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Anyone out there remember a superb arcade classic called Joust? One of a whole series of Atari smashes, it involved the careful control of a warrior on the back of a bird who had to joust opponents in the air, etc.

Leap forward to last year and the Atarisoft range of home computer conversions of their arcade classics - Pole Position, Robotron and Pac-Man appeared for the Beeb but Atarisoft pulled out of the market before Joust could be released.

A year later, extra coding to tidy up the title screen and now Aardvark (home of the legendary Orlando, programmer of Zalaga and Frak! amongst others) has released the game. Sadly, they are being very quiet about it, which is a shame as this is superb!

The game has the look and feel of an arcade game (or rather arcade games as they were a couple of years back) and the programming is without fault - even more amazing is the fact that this was the first game tackled by the programmer!

As well as the basic gameplay no doubt recalled by everyone who spent illicit hours hunched over machines in the arcades, there are very nice touches that are unusual on home micro conversions: a two player game that allows them to play the computer and then, at random, have to turn on each other for extra points!

What is most impressive to me about this game is that, as well as a perfect single player game with all the desired playability and compulsiveness, this is also a great crowd game, gained from an enthusiastic audience.

If you can track down a copy, this should be snapped up at once. Deserves to be top of the software charts!