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Software houses, what a responsible bunch. They'll go to any lengths to ensure that, along with the zapping, blasting and absolute mayhem, there's something educational tucked away in there. Activision's latest attempt to keep you abreast of the international political situation, vis-a-vis global thermo-nuclear destruction, is a long-awaited destruction, is a long-awaited conversion of the Sega coin-op S.D.I.

For the benefit of those at the back of the class, S.D.I., or Strategic Defence Initiative, was and is Uncle Ron's contribution to world peace. The idea is to establish a protective 'umbrella' of killer satellites over America to zap incoming Russian missiles.

Anyway, stuff all that. The really important development was that some genius at Sega realised that this was a much better idea for a windwarping arcade game than a US defence policy - and S.D.I. was born.

As conversions go, this is a pretty close rendition. You control a killer satellite which can be moved about the screen to dodge enemy missiles, satellites and fighters. Your satellite can fire lasers in any direction - determined by the position of a crosshair cursor. Using the joystick without the fire button moves your satellite, press the fire button and not only do the lasers fire, but you can also move the crosshair sight.

This double action joystick thing has a number of interesting options. If you have two joysticks you can use one to control the satellite and the other for the laser sight. Paupers with only one joystick can use the keyboard as a second. It all sounds a bit tricky to me, so a friend might come in handy.

There are two phrases to the game: offensive and defensive. In the offensive phase you simply blast the hell out of all sorts of enemy missiles, satellites and other strange-looking things - like a witch on a broomstick for instance. Some of the enemy satellites contain bonus pods. You shoot the satellite to reveal the pod, then dock with it for extra cursors.

If you manage to shoot everything out of the sky in the offensive phases you get a bonus for perfect scores, but if you let anything through you must play a defensive phase. This time the enemy satellites and missiles attempt to bombard the earth and you must shoot them down before they get a chance. Any that slip through explode and up goes the damage meter. In the early levels of the game it's virtually impossible for this to happen but there are twelve levels so there must be scope for global destruction somewhere.

I can't say I'm absolutely wild about S.D.I. It's a good old blast, no question about that, and if you liked the coin-op you won't be disappointed, but I guess it is just a bit too crude for a sophisticate like me.