A spaceship is stranded somewhere in the galaxy and is in danger, and as a spherical droid, you've got to repair it – and your previous role was to repair toasters. You'll also have to open doors to get to certain areas of the ship by solving puzzles first; there are eight blocks arranged in an octagon, and you have to swap the colours about until all of them are yellow. It's nowhere near as easy as it sounds, and once you've started the puzzle, you can't exit from it until you've completed it successfully. The digitised graphics may be impressive, and the music may be absolutely brilliant, but most of the puzzles give Rubik's cube a run for its money.

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Rat Connection
(MBC, 1988)

Waking up after a particularly wild night, you remember that your secretary has gone missing, and you must find her – but not before you find your clothes and get dressed to face the sleazy streets and citizens of Rat City. This is a text adventure game created with The Quill, and frankly, it's very disappointing indeed. The text is extremely brief, and hardly any of the objects that you will need to search more closely are even mentioned – so you need to look at the pictures or guess the names of the objects. As an example, to find your clothes, you must search your bath; however, neither the text nor the picture mention a bath. The pictures are fairly well drawn, although everything is very grey and gloomy, but the difficulty level is very frustrating indeed and put me off completely.

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3

Many aeons into the future, the human race built a long tube that absorbed all of the rubbish that was generated by the planets in the system. However, one planet, T'ufo, is notorious for its dirtiness, and has sent a ship called Rath-tha to destroy the tube. You have to guide a spaceship along the tube, take it into outer space, and ultimately reach Rath-tha and blast it to smithereens. This is an average vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up. It's a blatant Spectrum port, so the graphics lack colour, and the scrolling is slow as well. Despite this, it's not that bad, and it's not as difficult as some shoot-'em-ups I could name; I managed to reach the third stage out of four after a few attempts. The music on the menu is terrible, though!

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6

Based on the TV cartoon series rather than the films, the Ghostbusters team must blast their way through ten levels, each one infested with all manner of ghoulish creatures. Killing them releases ghosts which you can suck up with your proton beam. Bonus items can also be collected – one of which summons the help of the Ghostbusters' mascot Slimer, who will hover around you and assist you greatly in killing any nearby monsters. The animation and movement are rather jerky, and the choice of colours makes everything look a bit drab, but despite this, the game is enjoyable to play, and most players shouldn't have many problems completing the first few levels. There's a nice rendition of the familiar theme tune on the menu as well.

See also: Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II.

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7

The Solar System's Planetary Orbiting Co-Ordinator has malfunctioned and all the planets are out of alignment. A droid called XR3 has been sent into the Co-Ordinator, which is actually an enormous maze. You must explore it, find the nine planets, and place them around the Sun. Although there are no enemy aliens or robots in the maze, there are traps which will catch you out if you're not careful. Signposts will allow you to access new areas, but you will usually need to search the maze thoroughly to find the new passageway. Crowns can also be collected for bonus points. The graphics are simple, and the scrolling is very smooth, but the sheer size and emptiness of the maze makes this a very dull game indeed, even for the most die-hard puzzle fans.

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Motion Picture Productions are making two new films and require you to play the part of a stuntman in three scenes from these films. In the first part, you must rescue some people trapped in a burning building and defuse some bombs. In the second part, you're in a car and have to collect rockets dropped by a helicopter while leaping over buses and barrels while dodging other obstacles. You're in a helicopter for the third and final part in which you just shoot other helicopters and dodge obstacles. It's pretty average stuff, really, and the graphics aren't anything special. The tune is good, though.

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5

Rebel Planet
(US Gold, 1986)
Reviewed by Pug

You are a member of SAROS (Search And Research Of Space) who greatly opposes the Arcadian Empire's grip on the galaxy. Your mission is to safely make it to their primary home planet Arcadion and destroy the 'queen' computer that networks the aliens' minds. You start the game inside your spacecraft where you roam around collecting your equipment. After this, you land on the planet Tropos where you mingle amongst Arcadians while seeking out members of the underground movement. Each location in this text adventure has its own picture which adds a lot of atmosphere and enjoyment to your experience. Rebel Planet is a little tricky in areas but you can save your progress. A neat little sci-fi adventure is offered here that will keep you coming back for more.

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There are actually three Rebelstar games, and it's a real shame that this is the only one that was released for the CPC. The Rebelstar Raiders are planning an ambush on Moonbase Delta to destroy five laser defences and the moonbase's central computer, ISAAC. This is a turn-based strategy game where you must think tactically as to how you are going to move your forces and kill the droid guards, without your own forces being shot and killed. There are eight difficulty levels, and even though there is only one mission (in contrast to Laser Squad, by the same programmer, which has five), you'll come back to it again and again – especially if you can find a human opponent to play against!

See also: Laser Squad.

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9

Rufus has been caught as a stowaway on a spaceship and has been ordered by the captain to collect some diamonds from the nearby planet of Killey. Needless to say, this isn't easy. Each level consists of a single screen with some blocks and lots of empty space, and Rufus must find some way of bridging the gaps between sections by laying some blocks, while also collecting the diamonds and avoiding the monsters – and it's mostly the monsters which make this make so annoying. They move unpredictably, and crash into you when you're not expecting them to, and worse, Rufus can only fire one bullet at a time. The graphics are nothing special and the animation is rather jerky, but it would still be a satisfactory game were it not for the behaviour of the monsters.

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5

Red Heat
(Ocean, 1989)

Ivan Danko is hunting down the Russian drug baron, Viktor Rostavili. The film saw Danko (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) teaming up with the Chicago cop Art Ridzik. In this game, he's nowhere to be seen; it's four levels of pure violence as Danko beats up anyone and everyone in his path. You can collect bonus coins along the way, which may give you extra energy or take you into one of several sub-games you can play. Beat-'em-ups aren't my thing, anyway, and even hardened fans may well be put off by the dull graphics, the tiny screen size that is used, and the game's agonisingly slow pace.

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