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Persuading your friendly frog to cross a road and then a river is no easy task when you have to dodge trucks, cars, vans, and leap on to logs, lily pads and drift wood.

The idea is to move the frog which you control from the pavement to the home bays on the opposite side of the river bank, with another strip of pavement in between acting as a stepping stone on your journey.

Making matters more traumatic you have only thirty seconds in which to get your frog to the safety of the home bays.

Using the joystick controllers to operate the game you must try and guide your frog through the perilous lanes of traffic dodging the cars and trucks. When you first pick up the joystick you're bound to think that 'this is a doddle', but a few minutes later and you'll be cursing this marvellously simple, yet so tricky game! For somehow, the traffic seems to pick up speed just when you think it's safe to cross the road, and then you find your frog 'splooched' into a green mess on the road surface. And believe it or not, that's the easiest part of the game to play.

If you make it safely to the opposite pavement it's even tougher to survive. You have to use good timing and quick thinking to leap on to the alligators, diving turtles and logs. Watch out for the blue turtles because they are the divers and unless you hop on and off them very quickly you'll find your frog will be treading water and not very successfully. Three frogs splooched and that's it, the game's over.

This game is deceptively difficult to play. Often you think you have only just cleared a car or a lorry only to find you have caught the edge of it and so die. There are many features in Frogger which make it an extremely challenging and interesting game to play that is almost bound to keep you tied to the telly until you have mastered the Frogger technique.

Full marks must go to Parker for producing such a comprehensive game which sticks very closely to the original arcade games yet compiles with the constraints of the memory limitations which the Atari VCS dictates.

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> You won't get tennis elbow when you plug into this Real Sport VCS game but are more likely to be struck down with a severe case of joystick jitters.

One of the first games to be put onto computer/VCS systems was the bat and ball type of game. Atari's Tennis cartridge is an extension of the original idea but has been vastly improved to get the most out of the concept. And it has done so admirably. What you see on screen is a perspective view of a tennis court, minus all the court lines for the tram and service areas. At the top of the screen is a score board recording the games (as they are played and who wins each), the set being played and the score of each game. At either end of the court is a tennis player (just as well), one wearing a pink shirt, the other sporting blue.

It is possible to play against the computer, but it's far more fun to rope a friend into being your opponent and battling it out on the court. We found that the best tactic to adopt was to place the body of your player in front of the ball as it is being played to you, rather than lining up the player's tennis racquet in order to hit the ball directly. To hit the ball you use the FIRE button.

At first you can try the slow speed to develop your tennis technique and once mastered there'll be no stopping you on the fast speed games. Even if your forte is space arcade style games I am positive this game will enthral you into playing it with the relentless verve that you normally associate with arcade game players.

Programming wise the quality is very good. Once again the Atari devoted programmers have used all their cunning and expertise to produce a game of fast action and good graphics, right down to the shadow of the ball as it is in play 'and appropriate sound to boot. And when the two players move up to the net the action is scorching hot and almost as good as watching the top notch players at Wimbledon! On sale from standard Atari retail outlets.

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> Action stations all action force followers... Here's a video game just for you. The evil-minded Baron Ironblood is bent on destroying the "Action Force" in a bid to rule the world. You must stop him from doing so and save the world from a pending reign of terror and oppression.

Baron Ironblood has devised a super weapon system taking the shape of a giant computer controlled Cobra. This weapon shoots laser beams and the only way to put an end to its wicked capers is to shoot out the monster creature's eyes which form the nerve centre of the beast. The Cobra's metal body is impenetrable by normal bullets or laser beams. Ironblood's first course of action in his masterplan is to smash the training camp of Action Force troops.

If you want to win the game you must destroy the Cobra, but you'll find that if you thwart Baron lronblood's first attempt at world domination he'll make a speedy come-back with a Mark II version of the Cobra which the Action Force troops must attack in order to survive.

This is a fun death and destruction game (which sounds incongruous but is actually true) and makes a very pleasant change from all the space games thrown down your throats. And with the current publicity given to Action Force (who came up with the idea of the very successful Action Man doll) along with the comic and dolls of the same name, this new cartridge should do well. It's certainly an enjoyable game to play.

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Preventing tooth decay is the job in hand in this unlikely sounding game called Plaque Attack.

It makes a great change from the space theme games which have saturated the shop shelves over the past eighteen months. Whoever dreamed up this idea for a computer game must have applied some lateral thinking to the ever popular space invaders game. In Plaque Attack your laser gun becomes a tube of toothpaste, your defence bases are a row of top and bottom teeth, and the alien invaders become plaque. Yuk!

