Fast and furious action is the order of the day with Stuart Bain's game

This simple but addictive game is absed on that old favourite TRON, or LIGHT CYCLES. The action takes place on the stock market and your task is to prevent the dollar from cornering the market and crashing the pound.

The screen is mainly blank except for a wall around the border and a pound and dollar placed at random somewhere in the middle. The dollar sets off in a random direction, turning left or right as necessary to avoid obstacles. The pound also sets off and it is up to you to make sure it doesn't bump into anything.

Both currencies leave a trail of the appropriate money behind them and the object is to corner the dollar and make it crash into your trail, the wall or its own trail. The computer-controlled dollar will try to do the same to you. If you crash the dollar you'll move on to the next level where you'll pit your wish against two dollars. Complete this and you'll face three dollars, and so on, up to a total of six.

The action is fast paced and very addictive. The computer-controlled dollars are quite clever, but it is possible to trap them if you keep your wits about you.

Game Controls:
Z - Left, X - Right, * - Up, ? - Down

Ian Webster dreamed up the superb 3D arcade game that'll have you hooked right from the word go

The octopus race is being poisoned by nuclear waste and your task is to enter ten cities and destroy plutonium balls - deadly pulsating spheres dumped by unscrupulous waste disposal firms - while avoiding the robot guard spheres that protect them.

You must beware of dangers below the waves and can jump only small distances - too great a drop and you'll de, or too great a height and you won't be able to climb it. And don't fall off the edge of the city walls or you'll be lost forever.

Help is at hand in the form of transporters and destinators. Stepping on to a transporter will instantly whizz you to a destinator. However, the guards have a Plan B - if you clear all ten cities of plutonium balls they bring out the spare set and make the cities invisible.

Each city except the first is accessed by a password, and this is given once the level has been completed, so you can restart from the screen you were on last time without having to clear the preceding ones first. There's also a time limit in which to clear each level, so keep one eye on the timer at the top of the screen.

The game is played on a 3D landscape produced using the normal technique of plotting the blocks furthest away from the screen front and working forwards. The blocks are sprites EORed on to the screen, but as colours two and three are both set to the same colour they appear to be masked. This technique saves graphic data and speed.

Final point: Octopuses travel in an odd way. They move in one direction until they hit a barrier, then choose a random direction and carry on.

Game Controls:
A - Up Left, Z - Down Left, * - Up Right, ? - Down Right

Christmas shopping crowds getting you down? Then try this simulation from Peter and Deborah Wood

SHOPPING SPREE is a text adventure game in which you take the part of a 12-year old boy who is shopping for Christmas presents for his family. They are a fussy lot and very difficult to please, which makes your task all the more frustrating.

You start out in the High Street and can enter any of the shops you see there. Many potential presents will catch your eye, but you must choose wisely as you have only £15 to spend on your mother, father, sister and pet dog. Watch out for thieves who may steal your bag, and don't give away your money to strange beggars. Or perhaps you should, for they may do you a good turn when you desperately need help.

Take care to buy the correct present for each member of your family as they will be very ungrateful and angry if you don't. What a miserable lot, and in the festive season too!

A quick run down on your family will help you choose the right presents: Your mother is middleaged, a typical nagger. Quite knowledgeable about pop music, but still thinks we're living in the 60's. Your father is young and trendy, and is sure he is the greatest. He's quite generous. Sister is posh but bossy - likes to have her own way. She loves listening to Beethoven. The dog is affectionate but greedy, especially around meal times.

After buying all the presents you wait for Christmas Day, and when it finally comes round you hand them out. Did you buy the right ones, or are you sent to your bedroom for the rest of the day? Play SHOPPING SPREE and find out...

The yolk's on the hawks and hedgehogs when you pelt them with eggs in Stuart Bain's arcade type-in

Storker is the champion bird-brain of the stork village, and so it is his duty to protect it from evil forces attempting to conquer the land. The hedgehods dislike the storks and have banded together with deadly hawks in an all out attack on the village. So you quickly leap to its defence.

This is Storker's most dangerous mission. An endless army of hedgehods is advancing on the ground while the hawks patrol the air. Watch out for the hedgehogs' spines, as they drain your energy, and the hawks try to drop egg bombs on you as they fly past. Luckily, Storker is equipped with his own supply of egg grenades, able to stop both hedgehogs and bombs.

You start the game on the left-hand side of the screen and the hawks and hedgehogs attack from the right. You must dodge the hawk egg-bombs and dispose of the hedgehogs with your own eggy grenades.

To complete each screen, Storker must catch bugs which buzz overhead. The number to eat is shown at the top of the screen. Once Storker has had his fill he must run to the right-hand edge of the screen.

Touching hedgehogs or being hit by bombs weakens him - his strength is shown at the top of the screen. A bonus will be awarded depending on the amount of strength left.

Game Controls:
Z - Left, X - Right, RETURN - Jump, SPACE - Throw grenade