I approached this tape reluctantly, suspecting that it might be very similar to many others I have tried. And so it was; on one side was a version of Breakout, and on the other side was Scramble, both arcade games that have been with us a long time.

However, not mine to reason why yet another of these should be offered, so I tried them out. Thro' the Wall proved to be a very basic Breakout game; you have three lives and each brick is worth 10 points. Three speeds are offered, but even 'superfast' is not very taxing.

Unlike some version of the game, the angle of the ball can vary wildly according to the angle at which it strikes the 'bat'. This is the only thing that is difficult to judge. But the display was smooth and I found no bugs.

Not so with Scramble. Maybe it was the demonstration tape, but I had trouble loading this.

Several times when I thought that it had loaded successfully I found that either it refused to respond to the keyboard at all, or went from the 'choose level of play' stage direct to the 'you have achieved the highest score' stage apparently missing out the game altogether!

However, when it did play correctly it was a simple game using either the keyboard or joysticks. Your airplane flies over enemy terrain; rockets and enemy craft attack you, and your aim is to shoot them down or avoid them. The display moves fast and the controls respond well, but I found the way the terrain was generated a bit flickery.

I didn't find these games to be as good as other versions I have seen. Adequate, but no more.

C.C.R.