This one is a winner, too

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Orpheus, a game from those "Chuckie" People, A&F, has a distinctly Olympian air about it.

It is a seven-screen arcade game that involves guiding our man across the raging Styx - a mythological river that has overtones of dying. Heavy stuff!

As I read the inlay, I had dreams of another run-of-the mill Frogger. In fact, though it is of a not-too-dissimilar multi-screen format, Orpheus is highly original and entertaining.

Orpheus is in his boat and must steer it across the river to collect five golden harps, which he carries back one at a time.

The current is strong, making headway in certain directions slow. In the middle of the river lurk dangerous rocks that prove rather nasty if you hit them. To make life harder, Harp Guardians swim around the river. Encounter these and it's KO time.

Things are not as bad as they seem, since you do have a trusty discus which tends to cut things off in their prime if you throw it correctly. This can be used as often as you want and, with each of your three lives, you get a Smart Bomb - killing all deviants at the touch of a key.

In later levels you get an assortment of logs, skulls (particularly troublesome characters) and of course Harp Guards to contend with.

Steering the boat takes practice, but, once mastered, highly dexterous moves are possible.

The instructions are a little shaky and the controls only appear in the program once. There's no screen snap either, which is amazing since it would be quite impressive.

The game really is fun. The graphics are good, even down to the moving oars, ripples in the river and gnashing of teeth courtesy of the Guards.

The sound effects are also excellent, with frequent tunes, bangs and crashes. However, midnight gamers will be pleased to know that they can be silenced.

In short, by original interpretation of an old theme A&F have come up with another winner for young and old alike.

Phil Tudor