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One of the classic arcade games, often emulated but never in my opinion surpassed, is Boulderdash. The concept is simplicity itself. You control Rockford, a handy little mole who whizzes through the boulder-riddled sub soil collecting diamonds as fast as his little paws will carry him.

Collect enough diamonds and a door opens up. Reach the door to the transporter to the next level up, and start again in a different cave.

In practice it isn't that simple - it is ever? - as there is a stringent time limit with a really off-putting, panic-inducing ten second countdown.

Rockford is well aware of this, as any pause in the action leaves him frowning and tapping his foot impatiently.

This is quite apart from the fact that the more subsoil you remove the more Rockford is likely to receive a boulder on his head as he strives for the next gem.

The caves themselves are of varying degrees of difficulty, from not too easy to downright impossible.

Cave A lets you zoom around and acclimatise to the perils of the plummering boulders you inadvertently induce. Cave B does more of the same, while Cave C wiped me out for about a fortnight as I struggled to clear all 24 diamonds and find the exit in time.

Expert boulderdashers have shown me that there is a technique to every screen, although to assist the unworthy there is a facility to flip forward four caves at a time, or a pause button to allow you to plan your route through the earth.

Trapping Butterflies which turn into diamonds when you casually drop a rock on their heads is a theme in several caves, together with flooding them and avoiding nasty little "warps" set to chase you around the screen.

The whole game is tremendous pacey fun and an absolute must for any Atari owners. And if this doesn't leave you exhausted Boulderdash II is coming. Buy it!