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I'm very tempted to start this review by saying "boing, boing. boing", but as that is a bit passé. I won't. Bounder is a cute little game from Gremlin Graphics and the basic idea seems to be original.

You must guide a large orange tennis ball that is bouncing up and down. You see the game as if looking down on the ball from above and as progress is made down the hazardous course the game scrolls vertically over several screens. There are safe areas paved with hexagonal bricks to bounce on and there are deadly areas, which are just about everywhere else.

Along the way, and in addition to the difficulty of just bouncing where you want to, various aliens are moving around. Some are more deadly than others, most are generally unhelpful, but there is a boxing glove that gives you a helping hand to make the final jump to the goal.

Also along the path are bonus areas which give you bonus points or extra lives in most cases, although there are penalties in some cases. Should you complete the course an extra bonus screen appears and more mystery boxes, containing various amounts of bonus points, can be bounced.

Control of the game is a bit tricky to master. Keyboard or a joystick can be used and this gives you control over the direction in which the ball bounces. If there is a large gap between one safe area and another, whether you make it across the gap or not depends on the amount of time the ball is in the air.

Perhaps the most unfair obstacles are the walls. They look just like another type of ground but attempting to cross them brings instant death. There are arrowed areas which give extra big bounds allowing large gaps to be traversed. The trickiest bit seems to be to get the screen to scroll when you want it to, rather than when it causes you to mis-time a bounce. The graphics are very good with the upper part of the screen in Mode 0, showing the ball growing larger as it comes up toward you and diminishing as it falls earthward.

A status area at the bottom uses a split screen technique to display number of balls left. points and so on in Model. This area includes a screen which displays the bonus points as you land on bonus squares. There is also a record of how many jumps you are allowed when you go into the bonus phase at the end of a successful level. Each unused jump, after you have bounced on all the boxes in the bonus phase, multiply your score.

This game has a nice quality about it. It is polished and has some humorous touches. I found controlling the ball a bit difficult at first, but I managed to get the hang of it in the end. I like the idea that, to improve your score, you have to learn the course. The best games seem to be those that need some degree of learning.

The game is a bit frustrating in places. One thing I didn't like is the way that, when you lose a life, the new ball appears in a position you don't expect. Your eye tends to stay at the position the ball disappeared, meanwhile you are losing another life on the other side of the screen. Also it took me ages to work out that walls were impassable, Apart from these two minor criticisms, I think the game deserves to be a success.

I was surprised by the sheer originality of this game, Gremlin Graphics really have produced a bumper bundle of software. At a time when I was beginning to think that software houses were jumping from one arcade conversion to another or else they were waiting for someone to come up with a semi-original idea so that they could pinch it a smallish software house comes up with something this different. I suppose that this is where I get loads of letters from readers who have seen something similar in the arcades and I missed it.

Right now I'm finished with the heaped praise, on with some comments. I prefer Thing On A Spring. The graphics are better in Bounder, the music every bit as good and the concept totally novel, but I don't think the gameplay is as good. Bounder is good but don't buy it until you've defeated the evil goblin.

I don't usually like Mode 0 games - they are far too chunky and anyone with their head screwed on right - your nose should point in the same direction as you walk - will appreciate the square pixels you get in Mode 1 and use stipples to generate the extra colours. Bounder is an exception. The lively colours make this game something special. Gremlin have cheated by only scrolling half the screen - filling the rest with a picture of a tennis ball with arms - but the bit which is scrolled does so very smoothly.

Being a bunch of lazy wimps we got an infinite lives poke but the nice man at Gremlin graphics said that he would exact a horrible punishment on the editor if we let it out. So here it is - while the Ed's not looking. First you... oh no, here he comes... take the counter tape... aaargh... and... oooh - no, that hurts... poke... yeee ow... with no, no, no...