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Had I been playing Roadwars on the Amiga or ST, I'd probably have spent the last few hours enjoying myself. As it is, I'm lumbered with the C64 version which is about as exciting as using one of those new Remington fluff removers. The instructions leaflet (for the game, I mean) gives it all away. By thoughtfully including game descriptions for the 16-bit machines, it spells out exactly what us lo-tech zappers are missing out on - quite a lot it seems.

Anyway Roadwars is a conversion of an arcade game which (I must admit) I have never graced with any money. The object of the game is simple, you must clear the road of obstacles. This can be done in one or two-player mode. According to the instructions, it's wise to co-operate with your partner to get as far as possible up the road. If you're by yourself the computer takes over the other battlesphere and, from what I can see, is precious little use.

The obstacles consist mainly of red balls rolling headlong towards you at considerable speed and veering slightly from side to side. These can be zapped but if they hit you, your protective shield goes down; a few more like that and the game's over. Chevrons in the road have the same effect. But if you run over an arrow pointing towards you in the road, you're rewarded with extra firepower. On later levels, the odd satellite comes floating along and tries to blast you with a laser gun. That's it for the road. You might have expected a few more spectacular hazards, not least a few holes - zero marks for imagination.

Down both sides of the road are brown-coloured barriers. These supposedly stop you from falling off the sides of the road. But the odd blue barrier sometimes comes past, which emits nasty sparks right across the road. These must be zapped. But be careful not to zap the brown ones or you'll create huge gaps that will make it easier for you to fall off. You move onto the next level when you've cleared the road of blue barriers.

You and your partner control what the instructions call battlespheres. These can shoot straight ahead (at the red balls) and to either side (to zap the blue barriers). Pushing the joystick forward or back opens and closes the shield. With the shield down, your battlesphere looks rather like a beachball spinning along. With the shields down, the sphere stops spinning and hovers along with the guns showing. In terms of movement, you're confined to right and left.

There were a few things that impressed me about this game and lots that didn't. For a start, the battlespheres are graphically well done, and the music and sound effects are above average.

But on the naff side, there's no real gameplay, there's precious little skill involved and the animation of the road and barriers is pretty basic. A few bends in the road might have relieved the tedium of simply watching it come at you headlong.

What makes it worse is reading the gameplay for the Amiga and ST versions. Where are the bonus roads every four levels, the gateways, the aliens living inside panels, red balls mutating into missiles, orbiters that hover round your craft and give extra firepower? It all reads like a totally different game. I reckon Melbourne House have skimped on the C64 version. Definitely not for me, this one.