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Double Pack 1 contains two games, Mad Jax and Planet Attack. In the first you control a car driving through horizontally scrolling scenery and your objective is to travel as far as possible.

Out to stop you are a number of unsociable road hogs, which can either be shot or avoided.

Various items along the roadway can be picked up by driving over them. These include fuel, weapons and a couple of objects which appeared to have no discernible effect on anything.

One of the weapons on offer is a rearward shooting cannon. Although I scored what appeared to be direct hits on vehicles behind me many times, not one of them blew up. Most upsetting.

There are two sections of road, desert and city. In the former there are the road hogs, while in the latter there are additional hazards in the form of moving road barriers.

To survive the city section you must have collected enough fuel during your drive through the desert.

I found the graphics all right but movement was perhaps a little on the slow side. The gameplay isn't varied or interesting enough to hold the imagination for long.

The two sections - although getting progressively more difficult - are rather short and, as far as I could see, repeated ad infinitum.

Planet Attack is the better game of the two. Earth is under attack from Tritanian forces which have established a base on Mars and are being kept in our time zone by the installation of Time Scalers.

It's your job to destroy these by attacking them from the ship Star Egale, but you seem to have about as much chance of succeeding as Stockport County has winning the FA Cup.

Graphics are an improvement on Mad Jax. The background scrolls by on six different levels and gives a passable illusion of dimension in depth.

Forward progress of your ship is at a pre-set pace and movements available are up, down and sideways. Your relative position is indicated by your shadow on the ground.

Armaments available are forward-shooting lasers to defend against attacking Tritanian Auto Droids, Space Cruisers and missiles.

The Star Eagle also has bombs which you can use to destroy ground installations, Tritanian settlements, radar sits and the all-important Time Scalers.

Bombing a fuel dump increases you own fuel level, but if you do run out you can eject to safety. The game then continues as before, with you now controlling your ejector seat.

This amazing device also appears to be equipped with laser cannon and bombs and needs refuelling in the same way as your spaceship did.

After a short run - around 35 seconds - the landscape scrolls back to the launch pad and you must land your craft to gain bonus points. Re-launch for more of the same, but with additional hazards to contend with.

Double Pack 2 includes the game Space Wars and Dreadnought.

Space Wars really is looking a little long in the tooth. You control a spaceship at the bottom of the screen and have to fight off successive waves of aliens or meteors. If you collide with one your shield loses effectiveness and the latter cannot be shot, but must be dodged.

This concept can still work if there is something in it to take it out of the ordinary and bring it alive. I didn't think Space Wars made that jump. The graphics are at best only average, response is a little sluggish and detection of a missile hit on the aliens seemed suspect at times.

The game's simplicity may appeal to younger children, perhaps just starting out on careers in Universe-saving, but more experienced players will probably lose interest after a short while.

The other game Dreadnought, is a sort of subaquatic Dropzone. You control a submarine, blasting enemy subs and negotiating traps and underwater hazards.

You can move deeper into the water or towards the surface. Hitting the sea bed, or indeed surface waves, costs you a life.

Horizontal speed can be delicately controlled and I found that I was more successful when resisting the urge to belt round at a rate of knots blasting everything.

A slower pace made for more controlled accuracy and more reaction time if the enemy ships suddenly turned in front of you - as they had a habit of doing in the later stages.

Although not possessing the finesse, frenetic action or same quality graphics of Dropzone, Dreadnought is not a bad budget game in its own right.