Fourth Encounter, confides the blurb, is a space game with a difference. You can be forgiven if optimism once again triumphs over experience. I too thought this might be the one some of us have long hoped for, the game where you really do befriend the aliens instead of vaporising them. The one where, by flashing a few lights and playing the right jingle, you are accepted into the galactic equivalent of Thomas Cook's Travel Club.

Alas...

There are books designed not to be read but only to grace teak bookshelves. Thorn-EMI seems to have copied the concept in its computer games: the packaging here is nothing short of gorgeous.

The cartridge, in hunky black plastic, comes in a matching case with a booklet of instructions featuring a full colour illustration. Lavish?

Unfortunately, the blurb gives the game away. "Wave after wave... blast your ferocious foe... lethal laser bolts."

Dedication is called for here. Press F1 to get the menu then set skill level, choose play or practice mode, one or two player game then you're off. Don't die too quickly because you have to go through that rigmarole every time around.

Once into the game, things improve. The graphics and sound are excellent.

After that, what is there to say? Everyone knows the scenario (wave after wave etc). In keeping with the Gucci packaging these are jolly cute aliens - the first bunch look like chinese lanterns, the second like Disney cartoon jellyfish.

The big build-up, of course, is for round four (Fourth Encounter!) but Thorn-EMI spoils it all by letting you go straight to it in practice mode.

But it's all so dull. Everything happens at a suitably fast and furious pace, lasers zap in deadly fashion, foes attack ferociously, wave precedes wave according to script.

It's impossible to fault Fourth Encounter (though Thorn could zap its master of cliche in the blurb-writing department) and equally impossible to praise...

If you have teak bookshelves standing empty against your designer-matched fabric wallpaper, buy it. If not, you can buy better programs for one third of the price.

Best of all, buy a real Space Invaders game. You can't beat an original masterpiece.