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There is nothing new under the sun. Every week a software house produces a new game claiming that there has never been anything like it before. I suppose that the ideas, like old jokes, must originate somewhere but most games can be likened to a predecessor. In the case of Boulder Dash, its ancestor is the Dig Dug arcade game. The nearest game to Boulder Dash on the Amstrad was Fruity Frank.

The plot is fairly simple, you play the part of Rockford, an insect-like man. To score points you have to run around a selection of mazes collecting jewels. The mazes consist of soft earth which you can dig through, and solid walls which have to be circumnavigated. Impregnated in the earth are the precious jewels and worthless boulders. You may stand below them, but if either of these objects should fall on you, you lose a life and go to the start of the screen. As you progress onto the later screens, it is important that you learn the rules which govern the way in which boulders fall, so that you can leave the way open to the jewels. Once the required number of jewels have been collected, you can make your way to the exit and collect a time bonus or the remaining jewels for a further bonus. On later screens more hazards appear.

The first major hazard is a butterfly, this appears on a screen where there are no jewels to collect, they have to be generated by dropping a boulder on a butterfly. This is made extremely hazardous by the butterflies' ability to kill you on contact. All the butterflies have to be squashed before you can exit the screen, simply releasing the creature allows it to roam around the perimeter of the earth which has been dug away. Usually it will catch and kill you.

Fireflies are glowing square blobs, they have a more predictable movement pattern but move very much faster. To get to some of the latter jewels it is necessary for you to construct a garden path to lead them down, and then slide in behind their backs and take the treasure. The host of flashes continues: a growing amoeba and an enchanted wall. The game is beautifully written, the scrolling is rapid and smooth, and the animation realistic. There are plenty of little touches such as multi-coloured blocks which scroll within themselves at the beginning of each screen.

Boulder Dash is incredibly addictive, the strongest 'Just one more game and then I'll finish' I have ever come across.