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Role-players have hankered after MegaTraveller for ages. Until now it's been confined to antiquated boards and polyhedral dice. Now it's at last made it onto the Atari ST, in a form requiring less paper and mental arithmetic, but just as much thought.

MegaTravller begins with an excellent first section in which you choose characters for your forthcoming quest. You can select a party of four with predetermined abilities, or the program can create new characters using the traditional dice-rolling methods.

You choose a healthy, strong-looking set of statistics (for strength, dexterity and so on) and then attempt to develop them further. By clicking on various menus you send your character into the forces (Navy, Marines, Scouts, Merchants or Army) where he or she receives training. Years pass and your characters earn skill points which you can use to develop actual skills - piloting, communications, use of a weaponry and so on. When all your team are as strong as you can get them, it's time to move on to the main game.

Immediately after you learn what you're supposed to do, the game kicks into its overhead graphic view mode where you find yourself under attack. If you're quick with the mouse you might get away safely. Moving around the screen is simple - just point the cursor where you want to go and click on the mouse. This isn't simply a Gauntlet game, though. It's made up of many separate parts, which all require different strategies.

You spend a lot of time on planet surfaces, in space, in buildings and in ground vehicles and all these are represented by different graphics and layouts. You must also ensure tht all your more able characters are employed doing the jobs that are most appropriate for them. In space, for example, computer-operators, pilots and gunners all affect the performance of their respective equipment, so you must position them carefully if you want to make the most out of the hardware. With a sensible amount of forethought, you can fly around, load programs to navigate, jump into hyperspace, and operate the laser for a bit of deep-space pirating.

In the early part of the game you are trying to obtain enough cash for a more powerful jump drive so that you can fly to a further star-system. You can raise cash in several ways: kill for profit, gamble on slot-machines, go bounty-hunting, race spaceships, pirate - or simply collect and sell artefacts.

MegaTraveller is not as satisfying as it could be. The graphics are a pale reflection of old 8-bit games and the sound-chip effects are dire. Many of the skills offered when you're character-creating are not yet implemented in this episode. It's good to know there are plans for expansion, but it's possible to waste your skill points on abilities which are effectively useless.

Even navigating is tough. A tiny screen shows the position of your craft in space, with pixel-sized dots of colour to show planets, moons and ships. TV owners are going to go mad trying to work it out!

MegaTraveller is fairly true to its older role-playing form. There's plenty to see and do. It is nowhere near as slow and complex to play out as the board versions either. MegaTraveller aficionados won't be disappointed.

Because of laughable graphics and poor layout, however, it's going to take you days to get into. Even if you overlook the shortfall in graphics you eventually find the gameplay becomes staid and formulaic. If you need something to fire your imagination, you won't find it here.