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I was born in 1978, and so I was not of an age to appreciate the very first generation of consoles. The Atari 2600 and the Coleco systems, on which this flick-screen jungle-based adventure game premiered, were limited beasts, and Pitfall! on the Atari 2600 actually fits into a minuscule 4K of memory. Doubtless there are some of you reading this who therefore remember it as a minor miracle - it has 255 separate screens, a number of treasures to collect, a number of nasties to avoid, pits to jump, vines to swing on and quicksand to avoid. It was, initially at least, considered one of the Atari 2600's best games (not that it was up against very strong competition) and it has popped up on a vast number of retro game compilations over the intervening years, so you might well have heard its name even if, like me, you hadn't yet played it.

Now I have played it. But not on the Atari 2600. Pitfall! has been expertly converted to... the BBC Model B. And, well, something pretty eccentric has arrived.

It's a difficult game to describe. You play Harry, who is placed in the middle of the jungle on a flat expanse of white sand. You can run left or right, exiting one screen and entering another, or drop through pits in the sand to an underground tunnel at the base of the screen in which you can also run left or right, but travel through three screens instead of one.

The aim of the game is to collect all 32 treasures which are scatted throughout the 255 screens, and attain the highest score possible. On some screens, barrels roll towards you and must be jumped. On others there are stationary snakes to leap. And on yet more there are large pits with vines swinging to and fro above them. You need to jump up, grab the vine and swing across these to the safety of the opposite side. Alternatively, if you drop into the tunnel system, there are patrolling nasties to jump over, and you'll often traverse a number of screens only to find a wall blocking your way, necessitating a quick about face.

Pitfall! is very frustrating to play. To grab the swinging vines takes near pixel-perfect accuracy, and similar accuracy is needed to release the vine when it has swung to the other side. Get your timing just a fraction of a second off, and you'll fall into the very pit you were attempting to swing over and lose one of your three lives.

Avoiding the nasties such as barrels and snakes is also problematic, although these are not too big of a problem because colliding with them just decreases your score rather than kill you off. However, within about five minutes you've seen everything Pitfall! has to offer, and whether you'll keep playing is debateable.

I don't say this to be mean. In a way, it's a testament to the quality of the conversion that Pitfall! feels boring, limited and repetitive so quickly. What worked in 4K on a 45 year old console was never going to have Beebsters salivating over their keyboards in the modern day. Indeed, even the Commodore 64 port felt outdated back in 1985. Pitfall! also betrays a few gaming 'rules', such as the 'quicksand' sections where there is no on-screen indication of the quicksand; it can only be found when Harry triggers it by walking on it (an act that spells instant death). This means you have to remember exactly where to jump for subsequent plays. Or, in other words, you have to die once to live in subsequent playthroughs. Very annoying indeed.

Graphically and aurally, there's nothing to fault with this BBC conversion. It's been written in 100% machine code, with the attention on keeping the playing experience identical. Really, I suppose therefore that it's been written for Pitfall! fans who lamented its absence on the BBC machines, similarly to the recent release of the Spectrum's 3D Death Chase on that machine.

Such fans are unlikely to be disappointed. Indeed, they'll consider this an excellent conversion... of a blocky-looking and somewhat maddening arcade game that was about four years out of date before the BBC ever came along. Personally, I wasn't a Pitfall! fan before playing it and, after a few hours of exploration, it hasn't converted me to the cause.