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Karnov, a fire-breathing Russian strongman, has returned to his home village, Creamina, located somewhere in the vast wilderness of the steppes.

After a lifetime spent travelling with a circus, he is looking forward to a peaceful retirement. But it is not to be.

Unknown to Karnov, Creamina has for centuries been the hiding place of the Treasure of Babylon and legend has it that a great evil will visit the world lithe treasure falls into the wrong hands. Now Ryu, a wizard of awesome power, has located the treasure and, aided by his evil minions, has carried it off, leaving behind hordes of terrible monsters to terrorist those villagers who remain.

Karnov realises that only he has the power to defeat Ryu and return the treasure to his hiding place. He sets off through the monster-ridden countryside seeking the fragments of a lost map to guide him on his quest.

As you control Karnov on his adventure you must attempt to collect a number of icons. These will increase your strength and firepower, providing you with weapons to use against the enemies you will meet.

The game has been developed by Electric Dreams Software from the original Data East arcade game, and shows it by the scope, detailed graphics and range of locations through its pine levels of gameplay.

It is not an easy game to master, combining both strategy and fast action. Whether this makes it an addictive challenge or a turn off depends upon your reserves of skill and patience.

Karnov is also a multi-load game. If you are playing the cassette version, this can lead to some frustrating delays while you rewind to level one.

But unfortunately this is a price that has to be paid for the amount of detail in the game.

Some arcade games translate on to home machines as Ben Hur does on to a six-inch portable TV. Karnov is not one of these, although the graphics are not as good as the blurb on the cover would have you believe.

It is packed full of problems, however. Perhaps too full. The dividing line between a successful encounter and oblivion is a fine one, and the constant restarts become irritating.

Despite my reservations, I found myself picking up my joystick time and time again for just one more try.