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Mikro-Gen are famed for their Wally games. They went for a brief diversion with the excellent but under-rated Battle of the Planets but other than that they are best at sprites. Please note that the screen shots are from a pre-release version - the final program will not have room numbers in the top right hand corner.

Equinox is a space game where you control a floating orb which can be piloted around a complex of caves. Your job is to collect eight radioactive containers and put them in an isolation chamber. Each container lives on a separate level and has to be collected and dropped down a disposal chute. This is a bit odd in the first level where you could just take the canister to the chamber but on the other levels it seems to make sense. The game is like a cross between Sorcery and a Wally game. The puzzles are not as contrived as those in the Wally games and you get to shoot things.

There are 128 rooms - each with quite a lot of detail- and the sprites are very detailed as are some of the objects. This must mean that the programmers were pushed for space and had to leave out a high score table. It is a shame that they went to the extent of leaving out a best score so-far.

Whenever a game has a background tune reviewers complain and players invariably turn it off. lithe game has no music it is accused of being a cop-out. Equinox reaches a compromise - it has a good tune which only plays in demo mode, which also means that you can leave the game loading and go and make a cup of tea. Once the program is in the tune summons you. By doing this you miss the beautiful loading screen (see the front cover).

To get the canister to the chute and then make your way to the next level entails a lot of object shuffling. Much of this is due to the way the teleport transporters work. To use a teleport you need to pay it. This then credits you with a two-way ticket between that teleport and the one connected to it. If you only use it one way and then fly through the maze to get back you can go round for another go using your remaining credit.

This type of gambit is necessary since there are some one way trap doors through the floor and magnetic lifts which draw you up. The teleporter only accepts one currency, a coin which looks more like something you would find in a Christmas cracker. These are very rare so teleporters should be used sparingly. If you run out of money you can sacrifice a life for an extra coin. The money machine will accept your life even if it is the last of your three. This, not surprisingly, ends the game_

The Mode 0 graphics use shades to make even the smallest object look realistic. For extra points you can shoot at the aliens which inhabit the caves. The radiation from the canisters has made them very nasty - if you touch one of the beasts for too long it will kill you. This is an odd way of getting killed and there is no power meter to tell you that you are close to dying.

All the objects are valuable. Oil drums top-up your fuel and if you run out you are grounded. Batteries replenish your laser.

Not being able to shoot isn't too bad as you can play the whole game without shooting anything but running out of fuel is fatal unless there is an oil drum at the bottom of the drop.

I hope that Equinox reflects the standard of future Mikro-Gen games. It certainly proves that they have not got stuck in a rut with the Wally series. There will be one more program featuring Wally and Wilma but after that the cloth cap will be hung up for good.

I found the orb a little difficult to control at first because it bounces and oversteers. Using a downward movement on the joystick to pick up and use things is novel but takes some getting used to. As a puzzle freak! really liked this game.

It is a bit well, a lot - like Sorcery but is not a rip-off. The tasks are very different and you can shoot anything with the one laser. I found working out what to do with the objects very much easier than in the Wally games. It is simple to deduce that you shift rocks with dynamite and open doors with keys. Keeping track of where you are is essential as your time is limited.

Equinox is one of the better games we've seen this month. It looks a little like Sorcery but has much more zapping. The graphics are colourful and have depth - as they should be on the Amstrad - indicating that the game probably originates on this machine.

The puzzles are challenging and well designed giving the impression that a lot of effort has been put into writing the game. My only quibble is that it seems to take a long time to get into the game. I started by losing lives very quickly. I carried on by losing lives very quickly and now that I can play the game quite well, I lose lives very quickly indeed.

Once I knew what I was doing Sorcery, sorry I mean Equinox, was much easier. Juggling all the objects is very confusing. Rooms with a lot of machinery in them are much more dangerous than empty rooms because it is more diffi cult to run away from the aliens.

I found getting into the game quite hard going and if I wasn't reviewing it I'm not sure I would have bothered. That would have been a shame because now I'm hooked.