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Those coin-op conversions keep on coming. But down in the wilds of Somerset, people think arcades are whore you do your shopping. This is one of those games I've missed while tricked away down here - but, judging from this version, I haven't missed much.

The game takes place in a two-dimensional cave system with multi-directional scrolling. It's inhabited by a nasty array of alien creatures. You control a man clothed in futuristic knightly garb who has to battle through the caves to a demon. You have to destroy the demon by shooting its parts several times. Then you can move on to the next level of play.

The caves have various backgrounds including brickwork, water and hi-tech scenery. The trouble with some of these is that the colours haven't been very well chosen: there is little contrast. The definition of the characters is also weak. As a result, everything on screen looks indistinct. Although you can tell what's going on, it's like looking through an unfocussed camera.

The size of the scrolling screen doesr.'t help either. It's very narrow, and as you move left or right, it's practically impossible to react to anything that comes straight toward you.

As the knight runs into the creatures, a power gauge is depleted. He can fight back against the aliens - initially just by punching them but with weapons if he can find a power pyramid. The pyramids put his power up and give him a weapon. Which one depends on the power level. As the power runs down again, the weapon gradually becomes less powerful until your knight is back to a fist Pyramids are found just lying around or by killing space-suited foe.

The caves have several floors. You can get between them using stairs, holes in the floor or jumping. Some areas have special aliens, such as sharks and stingrays underwater; some have nasty effects on you like temporary paralysis.

The graphics, narrow screen and awkward scrolling make the game unimpressive to look at. It's not much better to play. You'll find yourself wandering around doing a lot of shooting, which achieves little except to gain you the odd pyramid. Certainly not one of the better coin-op conversions.

There is a good idea (somewhere) to this game. It's unfortunate that drawing-board ideas can't always be carried forward into programming technique. The screen is miniscule. It just about manages to fit your character, a bit of surrounding brickwork and, if you are very lucky, a few million aliens popping in for tea.

Not the wisest choice of colour, nor even the smoothest scrolling around. For that matter control isn't too hot either. There must be something good about it. Ah yes, lots of nasties to zap.

20,000

Was that a brick that moved or was it my character?

P. Change of weapons adds interest.
P. Quite large areas to explore.
P. Some nasty varieties of monsters.

N. Very narrow screen display combined with awkward scrolling makes play difficult.
N. Graphics lack contrast and definition.
N. Gameplay consists merely of wandering around searching for the demon.