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Call me narrow-minded, but until recently I thought it was possible to judge the quality of a program simply by its size - i.e. if it fits in 16K then forget it. I was wrong.

You're trapped on an Asylum planet called Bovryll. To escape, you must move around the planet, or to be more accurate, a maze of cubes as this is what Bovryll looks like on your TV screen, killing things before they kill you.

There are three skill levels to choose from, Level 1 is 'easy' and allows you to race around the maze incredibly quickly, Level 3 is 'hard' and simply slows your movement down, making you an easier target.

A nice feature of this game is that it allows you to redefine the playing keys. This, of course, means that Bedlam is compatible with absolutely any joystick - what a super idea.

Unfortunately, whether you choose to use joystick or keyboard, the control of your laser takes some getting used to. This is because to change direction and run, something that I needed to do quite often, you need to push the joystick once to point you in the required direction, then release it and push again to actually move. This system is sometimes useful but more often just plain troublesome, and totally baffling if you haven't read the instructions before playing.

Most of the things that you have to kill are simply Kamikaze nutters who hurl themselves at you. However, as you progress through the game flying saucers appear and these actually shoot at you, and quite accurately too. Both types of enemy move within the confines of the maze, the maze being only one screen in size. It is therefore easy enough to develop some sort of battle tactic.

Though the game plan is not original, it is still enjoyable.

The use of sound and graphics is superb, with good animation of the various lunatics. In fact, some of my friends didn't want to shoot them as they were so cute.

It's a pity that the game doesn't progress anywhere; with no different screens to work up to and explore, you're left trying to beat the previous high score. Even so, because of the difficulty involved, and the excellent use of graphics, it still ends up being fun to play.

Top marks too for the redefinable keys, and all this in 16K.