Following their successes with Crumble's Crisis, Space Lobsters and Astro-Droid, Red Rat has decided to jump on to the compilation bandwagon with a collection of four earlier games: Escape From Doomworld, Panic Express, Domain Of The Undead and Laser Hawk.

Escape From Doomworld involves you in a mission to save a team of scientists from a planet about to attack Earth. Gameplay is divided into a platform game, a flying shoot-'em-up and a bombing run. The platform section has you leaping over Dalek-like robots and electric pulses in order to collect canisters of air, a rocket and a small block marked GO.

Once you have mastered this section you are taken into a game which reminded me of Choplifter. Avoiding enemy fighters and collecting fuel along the way, you must rescue the twelve scientists, returning them to your starting position.

Though not spectacular, the graphics and sound are adequate. Although the controls take some getting used to, I found Escape From Doomworld had an addictive quality and was well worth playing.

Panic Express is well named - the train is out of control and you must get to the engine to stop it. Leaping over carriages and avoiding balloons, lightning bolts, laser grids and shark-infested pools, you reach your goal.

A note of warning - take care over the last three screens. It took me nearly three hours to get through these to the engine. "Well done: You stopped the train" is the final message - and an anticlimax. Once completed, it is not a game I would return to.

Laser Hawk is completely different and as enjoyable now as when I first played it. Great graphics and appropriate sound. The evil forces of Proclrata have attacked and you are chosen to launch the counter attack using the most advanced helicopter available - Laser Hawk. The plan is simple - destroy everything. Points are awarded for blasting buildings and enemy fighter craft while avoiding missiles and lava eruptions.

This is a shoot-'em-up, pure and simple. It's the best game of the compilation and it soon converted me to a shoot-'em-up fan.

Domain Of The Undead is disappointing, attempting to be a clone of the arcade Ghosts 'N Goblins. It fails miserably.

With appalling graphics, sparse sound and difficult gameplay you make your way through a haunted graveyard. With four crucifixes and a gun for protection against evil spooks, ghouls, skeletons and bats, you tour the area.

Despite Domain Of The Undead, this compilation is very good - a good buy if only for Laser Hawk. I am waiting for volume two.