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Exolon's scenario requires the negotiation of five levels of unknown territory, blasting aliens and destroying or avoiding obstacles which block the way. The player guides the space-suited figure of Vitorc across an alien environment set over 125 flick-screens; each scene appears sequentially, and once left cannot be re-entered.

Vitorc's path is barred by all manner of obstructions. Alien swarms appear overhead and can be shot using Vitorc's blaster or evaded by ducking down. Other more solid obstacles, such as walls and gun emplacements, can be removed permanently by firing self-propelled grenades. These small missiles home in on enemy installations, but only have a short range and fall harmlessly to the ground if unable to reach the intended target. Other alien defences include land mines and pods which rapidly and unexpectedly rise up from the ground. Contact with either removes one of Citoro's nine lives.

The alien complex is set over two levels, the upper of which is accessed by transporters. The choice of route and inability to retrace steps facilitates the need for mapping of some sort to avoid repeated mistakes on later missions.

Exolon was a hit when it first appeared on 8-bit and is very much a game tailored to the requirements of those machines. As such, it presented some problems for Hewson when they decided to produce a conversion. The project was given to relative new-comer Martin Bysh, a 19 year-old whose previous work was the vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up. Foundations Waste, on the Exocet label.

"Initially, we wanted to make it more of a 16-bit game," declares Martin. "Obviously, the graphics could be improved, but the gameplay had to remain more or less the same to retain the essence of the original. We have re-designed the layout, though, from the earlier versions.

"I first started work on Exolon before last Christmas, when we had decided to make the main character much larger - the main sprite was then about 50 pixels tall. This caused problems however, since the background graphics had to be bigger to incorporate this larger figure. As the game grew in size, we lost the playability.

"The platform element had almost disappeared and it was felt that the gameplay was suffering too much. In the end, we decided to scrap it and start again; the result is more in line with the original game, and is much more playable.

"The large size of the original was also to create one or two headaches: Exolon is 125 screens long and contains over 100K of graphics just to animate the main character. "Memory is a problem," Martin admits. "Each of the five levels have to be loaded separately, and I've had to reformat the 3.25" disk: it now squeezes 420K onto a single side!"

The simple aim of Exolon hardly smacks of innovation, but the gameplay is strong enough to justify its purchase. The smart, if repetitive, graphics provide an initial lure, but thereafter the gameplay takes over.

In fact, Exolon can prove annoyingly addictive: each successive go sees slightly more progress and there is a constant urge to 'just get past that last screen'

There are one or two drawbacks, however, in that the game is quite large, and there's no level entry option; each game begins from scratch and repeatedly playing through the early screens could soon prove tiresome. As with the majority of Hewson products, the ST's sound chip is put to useful employment in producing a reasonable tune and effects, without using scratchy samples.

An Amiga version is planned, but Hewson have not yet signed up an author. Enhancements will be made over the ST Exolon but in what area, and to what degree still has to be decided. Obviously no firm release date is available as yet.

PC versions of Hewson products may well be forthcoming after the PC Show at Earls Court. Andrew Hewson has expressed a desire to first get a reaction from the American market to their current 16-bit products, before committing funds to further conversions.