It's difficult to weigh up what might be if today's best 8-bit entertainment software was released back in the 1980s, especially as the understanding of the technology, and how to get the best out of it, is much greater now due to many machines being reverse engineered for the purposes of emulation as well as the years of games and demos that have appeared over the years.

Imagine if Bob Smith's Virus (for the Sinclair ZX81) had been released in 1982, for instance. Or Jonathan Cauldwell's GameX: The Games Exchange (for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum) debuting in 1988. Or how about if the Commodore Plus/4 had more quality during its short commercial life, like Adventures In Time (AIT) released by Assassin. If you haven't heard about AIN, then it's a new release that has been described as a 'C64-quality game for the Plus/4' by those in the know.

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The game sees our 'hero' (no name is given) strolling around an old forest and finding some ancient ruins. On further investigation, he finds therein a time-scrambling machine, and meddling with it starts a whole new adventure. It's an explorer-type platform game with some really well-animated and colourful graphics. Where it does excel above most other C64 games is in the audio department, using the limited TED chip really well throughout - especially during play, adding a certain sense of drama to the proceedings.

The premium 8-bit publisher Psytronik (www.psytronik.com) is considering the real media release, while the full game (and map) can be downloaded for our emulator from plus3world.powweb.com/software/Adventures_In_Time.

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There are two linear platform games released for the Speccy that might interest you, and both are freeware and available from the World Of Spectrum (WoS) archives. Gloop Troops is a very cute two-player Bubble Bobble-alike game, created by the newly formed Little Shop of Pixels, which has Andrew Oakley and Simon Franco at its helm. You're tasked with collecting the stars and bonus items on each level while avoiding or freezing the roamers. Once all the stars have been taken, you're one stage closer to saving the princess from her imprisonment. This is a well-written and tricky arcade affair and is an especially good co-operative game, should you have someone to play with.

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Meanwhile, Heart Stealer is by WoS forum member Timmy, with Mister Beep providing some excellent beeper music on the title screen and between each level. In this, you must simply collect the hearts within the rather generous time limit while avoiding the monsters, which move horizontally in set patterns. I found this game rather easy, but as it's Timmy's first production for the Speccy, I'll forgive him for that. He has promised more though, and this is definitely a good start.

The emulator images can be downloaded by using the WoS infoseek facility at www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek.cgi by searching for either game, and you may also rate each of these out of ten, should you want to.