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It's a little known fact that the most famous platform and ladders game Manic Miner was inspired by a less well known game for the Atari range of computers called Miner 2049er which was, in its day, very good indeed. Although it was never converted for the Beeb, its sequel Bounty Bob Strikes Back has been released by US Gold.

The main game is preceded by a stunningly detailed picture of Bounty Bob (who is extremely ugly) looking very surprised in a mine. This takes a very long time to load and only stays on the screen for a relatively short period of time. I found this highly frustrating and would have welcomed a bit of compression (or the complete omission of the title page, at least on the tape version!). Anyway, onto the main game.

The objective in each screen is to guide Bob over every part of the framework. Of course, this process is made more difficult by the fact that there are large gaps, wandering meanies which must not be touched, slippery slopes and a clock which is slowing ticking away. On the later screens, there are grain elevators, lifts, suction tubes, utility hoists which must all be carefully used for completion. All this sounds great fun and it is.

Although the characters flicker a lot, the sprite routine is archaic and the sound effects rather unimaginative, the game is unbelievably compulsive. It's nowhere near as 'critical' as Manic Miner and each screen is very different from each other. Very definitely worth having a look at.