Frenzy rekindles arcade bug

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To be perfectly honest I must admit I've always been an adventure fan first and foremost.

However Micro Power's Frenzy is the sort of gripping arcade game that makes me wonder how well-founded my convictions are.

While it is similar to Painter you soon realise how good a version it is.

You start with a blue screen containing an odd little object bouncing around - the Lepton.

As you manoeuvre your craft across the screen it leaves a green trail behind it. When you regain the edge of the screen the area blocked off by this trail is coloured in.

Should the Lepton be inside this coloured area, bingo! You've completed your task, and you can sit back and have a small preen while the micro tots up your score.

Scoring depends on whether you've captured all the Leptons, how fast you managed this, and how much of the screen you filled. The craft has two speeds. It's quite easy at first, but later screens become more difficult.

Chasers appear - small objects that plough round the perimeter and blow.upyour craft on contact - and the Leptons speed up and increase in number.

By screen eight, steering a clear path is about as easy as getting past an Italian footballer with your shins intact.

Difficult it may be, but it's addictive, and it has a number of nice features, such as being able to select to have the sound on or off.

The graphics are simple but good, and the control keys well positioned. There is also a high-score facility with the author's best score at the top.

An excellent idea, this, as it gives you a target to aim for. Not that I'm ever likely to beat him, as I have all the manual dexterity of a dead slug.

James Bibby