Looking very snazzy, with its own icon and 3D stars galore, Redshift could best be described as a hybrid of Firetrack, Psycastria and Syncron.

It is essentially a vertically-scrolling shoot-'em-up from the intriguingly named Daniel Goss-Custard, with graphics by Matthew Taylor. The multi-speed scrolling is among the fastest and smoothest yet to be seen on the Arc (but then again it isn't too difficult to program a fast scrolling routine).

Ridiculous storyline aside, your objective is to comprehensively destroy as many of the land-based constructions as possible, avoid the raised ground, destroy the nasties and escape with your life and your ship.

If desired, at the end of each mindlessly destructive strafing session, a Zalaga-style challenge stage can be played and bonus points scored. Pleasant-sounding background music tinkles cheerfully away while you play, and a 'Holomap' is provided at the side of the playing area, which displays the height of the terrain you are flying over.

The aliens who inhabit the game fire small x-shaped pellets at you, which decrease your limited energy supply. I especially liked the 'Turbo' feature, which while SPACE is depressed, boosts your speed tenfold and looks quite stunning, although smashing into buildings at somewhere near the speed of light is probably less than enjoyable for the pilot! Some nifty explosions occur when either you or your enemy are destroyed, and the ship turns about with a deft little flip which reminds me of Uridium/Psycastria.

Although I have referred to some BBC games to best express the feel of this one, Redshift is definitely an Archimedes game in essence, and makes good use of the machine. There are only a couple of minor irritations. First, the cursor keys, ALT and SPACE are used to control the ship - not a good combination for a game which requires fast reactions, and the control keys are not redefinable. Second, there's no password system, which most seasoned games players have come to expect as standard on multi-level releases. A cheat mode exists to alleviate this and recharges energy and turbo banks, but I have been temporarily sworn to secrecy - only temporarily!

Once again, Minerva has shown what an excellent policy it is for software houses to release games written by others, and I am looking forward to Mr. Goss-Custard's future work.