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Trailblazer is also available on the C64, Spectrum, Amstrad, Atari and MSX machines. But don't let anybody tell you it's yet another game that's been converted for the C16. The game was actually written on the C16 and converted for all others. The game is not only the best thing to appear on the C16 this year, unless I'm a complete drongo, it's destined to go down in the annals as the game of 1986.

As with all completely brilliant games, Trailblazer's success lies in the originality and style of the gameplay. There are no aliens, there is no dying planet, there are no heroes, sole survivors of a once proud civilisation and there are no multi-role, X-wing, combat fighter bombers. Force fields, extra lives, platforms, bombs, photon torpedoes, lasers - none of that. Instead, there is a ball.

It doesn't sound too thrilling I'll admit, but bear with me. This ball travels along on a sort of cosmic causeway. What you have to imagine is a starscape, not unlike the kind of thing Captain Kirk stares out at from the bridge every Thursday night when he can't think of anything to put in his log.

Down the middle stretches a computerised version of the yellow brick road, made up of hundreds of different coloured tiles. Push the joystick forward and the ball shoots off into the screen and the yellow brick road scrolls underneath at something approaching warp factor six.

Just when you're beginning to enjoy yourself, disaster strikes. The road is full of holes and sometimes whole sections are missing. End up down one of them and you are confined to cosmic limbo for about three seconds. So what's wrong with being in cosmic limbo for three seconds? Absolutely everything, because the cosmic causeway has an end, and you have to reach it before your time runs out.

It gets worse. As well as the holes, certain coloured squares have a particular significance. Red squares slow your ball down to a pace a snail would be embarrassed at. Cyan squares are the biggest horror of all. They reverse the controls: left sends you right, right sends you down a hole. There is some good news, though. Blue squares bounce your ball into the air and are handy for jumping over holes and gaps. And green squares make your ball go like it's got a rocket up its bum.

In addition, you get five jumps, activated by pressing the Fire button.

There are sixteen levels, each has a different and slightly more difficult course. On completion of each level, you get bonus points for remaining time, unused jumps and for not falling down the holes. You also get a password which you can type in at the beginning of the game to jump straight to that level.

Teeny weeny criticisms. The holes in the road are a different colour (black) to the backdrop (grey) which slightly spoils the illusion of space, as does the slight screen flicker. Apart from that, Trailblazer is absolutely amazing - colourful and extremely fast scrolling. The only thing that comes remotely close is driving down the motorway on a pogo stick at a hundred miles an hour while they're repairing it. And I've only ever done that once.