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Buck Rogers - Planet Of Zoom seemed a pretty good game when it first appeared in the arcades and then on a ROM cartridge, all those years ago. Today, Buck's grey hairs are showing.

The action is set in the 25th century, so why does the game play like it came out of the Ark? Buck's ship is pretty antiquated, being a minimally detailed, chunky piece of flightware. It may go left and right, up and down (a little), fire, and cast a shadow but it hardly looks or behaves like the latest thing in space technology.

Planet Zoom is not much better, being mostly a set of vertically scrolling, vividly hued, striped bands. Why anyone would want to fight over it beats me. On its surface pairs of posts appear at frequent intervals - you fly between them as they jerk towards you.

Once you've done that, some graphically uninspiring alien craft arrive. Now you must not only fly through the posts but pot the aliens. As exciting as a plate of cold porridge.