Menace first appeared last summer on the Amiga and was widely praised as the only game that could look like half a dozen other games without even trying. In those days it was called Draconia. Apart from the name, little else has been altered in this carbon copy conversion.

Draconia, though no longer the title, is still the name of the planet on which this six level shoot-'em-up takes place. There are six horizontally scrolling caverns, varying in interior decor from tropical rainforest to hi-tec metallic. Each has its own assortment of evil guardians, whose sole aim is a shield-depleting head-on collision with your craft.

For your part, your ship is armed with a puny cannon; but it can be reinforced with any number of cannons, lasers, outriders and force fields you care to pick up along the way. The bonus goodies are gained by shooting a complete wave of aliens (natives actually to be fair). When you blast the last, an icon appears out of the blue which you can use to pick up the goods.

The only problem is: the icon is useless unless you first blast it with your cannon. With the first blast, you get 1,000 points; shoot it five times and you get cannons, ten times lasers, and so on... Each multiple of five shots turns the icon into something more useful. This makes it dashed tricky to pick a middle-range icon bonus, such as the outrider droids, and overall is a bit of a pain. So much for theory.

So here's where the tactics come in. There's no point in shooting at anything unless you're confident you can destroy the whole wave. You may get a few points, but you won't live long! And you've got to make sure you're well and truly stacked for the final showdown in which you get to shoot it out with an ugly-looking brute at the end of the tunnel.

I said this was a carbon copy of the Amiga version and it's about as close as you can get - right down to the (Amiga) screenshots on the pack. In reality, the C64 graphics are a treat, particularly the destruction sequence at the end of each level.

But my criticism with this - as with the Amiga - is that it's on the slow side, and it lacks the kind of excitement that has you on the edge of your seat trying to snap the joystick in half. Large stretches of tunnel go by and nothing happens. Once you've given up on a wave, stragglers can be avoided with ease. None of the weapons are mega blasting.

The net result is a bit on the gutless side, which is a shame 'cos the graphics are nice and the idea is simple enough to be a classic.