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Boulder Dash, the sequel - Rockford's Riot, Boulder Dash Three, it was all too much! Recently, a band of hardened Boulder Dash addicts stormed First Star's office and at gunpoint, forced Boulder Dash baron Peter Liepa to hand over the only known antidote, the Boulder Dash Construction Kit.

For those of you not familiar with the game, it's deceptively simple but fiendishly addictive. The objective? Guide Rockford through the caves to collect diamonds. The catch? Precariously perched boulders, exploding fireflies and butterflies, and always the clock ticking on relentlessly. Some caves are simple enough, just collect as many diamonds as you can before taking the exit. Other caves are devoid of diamonds at first, so you have to find a way of making them.

The Construction Kit comes in two parts; cave editor and game module. Using the editor, you can create full size caves with all the features of the original games. The far right of the screen shows a menu of items and options. Choose the feature you want and 'paint' it on the screen. Each cave is larger than your screen, but by pressing 'F' on the keyboard the whole cave can be viewed. Use this facility to select the portion of the cave you want to work on.

When you've plaved all the objects in your cave (don't forget the entrance and exit), you can set up the clocks and timers. You'll obviously want to set the cave completion time, but you can also set times for amoeba growth and magic wall 'milling'. You'll need to set values for the diamonds too, and the caves on your work disk on the right hand side of the screen. Use the cursor to select a cave, move the cursor to the left-hand side of the screen, choose where you want that cave in the list and press the button to place it.

When you've got your list, save it! Your list can have as many caves on it as you like, and you can repeat them if you want. To play the game, you'll have to power off and re-load, so make sure you've saved off any caves or list.

The game module is slightly different from the usual. Before you can play, you need to enter the name of your list so the program can load in the appropriate caves. After this is done, it's indistinguishable from the real thing!

When you realise this kit comes complete with Boulder Dash IV, sixteen original caves that you can play, edit and re-arrange to your heart's content, then you'll know this is a great package for Rockman fans.

Boulder Dash Construction Kit is undoubtedly the best thing that could happen to me. Gone are the sleepless nights and the nightmares (worse), no more will I risk losing my job, and my wife is speaking to me again! It's in the shops, it's getting near Christmas, go out and buy it!