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Advanced Space Battle - which you may remember us talking about last week - is set in a galaxy of 36 civilisations strewn over the same number of planets. Long ago, warmongering was in abundance there, with each planet wanting ultimate power over all others. But after many generations of this power struggle, a peace was forged. With the galaxy still in a peaceful and stable state, there are plans to bring it under the control of one supreme ruler. Err... that'd be you. With the game set, it's time to move your armies to invade and take control of# the surrounding planets. Sounds simple, eh?

Advanced Space Battle is a turn-based strategy game for one to four players and comes in two versions, being 'Classic' and 'Advanced'. In the former, it can be played against a computer-controlled opponent called 'Deep Jones', whilst the latter may only have real human competitors.

Once you've selected the version that you want to play, you can then decide how long the game will last (counted in years, from 20 to 1000) and how many orders (or 'turns') each player can make per year. Finally, you must choose the shape of the galaxy and then you're then ready to play. I'll deal with the classic version first.

The classic version is a much simpler and quicker game than the advanced one. Each player will start with 100 ships to command (except for Deep Jones, who will have more due to not having a human brain). Initially, you must send out fleets of ships to invade and conquer nearby planets, and each invaded world will have its own industry that will vary from 0 to 15, and will therefore produce that number of ships per year.

Worlds still under control of its natives will carry on producing ships throughout the game, and will build formidable defences as time progresses.

Occasionally, native worlds will send out their own fleets to invade other planets, which can cause a problem for all players, including Deep Jones. As your empire grows, so does your military prowess, unless things go drastically wrong. In theory, it's important to look at the map and grab important strategic points then accumulate your forces' attack.

Doing so will also act as an important part of your defence, but often you are invading blindly or on old planetary data, as the game allows you to view the number of each world's armed forces. Each battle is weighted in favour of the defending world, so it's necessary to send out more ships to assail than needed. When the game is over, when the number of years have come to an end, the score for each player is calculated on the total fleet size and how vast each player's empire is.

In the advanced version, the rules are basically the same as above, but you must remember that a good dictator is a caring one. As you expand your empire, you will need to build research and development units, industry, infrastructure and modernise each world, as most will be left without anything after your invasion.

This is done by turning each planet into a self-sustaining one; by ensuring that industries are profitable and the public sector meet the demand of the population. Well-balanced planets will never riot and produce capital that can be exported to other parts of your empire to help them out. And as you modernise industry, you get the opportunity to do the same with your armies, making you a fearsome and successful emperor, in the hope that your adversaries aren't doing as well as you so that you may take control of their planets and thus win the game.

Advanced Space Battle is entirely engrossing, as it's not just a turn-based strategy game, but has elements of Sim City and the like that keeps the player compelled. If you only buy one new Commodore 64 game, make it this one. You won't be disappointed.

Battlestar Galactica has never been so much fun!