For nearly two years the best thing I liked doing with my computer was loading Psychedelia and messing about with a Jean-Michel Jarre LP giving my eardrums a good workout. I suppose you are wondering why I've just gone and said that, eh? I'm not really sure myself, it's just that Voidrunner is so colourful that it reminded me of Psychedelia.

But both Voidrunner and Hellgate are actually sequels to Matrix and Laserzone, respectively. The last two were sold in a similar package (two for the price of one) and must have done quite well to convince Ariolasoft to release this sequel.

I didn't get to see much of the last two games, but it seems to have pleased a lot of people. I've seen enough to warn you about this game - nothing else touches its speed.

Voidrunner, the star of this package, is the one to rave about. The story goes that there is intense activity on the planet Void, where all of your enemies (the droids) live. They're planning to send out nuclear attacks on Earth and, as with all shoot-'em-ups, you're the nutter out to prevent this from happening.

Fortunately, three joeys have been supplied to help; they either move around the leadership (you - which is green) in a cluster or in symmetrical patterns.

On the planet you will be attacked by various nasties, which include:

Droidsegs: These move around the screen in centipede-type rows. Cenheds: Similar to Droidsegs, but leave a pod when shot. Pods: Just there to be blasted, some need more than one shot. Laser: Looks like a pod, but fires a leader ship if in line of fire. Bombs: Fall up or down the screen. The while ones must be avoided, but the others can be shot. Vortices: Aliens that shift about the screen in a neat pattern, they drop bombs on to you when shot. Camels and Goats: Can be used as smart bombs, turns into a laser once shot, but it's no ordinary laser.

If you thought that was bad then you wouldn't like to face up to the zapper. The zapper is, in fact, a raster interrupt line that moves down the screen leaving a pulse (line of death) for a second which, if hit by your leading ship, will kill off your current fleet. You have got five fleets and you gain one extra to a total of nine for clearing each level.

Oh yes, the levels. They are not your usual level 1, level 2, etc. They have all got their own names, their own attack waves and your own attack formation changes. There are 30 levels and it's possible to check out the first sixteen from the title screen.

One thing I must not forget to mention about Voidrunner is the frilly bits. It's full of them. There is the introduction to the level you are about to enter and the curtain-like opening of the playing field all done with the eight shades of certain colours. But the highlight of the frilly bits must be the dots, these dots are just totally amazing. They make helix patterns, some weird swinging rows of dots and swirling clusters. The swirling dots were the best to look at and I actually sat and watched these on the title screen for about one hour - they're a bit hypnotic.

On the sound stakes, Voidrunner is top notch, no music but plenty of echoed sound FX and blasting sound. OK I know I said there is no tune, but there is that horrible ear-grating rendition of that five-note tune played in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. The graphics won't seem much in the screenshots and are not the kind that take your breath away, but they are colourful and each nasty is easily identifiable.

Hellgate is a conversion from the C64 and this was the first time I'd seen it and I didn't get much enjoyment out of it. It's like an extended version of Laserzone. The graphics are smaller, but you now control four ships along four axes and have multiple firepower.

I don't want to bore you with any details, so I'll just say that this is a save the Earth ploy. The best thing I liked about this game was the zany blurb, not surprising since both games were programmed by Jeff 'Yak' Minter and include many weird and wonderful aliens.

I got the idea that this game was rushed - the sound wasn't good either.

Voidrunner is the most incredible blaster I've played, it plays upside down, sideways and even symmetrically. I was going to give it a ten but I experienced a crash, all the same its addictiveness will get hold of you and not let go for a very long time, it deserves the Screen Star.