game's different stages.

Admittedly it's a gimmick, and after playing the game a couple of times you'll tend to make use of the 'speech off' option. But it's certainly impressive - and so is the soundtrack. A rollicking piece of eastern flavoured music which gives the game great atmosphere.

The game itself is simply an amalgam of familiar game ideas - but one that offers plenty to do. There are eight different screens, and most of them are platform games in which you leap around collecting Arabian jugs and avoiding eastern nestles. The only novelty is that each jug bears a letter and you must collect them in order to spell ARABIAN. Since there are three A's, you may have trouble working out the right order!

These screens are, however, broken up by others involving shoot'-em-up arcade action - in one you paddle a boat along a crocodile-infested river, while in another you're on a flying carpet, dodging arrows.

If you've already got programmer Ian Gray's earlier game China Miner, you may think this one is too similar. Still, there's enough high-quality action here to keep most budding sultans happy for many a night.