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Life is simple on Terra Cognita, the latest planet generated in the Code Masters game solar system. The pseuds and sophisticates of the arcade world might suggest that you've got to have a few kangeroos loose in the top paddock to enjoy this most simple of games. Well, I'm willing as ever to stand up with the drongos of the world - for totally mindless mega-kill and mutual assured zappability, Terra Cognita is pretty darn good.

Your mission nigh-on impossible is to blast your craft across one hundred screens-worth of alien hate to avoid your total annihilation. Ignore the box scenario - just supple up your wrist action. You can adjust the speed of your craft marginally with the joystick, but you'll get a more sensational effect by passing over the + and - signs on the narrow draft board-type screens that scroll relentlessly toward you. Other squares to watch out for are Fuel (F) and Bonus but beware the Time Shift squares - they'll whizz you back to screen one, a real pain if you've already wanged across hall the cosmos.

It's wise to pick up as much fuel as possible 'cos you'll never know where the next dump is, and with only two lives it's real life and death stuff out there. And, if you get the chance, swipe the field generator 'cos it dollops death to the squillionth degree on the droids. Otherwise it's mix your manic manoeuvring skills with that of the deadly digit - the old trigger finger.

Simplicity itself! But then so were all those other great ideas - the wheel, dental floss, the Ed's brain...