The Colour Genie is just starting to roll off the production lines and into the living rooms of the nation. By a remarkable coincidence PCN suddenly finds itself with, if not a flood, at least a large trickle of software for the machine.

So here's a round-up of what's on offer.

This is a strong contender for the Worst Pontoon title - anytime, anywhere, for any computer. It is supposed to be the classic game dressed in science fiction trappings - a battle between the computer and a humanoid (that's you).

Even at the loading stage this game is on shaky ground. The first part of the program loads under Basic control, but then the player must turn off the computer - and then turn it back on while holding down the MOD SEL key and load the remainder! Not a good technique.

Once it's running, the game starts by displaying a dreadful title and shuffling the cards. To see your hand, you press T for 'Twist' and then, if you wish, twist again, or S to 'Stick'.

The computer then makes its selections until you are either beaten or you win. Unfortunately, the program logic does not follow the standard rules of pontoon (as claimed). During play, I landed a Royal Pontoon - ace and queen - but the computer contemptuously claimed a win with a pair of eights and a five.

This version of Pontoon is a game that would benefit from a total rewrite. A risky purchase until it's had one.

Definitely not one for the ornithologists among you. The object is to kill a flock of hawkish birds in the first part, and then to destroy their eggs in the second.

Written in machine code, this game is fast, graphically good and with sound in the arcade manner.

You move your laser about the screen, firing as you go, but control is a bit difficult because the authors chose some awkward keys for the operation. As if that were not enough, these unearthly birds unleash a rain of indestructible missiles.

Assuming you manage to get through this part, the second phase requires even greater skill. You must nip out of a safe area, grab an egg, dash back, destroy it, then repeat this performance.

Sound easy? It isn't - the eggs are protected by a variety of defences too numerous to mention.

Even though I didn't become too skilful at this game, I found it enjoyable and worth a go.

This is yet another version of the arcade and pub standard in which you must land your crippled plane safely by bombing to smithereens an innocent city.

One, if not the only, good feature of the game is the chance to set your own skill level by varying the height of the city buildings and the number of planes with which to attempt your landing.

Essentially, it's all boringly repetitive and I am lost as to why a gravestone should greet your success.

It's a shame that what was such a hit in the arcades should be reduced to the mundane by sluggish operation and limited graphics.

It would have been much better written in machine code instead of Basic.

As you might expect, this turns out to be a better Space Invaders type game with wave after wave of intergalactic meanies dropping out of the sky.

What they are dropping on is you - the last surviving human in your Starfighter (fortunately not the German version).

A comprehensive instruction page tells you all you need to know to play the game and the position of the operating keys is sensible, making it easy to play.

The aliens appear in the now obligatory wave formation at the top of the screen, dropping bombs all the while. However, not content with the old sideways shuffle, individuals in this bunch peel off and whizz about, adding to the hazards.

Things get increasingly difficult. The graphics and sound are excellent but games of this type have all but their day.

A simple game, this is a maze with a difference. You have to drive radioactive tanks around the screen and crash them into nuclear reactors without colliding with the trail they leave behind them on screen.

Skill levels can be set between 1 (hard) and 9 (easy) and you can choose the number of tanks and reactors. Although the game is simplicity itself, the variations make it quite challenging.

As the tanks move about, a nicely realistic geiger-counter sound is emitted, but eventually it becomes a bit wearing.

A good starter game with all the right features, graphics, sound and variation and at about the right price.

I'm sure everyone has seen the arcade versions of this game which features a mad gorilla hurling barrels at the unfortunate, lovestruck wretch trying to rescue the damsel in distress at the top of the building.

To all intents and purposes this is identical to the arcade version with excellent graphics and sound and the whole gamut of ridiculous situations from which you must extract yourself and the Fay Wray caricature.

Nuff said?