If there's a sort of game I love reviewing above any other, it's arcade copies. The thing is, everyone knows what sort of game they are, all I have to say is Battlezone or Rommel's Revenge and I've saved myself two paragraphs of copy describing the game, and all that remains is to comment on its quality as a copy, and give it a rating.

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At the 6809 convention, John Symes said to me that this game was simply better than Rommel's Revenge and he said if it wasn't he wouldn't have put it out.

The trouble is, I don't think it actually is better than Rommel's Revenge. Yes, it's faster, and yes there are mountains (one of my gripes at the former was for its lack of mountains) but the game simply doesn't have the right feel of the original and Rommel's Revenge has it.

Rommel 3D is more refined and is by any standard a good game; it offers a choice of colours - yes, you can play this one green on black! - -and the sound is slightly better. The problem is it's too fast. It has turned what was originally a tactical battle game on a field, a tense session of guerrilla seek and destroy, into a wham-bam-slam all moving game.

The game also fails to provide all of the enemies of the arcade - it offers tanks, planes and super tanks. I don't know if it has the planes are the missiles or saucers of the original as I've never lasted long enough to see one - the game is damn fast and the tanks are deadly! No doubt The Expert has blasted his way into the millions on it by now and will inform us all through his next column what they are. (Incidentally, word has reached me that someone thinks I am The Expert, can I state here and now that the day my English degenerates to his level I shall pack up writing altogether!)

So, the game is good, and if you find Rommel's Revenge boring this could be the version you want but if you want a precise copy of the arcade game this isn't the one!