Using the joystick controls you operate the tube of toothpaste and it's up to you to destroy the pieces of plaque by squirting a blob of toothpaste at any lurking plaque pieces. The plaque has a nasty habit of attacking both rows of teeth at the same time (more or less) so you must try and develop peripheral vision in order to keep a check on the position of the plaque. Your joystick can make the tube of toothpaste turn upside down (depending on which way you are initially facing) so that you can get a good squirt at the plaque!

As the game progresses and you complete the first wave of plaque, further waves of decay-causing foods appear on-screen and these become increasingly bad for the teeth if left to take root. Each time you shoot down a particle of food you score points the score depends on the type of food you destroy. The sort of food you will encounter during the game are candy sticks, ice cream cornets, junk food, strawberries, chips and sticky sweets.

A leaflet comes with the cartridge and is called the Dental Defense Manual; this proved to be very helpful in understanding the basics of the game and working out a good strategy to adopt if you don't want to wind up with NHS dentures or an acute case of gum disease. If nothing else, Plaque Attack will probably put you off sweets for life. And if cleaning your teeth has never been a strong point of yours there's a short, amusing cartoon sketch which tells you a few facts about tooth decay and and how not to lose your teeth.

But apart from the moral of the story the game itself is a delight to play, offering a challenging alternative to the many space games on sale for the Atari VCS. You'll find Plaque Attack in the usual Atari retail outlets, such as some large department stores, and high street electrical chain stores. Some people reckoned they should also be on sale in dental surgeries but that idea didn't go down too well in the office!

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Atari has come up with a small gem in this version of the original arcade game which features swooping aliens of several different types. You, the player, of course have to destroy them.

If that sounds familiar to you, you'll be right in thinking that Galaxians is a variation on the old theme of space invaders. But the green meanies in this game are tremendously tougher than those filling the screen in space invaders.

When you switch on the game you'll see the frightening sight of four different types of alien. At the very top of the screen are Flagships, next row down are the Escorts whose job it is to protect the Flagships. Next row down are the Emissaries followed by three rows of Drones. Your initial task is to wipe out the first and subsequent waves of different invaders. You have to do it all at once.

It's not as easy as it sounds though, because the aliens have a nasty, unnerving habit of suddenly swooping down towards your laser gun in strict formation and destroy your laser gun in a Kamikaze-style death dive. Be warned, more often than not it works! Be careful when your firing base is positioned either to the extreme left or right of the screen. Although the instruction booklet supplied with the cartridge tells you these are safe spots, they're not. On occasions the aliens will dive towards your gun and destroy it.

Another important thing to watch are the numerous bombs which the aliens drop. These rain down in random places on the screen and must be avoided by your laser base. If not, contact with the bombs ensure instant destruction of the base. In total you have three lives with which to play during the game. Extra lives are given at certain stages throughout the game awarded on a high score points basis.

Difficulty increases with the number of attacking waves you succeed in destroying, marked by faster screen action and many more bombs being released from the aliens' special hatches.

Considering the limitations of the Atari VCS and other similar systems the graphics and speed of Galaxians is of a high standard. It certainly proves to be an addictive play and is much more interesting than the space invader game which it came from. Definitely a game to keep you out of the kitchen while Mum cooks the Christmas dinner.

Produced by Atari itself, Galaxians is on sale at all the normal retail outlets and High Street electrical chain stores.

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Under attack from the evil alien forces of Commander Zelda is the nerve centre of the Terrahawks whose sole reserve is to defend the earth from dangerous space enemies.

The Terrahawks' highly trained men use a specially equipped energy laser beam to shoot down Zelda's flying saucers before they release deadly rockets. During the first part of the game these rockets aren't too difficult to deal with. But when you progress to the second wave in the attack Zelda's mothership calls up saucers which release more deadly Antimatter Mines. These have a special computer device designed to home-in on the Terrahawks moveable energy base.

If you manage to survive the attack a further battle in the third phase ensues in which you have to fight off the deadly green Annihilators. These weapons are Zelda's penultimate resource and are extremely sneaky. They descend from her mother ship but beware, they don't explode on contact with the ground. On touchdown they slide along the ground towards your laser base exploding on contact with you. The best way to get rid of these nasties is to blow them up during their descent.

But don't think you can stop there. Zelda's last resort is to send her nucleonic space mines in search of your laser firing base. At the same time all the other previously encountered weapons appear on the screen and the Terrahawks nest is getting swamped by the attackers. Only the very fastest of action can get you out of the many tight spots that you'll find your energy laser beam gets into.

Once you've discovered your playing technique you just play away through the different attack waves until your energy firing station is destroyed then that's it, the game's up.