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I've seen some compilations in my time, but this great big wodge from US Gold has to be one of the better ones. We're talking ten games for your dosh, and most of them are pretty good.

On offer then, is Xeno, Mercenary, Trantor, Hardball, 10th Frame, Bobsleigh, Leviathan, The Armageddon Man, Cholo and Shackled.

In the truly fab, must have category are Mercenary and Trantor, with well worth having status going to Xeno, Hardball and Bobsleigh.

Quite good if you like that sort of thing are 10th Frame, The Armageddon Man and Cholo, which leaves just two programs left. Shackled and Leviathan are dire so forget about them.

I imagine you all know about Mercenary so I shan't waffle overly. Suffice to say it's all about searching underground and flying overground in fast 3-D line graphics, while working out how to get off the planet that you've been marooned on. One of the great pieces of software, it almost justifies the price of this compilation on its own.

Cholo is in a similar vein to Mercenary, so if you liked that then it will be just you cup of rose lee, even is if is rather slow.

One of my faves out of this lot is Xeno, which involves banging a small ball up and down a futuristic stadium.

Sort of Speedball without the players, or Ballistix without so many balls. Technically it isn't brilliant, but great fun for two players all the same. The Armageddon Man is the only strategy type game on the list, and is quite reasonable as well, so this is really a collection for the action fan.

Trantor is a bit of a laugh, and features a really big controllable sprite. Something like the fore-runner to Savage (programmed by the same people, Probe, of course), with a smidgen of strategy involved. In fact this very magazine, long before my time hasten to add, called the game, "the best Amstrad program ever."

Something of an exaggeration methinks, but rather good all the same.

Ultimately, compilations are all about how many of the titles you already own, and is it worth buying the collection for the remainder. The decision is yours, but if you don't have any of these then you're going to get astonishing value for money.