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And here's us thinking that nightmares are caused by eating cheese after 9pm! The real blame lies in the three heads of the Morgul, who dwells far away in his dark kingdom, and grows stronger all the time by feeding on the feat which his presence instills in people.

Naturally those folks are more than a little wary of going off to do battle with Morgul, so they build a robot, devoid of any notion of fear, to do the job for them - that robot is called Turrican, and it's you who controls him throughout the game.

Turrican carries his quest through five, eight-way scrolling levels, each one consisting of a number of different stages. Being a robot, he isn't limited to legwork only - if the need arises, he can transform into an indestructible gyroscope for a limited period of time, so he can squeeze through normally impassable barriers.

Each stage is played over a strict time limit, and if the seconds run out, one of your lives is lost. If you can get to the end of level five, Morgul is yours for the taking - defeat him and no longer shall the inhabitants of the world wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat!

It's rare these days to see an original C64 game, let alone a good one, and Turrican is most definitely both of these. It's an enormous game, with a simply vast map, and contains all the ingredients of a hit - acres of playing area, untold amounts of creatures, items to collect; the list is almost limitless.

Graphically it's superb, from the chunky, robotic Turrican sprite to the pixellated perfection of the nasties and some of the most imaginative backgrounds you'll ever seen on a C64; just check out the massive Aliens-inspired level later on in the game!

Not only that, but there are a couple of lovely effects, the best one in my mind being the way Turrican is reformed, atom by atom, after losing a life - brilliant. Best of all though, Turrican is extremely playable and maddeningly addictive - with twenty lives and some well-powerful weaponry to work with at the beginning you might get the impression that the game is going to be a doddle.

Think again!

This is a very difficult arcade adventure, and you need every life you can get your mitts on. There are some games that sneak up on you, make you go weak at the knees and won't let up until you've completed it. Turrican is one of them. Remarkable!