Virgin Games is having another crack at the software market. BBC owners won't be the only ones glad to know that this time the games are of a fairly high standard. Sinbad is a two-screen action game involving flying carpets. The second screen is a 3D asteroids affair, later stages are difficult and well-done, but the game lacks variety.

Mastertronic, publisher of budget software, has announced that its Commodore 64 games will be available on disk at £5.99. Titles include BMX Racers, Space Walk, Duck Shoot and Vegas Jackpot and the company's new release Chiller. Future releases will use a fast loading system, which rather makes the disk versions redundant.

Gumshoe is a novel graphics/arcade adventure, with touches of Manic Miner/Kong. As the detective, Gumshoe, you search an apartment block for a kidnapped heiress. There are lifts, trapdoors, laundry chutes and armed hoods out to get you.

The graphics are excellent, the animation among the best we've seen for a long time - but it's too bad about the sound. The scoring system is neat: you start with $500, bullets cost $2, there's a $10 bonus from the heiress's father for each baddy nailed, and a bonus for finding the girl herself. Fisticuffs are common and win or lose there's $150 medical expenses to pay. Good stuff.

CRL's latest, two sports simulations, are versions of Golf and Cricket, but the screen handling leaves much to be desired, the action's rather slow and the controls overly complex.

The Virgin Games follow-up to Falcon Patrol has improved graphics and a wider range of computer-controlled enemies which are hard to beat. Plenty of action here.

Terrorist may feature chunky graphics but it is original. Your brief is to discover sites of terrorist attacks, prevent them or fight. It's a complex action-strategy game which would have been more of a real winner if it weren't for the poor graphics.

Sorcery is a Manic Miner/Atic Atac variation with seventeen screens. Some of these have more than one exit, so solving the puzzle isn't too easy. It's a good game with fast and well-designed animation.

Beyond's four games will be reviewed in PCN soon. Ankh is a puzzle adventure which involves fast responses and a quick brain. My Chess II gives nine levels of play with 3D graphics views of the baoard, from either the rear or the side. Aztec is an arcade-adventure, where you control a running, jumping, crawling figure who must pass through various perils, searching for a golden idol. When the game loads, an eight-level adventure is selected from a library of 32 scenarios, so there's plenty of variation. Finally Mr. Robot is unusual in that the A-side of the tape contains a "constructor set" which allows you to create and play the game in your own screen designs.

Lazy Jones casts you in the role of a work-shy hotel cleaner. Behind 18 doors are chances to shirk your duties by playing games, drinking in the bar, anything to keep you away from the irate manager or the ghost or the previous manager.

Avalon looks set to burst on the software scene like Atic Atac. Indeed, there are similar concepts involved. You take on the role of Maroc the magician's astral projection - control is best with a joystick and the graphics are superb. The aim is to seek out the Lord of Chaos inside the hull of Avalon on the Isle of glass. Floating around the hundreds of rooms, doors open as you contact their handles, and you're pursued by blue goblin guards who detract from your energy on touch. The rooms are a bit bare, appearing as the rear and two side walls, but the 3D perspective changes as you move are excellent. There are spells to gather and activate. Some will summon a servant who can open chests for you, which gives you access to other spells.

Following its superb Storm Warrior on the C64, Front Runner has released an educational program Space Professor. You must work out the answer to a sum at the foot of the screen, then destroy as many spaceships as possible which contain the wrong answer. Ships showing the correct answer are friendly and should be allowed to land.

Strangeloop is a massive arcade adventure spread over dozens of screens. It's a bit like Psytron, but you must collect various objects and use them to complete your mission. Very slick, multi-colour animation, should do very well.

Hustler is the Bubble Bus conversion of its well-received Commodore 64 game. The rewrite has a new feature - spin. Four different types of spin can be selected, top, bottom, left and right. We'll be carrying a full review shortly. The game is to be converted for the MSX range in the near future, and there's a new Commodore 64 game called Cave Fighter before Christmas.

Universal Q/A is an educational program which allows titles, headings and up to 99 question and answer pairs to be defined by the user. October will see the company's business software, the word processor features word-wrap and spelling correction, while the graphics program will enable you to use all 500 of the machine's graphic characters with ease.