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Don't judge a book by its cover. That's the case with Zone X from Gremlin Graphics, and one of their first Atari products. I was a little apprehensive about the quality of this game, but I soon changed my mind when it had loaded.

The object is to collect plutonium that has been left scattered around in a mineshaft. Why in an NCB mineshaft?

Well, according to the inlay card, mankind has produced so much plutonium that all the government storage tanks are full - so mineshafts have been used to store nuclear waste.

One of the shafts had been infilitrated by destructive subversives who attempted to seize the plutonium. The whole operation went wrong and plutonium was scattered all over the mine.

The player's job is to collect all the plutonium and dispose of it into containers.

Easy? No way. There are robot guards which walk around in very illogical directions and laser doors open and close when they want, making your job more difficult.

When you find a piece of plutonium you have to pick it up and then take it to a container. Since this stuff is radioactive, the longer you hold it the weaker your radiation suit becomes.

You can replenish the suit's resistance by picking up time icons which lie around the mine.

If you wish to go through a green door you will need a key. Keys lie about and can be reached with relative ease.

Another helpful object is a mat, which can be used to block off robots. Be careful when using these, because if you place the mat to the wrong side of your man, you will end up stuck in a room with a bunch of robots ready and more than able to kill you.

Once you have safely disposed of all of the plutonium you must leave via the "out" door which you must first locate. Bonus points are gained by picking up question marks, but stay away from any that are in awkward positions - they ain't worth the bother. Most players will find Zone 1 hard enough to start with. It will teach you how to avoid robots and time all your moves.

Each zone is different and since the screen scrolls in all directions they take a long time to master. The game allows selection of Zones 1, 4, 7 and 10. Each then has a difficulty level of 1, 2 or 3. This gives a possible 30 zones.

Other variables which determine what you will do include doors which close behind you and never open again and air locks which may release robots enclosed in an adjacent room.

There are warp doors, crumbly rocks, and spades in the game, but I failed to find these. When you are killed, either by being run over by a robot or running out of time, your man will explode and his remains fly off the screen.

The game has a high score table, but I hardly ever scored enough to get on it.

In all, a nice offering that should keep the best of gamers occupied for many weeks. Zone X is available on 48K cassette or disc, and retails at £9.95 and £12.95 respectively.