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We all know that drugs are not good. Positively bad in fact. Remember Zammo? Exactly. Just say no and live a little longer. Well anyway, get this: Narc features drug- taking, drug pushers, prostitutes, and carnage on an unprecedented scale.

However Narc's sordid theme is nothing but anti-drugs throughout - otherwise the tabloids would have a field day. In fact, the message displayed on the Williams' arcade machine from which these conversions came is 'Winners Don't Use Drugs' (although apparently it wasn't implemented on the machine used for this conversion).

Surprisingly, Narc is only a training mission (!) where the prize for completion is enough credibility to join the Drug Enforcement Administration. The bad guy in this particular Scenario is none other than Mr Big, and he's got plenty of supporters in the form of evil pushers and users.

The good guys (for this is a one or two player exercise) are HitMan, who has a penchant for blue attire, and Max Force, who prefers red to dead. Bearing more than a slight resemblance to that groovy movie vigilante The Exterminator, both Hit and Max area bit tasty when it comes to kicking ass. Not only do they come armed with a machine gun and rocket launcher each, they are mighty fine jumpers and duckers.

Problem is for Hit and Max, Narc is realistic in its approach, to the extent that ammunition comes in limited supply. It also means that when the bad guys get shot, the claret's spilled by the gallon, and when they get blown up it's suddenly becomes difficult to distinguish the screen from an abattoir.

This training mission is set in a large city, split into more than a dozen horizontally scrolling, individually-named zones. The mission begins with a scroll along The Junkyard. To leave the street and enter The Subway you need to find the correctly coloured 'Safe Card', which is either simply lying around or in the hands of one of the bad guys. With The Subway cleansed, it's back onto the sireets, this time better known as The Pipeline.

Further along the road you find the Krak Laboratory, filled with evil drug-making equipment which should be blown up at all costs. Then it's back out into the open, across the bridge that forms The Freeway, before a walk through Sunset Strip, The Kennels, Sky High's Nursery, The Greenhouse, and plenty more besides before you eventually confront Mr Big in Mr Big's Office.

Random Access is the team responsible for bringing Narc to the home. The programming was handled by Steve Snake (who did the lengthy presentation sequences along with the sound effects) and Greg Michael (who did all the actual in-game stuff). The graphics were copied from the coin-op by Shaun McClure and Ned Langman, while Sound Images provided the music. All in all, it was six months in the making. Quick, but by no means shoddy.

Incidentally, Narc is street slang for a drug-related law enforcer. It comes from 'narcotic'.

Narc is the most controversial and violent piece of software ever seen. And it's a real hoot. The exhilaration experienced when you blow away the drug-pushing scum filth sons of bitches is second to none, especially when the dregs of humanity explode all over the shop. Haha! Eat it, dirt bags!

Of course, this isn't the sort of irresponsible talk your mother would like to hear. But at least the message is clear: while wasting any associated felons is not necessarily the answer, drugs are most definitely dumb. Whether Narc will turn you into a psychopathic maniac is a matter of opinion. At least it goes to show that a game doesn't have to be big and clever to be entertaining. This is a cracking conversion of the outrageously playable arcade original. So what are you waiting for? Get Narc and give Mr Big one for us, eh.

Discernible differences are few and far between. Atari ST Narc is every bit as enjoyable as its arcade parent.

What a blow. There's not a remote chance of Ocean producing a conversion for this machine.