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Pterodactyls are huge winged dinosaurs which have not put in an appearance since the close of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. They used to eat fish. Now at last, they're out of retirement in Terror-Daktil, and boy, are they hungry...!

Before the terror commences, you are in an aircraft flying over a distant land. Control of the plane is lost as you pass huge black volcanoes. The volcanoes approach like shambling blancmanges until, to the accompaniment of sinister music, you crash, and all goes dark.

When the sun rises, the plane is lying broken like a squashed moth, by a winding river. From a vantage point on high, you notice that red blobs are building up over the horizon, into a space-invader-like configuration. They can be shot at with a cannon which can be moved left-right, and the range of the cannonball can be altered by swinging the cannon between 45' and 73' to the horizontal.

The blobs break off to reveal themselves as Terror-Daktils, illustrated in detail, and flying at you with speed and an open jaw. Shooting them down in formation earns 20 or 30 points, and during attack, 100 points.

If you fail to shoot or avoid a Terror-Daktil, one life is lost, and you must wait till the next day when they appear afresh, after dawn. You have three lives in all, and if you can eliminate three arrays of Terror-Daktils, you will be rescued on the sixth day.

The game describes itself as 4D - the Fourth dimension being time. Since any game not involving time would be a still frame on the screen, it's an idle claim.

However, Melbourne House's use of the three spatial dimensions has resulted in very sophisticated graphics.

When the Terror-Daktils fly at you, they increase in size and flap convincingly. Likewise the cannon-balls recede and follow convincing trajectories.

There are some strange things about this game. First, two people called Alan and Fred have got scores already built into the high score table. Second, I found that the computer itself often launches cannon-balls, without me being anywhere near the keyboard, and it went on to get a higher score than me.

A good score is over 10,000, but initially scoring is almost a matter of luck. Get as many shots in roughly the right place, and hitting something is a surprise.

Skill with this game comes slowly, which is good, but once acquired, it offers no great challenge except perseverance.

Terror-Daktil is an unusual variation of the vertical shoot-up theme, and it will take longer than average to tire of.