Attack of the clone miners... Episode several hundred and eighty six.

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Caverns Of Chaos is the first of what looks like being a series of games in the tradition already mentioned enough times. The difference between this and its adversaries, Siamese twins (joined by the chip) is that this game is absolutely superb.

It moves with all the beauty of its renowned father figure and is in fact a lot more accurate in its collision detection than the Dragon version of its reverend predecessor.

The screens are very well designed and beautifully titled with a very clearly pronounced wit (which, of course, appealled to my warped mind immensely). Each has a clearly defined route and although I have only finished the first six or seven, Blaby kindly provided me with the keyword which enabled me to start at any screen so I have now seen them all (and I'm not publishing the keyword - unless of course someone out there in the real world can provide what I like to call "the right price").

The graphics are very good, the litle man looks suspiciously like Miner Willy with a space-helmet on, and the sound is fine.

You have nine lives (which gives the player a fair chance to get through all 20 screens, allowing for carelessness). Lives are lost by bumping into one of the many objects or falling too far (although this does seem to be a very long way!). The man can leap great distances and all the Matthew Smith jumping tricks are thrown in early on to allow the programmer to come up with one or two of his own.

To sum up then, a very well-designed and executed program which should delight any Manic Miner fan.