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RELAX ON A LEISURELY CRUISE (MISSILE)

Apparently The Deep is a conversion from a coin-op, in which case a) an old one, or b) one that bombed (or possibly both). In it you're the skipper of a ship under attack from squid, jellyfish and octopi, not to mention enemy submarines launching mines and homing torpedoes.

For defensive reasons only, of course, you have eight depth charges automatically, slowly replaced after use. Blast enough enemies and a flag will float to the surface, collect it and a helicopter rushes to the scene. There are five types of flag providing diving bells, homing missiles, speed-up, smart bombs and energy bombs.

Once enough enemies have been destroyed a small icon flashes at the bottom of the ocean and pressing ENTER turns your ship into a diving bell. You must then 'dive, dive, dive', collect the icon and return to the surface to go on to the next level.

There are three levels of mine-dropping fun (mind-dropping?) before the bonus stages. In the first bonus stage a large ship is heading towards you at full steam, your must destroy it with energy bombs. Succeed and you are then placed in a Missile Command-type situation where you use a cursor to aim a laser. You must protect passing ships by hitting the enemy laser beams with your own laser. This done it's back to depth-charging.

Clearly rather lacking in depth (sorry), this game suffers even more from appalling graphics: small blobby sprites wobbling unconvincingly across the screen. Actual playability isn't bad, but the price of passage is unacceptable.

MARK ... 35%

THE ESSENTIALS Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair Graphics: primitive sprites, but decent scrolling Sound: beepy title tune, simple effects

'This is one of the most primitive-looking full-price games I've seen for ages. Sprites are simply animated, while colour is used in large blocks causing much attribute clash. Worst of all, collision detection is very dodgy - it seems to be character block instead of pixel. Sound is pathetic as well. The one professional technical aspect is the smooth horizontal scrolling of the well-drawn background. Even so, this is a strangely compulsive game, proving simple ideas are often best. Better presentation, faster action and a lower price tag could've made a flawed game good.'