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The writers of arcade games have continually tried to keep the invaders theme alive by adding variations. Eventually, someone came up with the idea of putting the laser cannon on a 'buddy' and placing rocks and lava pools in its path - and hey presto a new type of game was born. Now Micro Power has come up with a version for the BBC, available on both cassette and disk.

Keep on trucking might be a good sub title to Dune Rider since, if there is an end to it, other than annihilation, I've yet to find one.

The disk version was sent for review and it is certainly a joy to load a game in this form. Micro Power has made good use of the extra space available to include various title screens and adverts for its other BBC games (but demo versions would have been even better).

The game starts with a small animated sequence as our hero runs from his base and boards the buggy. The vehicle is a good size and comes complete with 'go-faster' stripes.

The ability to go faster would come in very handy in the following action, since all forms of highly-coloured aliens descend from the heavens, hell bent on destroying anything moving on the planet's surface. Controls allow acceleration and braking in a similar fashion to 'Scramble', they let you fire forward and upward and bounce the buggy over the radioactive rocks and lava pools that litter the road ahead.

The response is good and the vehicle is very well depicted with all visible wheels following the contours of the ground most convincingly. There are enough different aliens to keep things interesting.

Although the game is very well written and generally enjoyable to play, the lava pools are just too small to be spotted when your eyes are busy on other parts of the screen. Definitely one for the nine-eyed Droomer Beast of Yasrog.