If you're a C16 or Plus/4 owner, your eyes must glisten with an anticipation and then cloud over with distrust when you hear of a conversion of one of the C64's top games. Far too many jobs have been botched, at least hurried out, on the smaller machine. Commando, International Karate, the list is large.

Bounder, some of you may remember, scored instant sccess with its simple, novel gameplay when it was released about a year ago. Then the game asked little of the C64, except to aniamte hopscotch. It was gloriously simple, immensely playable, and furiously addictive.

There's no real reason, apart from the ineptitude of many of the country's C16 programmers, why it couldn't be adequately converted. And bless me if Gremlin, who you have to consider as the best programmers on this machine, haven't gone and done the bizzo. It's just as good as the original.

For those of you who haven't come across the game before let me explain. You control a bouncing ball and guide it up the screen whilst avoiding the many pitfalls that lie in wait for you. As you bounce along you make for the various tiles dotted around. Some, though, are unpassable or take you up unpassable routes. Others are singled out with question marks that may prove beneficial, but may just as often cause your undoing.

As you progress up the levels extra dangers appear in the form of exocet missiles, and although there's only five levels in this version, there's enough to keep you occupied with for a while. At the end of each level there's a bonus screen.

It all adds up to an excellent and entertaining game. And if that wasn't enough, you get another one on the other side of the tape. Planet Search is in fact no less than an extremely fast and playable version of Defender. There have been plenty of other versions of this old classic, but none as good as this.

This is an excellent varied package and I strongly recommend you to get down the shop and buy it if you fancy some enduring arcade action.