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Fancy yourself as Spartacus? Well, this could be your big chance, but the snag is this time you're stuck in the arena for good. Being a robot may be pretty revolting, but that's the nearest to revolution you're likely to get...

Arena 3000 is a one or two-player arcade game, similar in some respects to Robotron but without the compassionate lifesaving elements. The joystick options enable you to use only one to control movement and firing, or split the functions between the two - tricky unless they are the suction pad variety or you've got four hands.

The year is 3000 AD and you have been transmuted into a semi-human machine (a feeling not unfamiliar to most gamesters after a night at the keyboard). You must prove your worth against an increasingly belligerent mob of robot gladiators.

A silent introduction offers one or two-player options, then it's into the fray against some fairly inoffensive opponents in the first arena. In this, and subsequent levels, you are confined to the screen limits as you blast away at robots which home in with distressing inevitability.

The early stages are simple enough but give a hint of frenetic action to come. That arrives in the form of wave after wave of frenzied attackers needing more and more firepower to destroy them.

These attacks demand instant reactions, and a finger permanently on the fire button. in single joystick play - as you fend off Ty Fighters, Crabs, Spiders and a few other meanies which should have been stamped out centuries earlier.

The graphics are elementary but more than adequate. During the later screens it would hardly matter what the robots look like because there is little time to take in detail, so fast and furious is the action. Use of sound is limited to a disappointing minimum - shots firing, robots snuffing it and the player's own demise, plus a welcome little fanfare for a bonus man every 20,000 points.

A nice touch, too often lacking in Atari games, is the use of a high score table which seems almost extravagant by comparison with the rest of the graphics.

This reasonably-priced game, simple in theory and outdated in practice provides a tough challenge for anyone looking for a pot-boiler to sharpen the trigger-finger before spending some time on something requiring a bit more brain power.