MACHINE: Spectrum 48K
JOYSTICK: Kempston
CATEGORY: Arcade
SUPPLIER: Poppysoft
PRICE: £5.95

You're the snake in Laser Snaker and your mission is to penetrate egg plantations. The eggs are multicoloured and spread randomly about a succession of screens, here called sheets.

You start as just the snake's head and by swallowing eggs you grow a section at a time.

In the long run, it's better to zap the eggs with your laser than eat them, because it's always possible to bump into your own tail when it gets long enough, resulting in the loss of one of three lives.

The same goes for bumping into anything else - the walls, blocks which throb on and off called chrystoids, and creatures called Aggranoids and Viproids.

Aggronoids look like green balls of fluff with eyes, and bounce around mischievously evading your fire. A Viproid is a blue snake which, like you, eats eggs and twists and turns.

The object is to graduate to sheet 15, where a secret symbol is to be revealed. This involves clearing the eggs completely off some sheets, and reaching things called power stones embedded in mazes on other screens.

This is no mean feat, even at the lowest of 10 speed levels and five difficulty levels. Because they know it's hard, Poppysoft are offering a cash prize to whoever cracks it before April.

I foresee much agonizing wrist-strain with this one as people wrestle with their Kempstons far into the night.

48K Spectrum
Shoot-'em-up
Poppy Soft
£5.95

Basically a centipede style game. There is a chance to win £100 once you penetrate the myriad mazes of propagation and discover the secret symbol. You have to be able to answer two questions.

What kind of snake are you and what was the thing you saw? You steer using the cursor keys or a joystick and fire using the zero key. The laser defends you against vicious green Aggronoids and the poisonous blue Viproid, which tries to steal the eggs. There are also death chrystoids lying around. Excellent use of colour and tough at all levels.

Laser Snaker is written for the 48K Spectrum, and is based around the theme of the traditional snake game in which the snake must eat the eggs. Fortunately, 'Laser Snaker' has a few added extras. The scenario goes as follows:

The laser snake must penetrate the hidden depths of the egg plantation and discover the secret symbol which is your key to success and fortune. Fortune? Yes, there is a £100 prize to be won, not quite a fortune but very nice for just playing games. Lurking in the plantation are Aggronoids, vicious green monsters. There is also the snake's arch enemy the Blue Viproid, who also spends his time eating the eggs, and will cause you to be destroyed if you hit him. Your snake has a laser, this is definitely a mutation of the technological age, as I am sure that when I was taught about snakes they still used venom! Anyway, this laser is capable of slicing up a Viproid or destroying an Aggronoid. If a Viproid is hit straight between the eyes he will return to an egg, which can be gobbled up. Death chrystoids appear and must either be shot or avoided. Many mazes must be penetrated before heading for the power crystal. This rejuvenates the snake, and puts you to a higher status level.

Though the idea of the game is not particularly original, this is, for the most part made up for by the colourful graphics, lightning speed and versatility of play. As a beginner a training level may be selected to give yourself a decent chance. Speed may be increased up to a near impossible level. Difficulty can also be selected independently of the speed. A problem is caused by the rather thoughtless selection of the cursor keys for controlling the snake - they are far from logically placed for movements. Obviously the use of the correct joystick would solve this problem.

Apart from this flaw the game is colourful, exciting and a pleasure to play, even if it is not the most innovative piece of software on sale today.