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Just what the game player ought to like: an obvious game with no complicated rules to learn and which gets down to business as soon as it is loaded.

Pinball Wizard comes in a mini-video type box, with a remarkably restrained black-and-white sleeve when you consider the simple but colourful screen graphics which capture perfectly the effect of playing any arcade pin table, including the tantalising way the ball seems to hang in space as it comes off the release plunger.

Anyone who's been within earshot of a penny arcade will know how to play this - though the terrifying thought strikes me that invader clones have driven the beloved pintables out of the collective consciousness.

Each time the ball hits a bumper you get 100 points, each time it goes through a little tunnel (the rollover) you get 10, and there's a jackpot of 1000 points.

Function keys are used to select a one or two person game, to pull back the plunger and fire the ball.

Either you're a pinball wizard or you're not. This is not a game to have universal appeal.

If, like me, you're an addict, this game is the next best thing to standing in one of those caverns under the Brighton Esplanade, your scooter parked outside and your anorak tied by its sleeves around your waist, as you try to beat the last player's best score.

The sound effects are simple but effective. However, no one has managed to get Vic's sound generator to simulate the clanging sound of the ball hitting the bumper.