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Each of these double cassette packs contains four games originally released by Acornsoft.

Volume 1 starts with Magic Mushrooms, which in my opinion is one of the best games Acornsoft ever produced. It is a ladders and platforms game in which you guide our hero, Murphy, along a series of escalators and conveyor belts, slides and trampolines, and past the odd nasty or two.

The object is to collect mushrooms dotted about the screen, but many other features appear in the nine screens making up the game.

You also have the facility to create and save your own screens, so it is possible to design them to be well within the limits of the newest novice or to test the most experienced. The sound is pleasing and the graphics colourful and well designed.

In Planetoid, a version of the arcade game DEFENDER, the screen scrolls sideways allowing your spaceship to destroy raiders intent on kidnapping humans from the planet's surface. These alien invaders come in a variety of shapes all having their own method of attack.

This version is very fast. Smart bombs allow you to wipe out all the aliens on the screen, and a hyperspace button means you can teleport out of danger.

Maze has simple but effective 3D graphics which change fairly quickly to give a good illusion of movement. You start on level one of a secret installation and must find three tags hidden in the maze. This will allow you to open a box and release the key which operates the lift to the next floor.

You can view a map of the maze, but this will only show those corridors which you have already travelled along. The position of the evil security robots is also indicated.

Monsters is another ladders and platforms game where you dig holes to trap the monsters, then fill in the holes before they can escape.

I was surprised to find two similar games in this compilation - I wonder if it wouldn't have been better to have replaced Monsters with another type. In spite of this, the pack represents excellent value and is almost worth buying just for Magic Mushrooms.

Volume 2 starts with Arcadians, an invaders-style offering in which the aliens are not happy to line up and be zapped 0 they randomly peel off from their formation to dive-bomb you.

It's simple but very playable, definitely one of the "let's have one more try" type. Both sound and graphics are good and make this a very professional game.

Meteors comes next, and although a classic, I'm afraid it does look a little dated. Your spaceship sits in the middle of the screen as a meteor shower drifts across its path.

As you blast each boulder it breaks into smaller particles until finally it disappears. When all the meteors have been atomised another screenful appears. The only variety is the periodic visit from one of two types of alien ships which buzz across the screen firing at you. However you get the feeling that they are only half-hearted about it all. Graphics are black white only. I feel this one would have been better left gathering dust in the archives.

Snooker is for two players and the best computer version I have seen. You play and score as in the original game and have the option of adding topspin or backspin to your shot. The strength of shot can be adjusted by varying the length of cue shown on screen, and the effects of hard shots are realistic, with balls scattering in all directions.

Starship Command is a space shoot-'em-up in which your battleship stays in the centre of the screen and the universe rotates around you. As well as the viewscreen there is a control panel and radar scanner to warn you of oncoming aliens, some of which are invisible. If your energy becomes low you may launch an escape capsule to return to starbase where, depending on your prowess, you may be given another ship and another mission. If you are too late to launch an escape capsule you will be given a posthumous rating.

It's always easier to criticise than create, but I feel that Volume Two could have been improved by dropping Meteors and including a different type of game, perhaps Monsters or Boxer, another excellent ladders and platforms game.

If you don't already have these games as singles they are definitely worth buying, and if you have to make a choice I'd put Volume 1 as being the better value.

Beejay