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Micro Power have gained an enviable reputation for producing quality software for the Electron. Bumble Bee is yet another addition to the range. The game has its origins in Pacman and will appeal to arcadians who love being chased round a maze by assorted bugs and beasties. However it requires a lot more thought than the original when playing.

You are the bumble bee in the title, scurrying round a maze of swinging turnstiles collecting pollen grains. Spiders emerge and chase you making the task more difficult. When you have collected all the pollen you buzz over to the Out sign and move on to the next screen. At 4,000 points you gain an extra life to add to the three provided at the start.

The interesting part of the game is the turnstiles. You can swing them but the spiders can't. So you can block off the spiders in a different section, or swing a turnstile into their path if they are about to pounce on you.

Entering your name into the high score table is almost as hard as the game. The letters of the alphabet are printed in a grid and you have to fly over the correct letters to spell your name - and it's not easy as you buzz about the screen at top speed. After an hour the high score table was full of names like RLANDI, RON AND and ROFLANG!

The only grumblers are the length of the loader - 7k is just too long so I didn't bother with it and just *ran the main program. And if you want to use joysticks you need a switch type joystick interface - it ignores the Plus 1.

Bumble Bee is a well written addictive arcade game with colourful, smooth graphics and good sound. It's well worth buying, so start saving your pennies now.

Roland Waddilove