'I don't believe you', I said.

But you don't want to know about that.

DIZZY HEIGHTS

What you want to know is that Code Masters' inexpensive egg-related classic Treasure Island Dizzy very recently celebrated breaking through the 100,000 sales barrier, and that on Spectrum format alone. The game has stayed in the Gallup All Formats Top 40 since its release in early 1989, and has now been hanging on in there for an incredible 123 weeks! Evidence enough that the Spectrum hasn't rolled over and died just yet.

NO RESPECT

...but then again, the thousands of Speccy owners out there won't be quite so buoyant when they hear that US Gold have just dropped plans to bring the movie licence of Godfather III out for their machine after all, offering the excuse that the game's going to be 'just too big'. Still , the Spectrum's loss is the Sega Mega Drive's gain, as USG now intend releasing the game on that format as well as the other computer formats. Speccy movie buffs will have to be consoled (arf!) by the fact that at least USG are going ahead with plans for the Sinclair version of Indiana Jones And The Fate Of Atlantis, the fourth Indy epic (although it's not actually a film, being based instead on the comic book of the same name).

BETWEEN PLANET(EER)S

One of the most nauseating Saturday morning cartoons to have appeared to date has to be the new American import Captain Planet. An environmentally-sound adventure series, it features a superhero who is brought into life by the combined talents of five 'Planeteers', a racially-balanced (one of them comes from each of the five continents, more or less) mix of cutely perfect teenagers (makes you ill already, doesn't it?), who are each endowed with one of the powers of the four elements (earth, wind, fire and water) or the rather ambiguous 'heart'. Sounds like a cue for a computer game, wouldn't you say? And strangely enough, that's just what Mindscape think too, and they plan to bring a platforms-and-ladders arcade adventure on that very theme to the gasping-in-anticipation gamesplaying public sometime this October. We've seen an early preview of the Amiga version, and, well, let's just say that at least programmer Tony Crowther's got a lot of time to work on it yet...

HERE IT COMES AGAIN

...can't you hear the sound of it?

Yes, the biggest growth sector of our glorious industry these days has to be the re-releasing of old 'classics' at budget prices by most of the major software houses. US Gold, Ocean, Domark, Gremlin, Mirrorsoft and more are all doing a flourishing trade in selling games the second or even third time around. Of course, some of these games really are classics, but some are no more than a vain attempt to squeeze a last few drops of cash out of some software that's well past its sell-by date. From now on, I'll be trying to keep you up-to-date with what's happening in this dynamic and fast-moving area, and warning you what's still a bum deal even at seventeen quid less than what they tried to sell it to you for in the first place.

This week: Having a ball.

Kick Off And Extra Time (Top Shots, £7.99 for Amiga and ST)

One of the most popular and successful sports sims ever on its first release, Kick Off became an instant and enduring classic within days of being unleashed onto the unsuspecting public. This re-release brings it together with Extra Time, a later data disk including some extra options and improvements to the original game, and is a staggering bargain on the Amiga. If you're an ST owner, though, prepare to be disappointed at one of the lamest attempts at a conversion job ever, along with some of the most pitiful graphics you've ever seen on your machine.

Projectyle (Electronic Arts, £9.99 for Amiga and ST)

Another brilliant sports sim, this time set well into the future, to a time when the most popular game is a frantic and bizarre game between three teams on a five-quartered pitch with the simplest rules imaginable - get the ball into your opponents' goals, any way you like. A fast and furious cross between five-a-side football and air hockey, Projectyle features lovely graphics and some of the most entertaining gameplay you're likely to find in a spotrs game.

Speedball (Mirror Image, £10.99 for Amiga and ST)

Completing this trilogy of ball games, Speedball isn't unlike a futuristic basketball with some added violence. Actually, make that a hell of a lot of added violence, in Speedball it's more often than not a case of 'never mind the ball, get on with the game'. One of the very best two-player head-to-head challenges around, the small pitch and fast action ensures that there's never a dull moment, although it has to be said that when put beside its sequel Speedball 2, Speedball does tend to look a little simplistic. It doesn't have much lasting appeal as a solo game either, but if you've got some friends and you like beating them, this is a pretty essential purchase.

BEG, BORROW OR BURN

This week's at-a-glance buyers' guide. Don't go near a software shop until you've read it, you could save yourself a lot of grief.

BEG

EXILE (Audiogenic)

Amiga, £25.99

It's taken forever, but this week you should finally be able to go into a shop and buy a copy of what the late Gary Penn described as 'the future of arcade adventures'. Don't be put off by the frankly duff graphics, this is one of the most involving games you're ever likely to play.

BORROW

MOONBASE (Mindscape)

Amiga, £35.99

...or 'Sim Moon'. Yes, it's another one of those colony management games, this time with a lunar setting. The whole set-up is very Sim City, but it's nicely done for people who've played the earlier classic to death. Drawbacks are the absurd price and some technical flaws which slow things down as you progress into the game, so check it out for yourself.

BURN

GHOST BATTLE (Thalion)

Amiga, £25.53

Ghosts'n'Goblins clones come and Ghosts'n'Goblins clones go, but not many of them ever go quite this far down into the depths. Don't make me list all the things this game's got wrong with it, just don't buy it.

GAME REVIEW

R-TYPE II

Activision

Amiga, ST

£25.99

Many things in their time have been called 'the perfect arcade conversion', most recently Ocean's brilliant Pang and Toki. The latest contender for the award, though, could just possibly claim to beat them both. Activision's much-delayed port of the sequel to Irem's incredibly popular coin-op R-Type has just been finished by programming team Arc Developments, and to cut a long story short, it's stunning.

Every last detail from the original arcade machine has been included in this conversion, and the graphics are nigh-on indistinguishable from the real thing. It plays like a dream too, with a tough difficulty curve and the kind of addictiveness you can only ever really get from an arcade game. (Funnily enough, the coin-op was never all that successful, perhaps due to its undeniable similarity to the first R-Type, but that's unlikely to be a problem for this product, as the first Amiga conversion was distinctly on the average side.) Soundwise too it's excellent, with the mix of sampled sound effects and authentic tunes going a long way towards creating that elusive arcade feel. Maybe the most important thing, though, is how hard it is. I don't know about you, but I'm heartily sick of games that you can complete the same day as you get them. R-Type II will test your reflexes to breaking point, and if it doesn't exercise your brain too much at the same time - well, who cares? If you want to give your mind a workout, try solving the world economic crisis. If you want to play a game, get R-Type II.

GAME REVIEW

STACK UP

Zeppelin

Spectrum

£3.99

Puzzle games, puzzle games, puzzle games. Don't you just love 'em? With Tetris, Klax, Puzznic, Plotting and all the rest, the Speccy must have seen just about every coloured-block braintwister the arcades have to offer. Or has it? The one thing that hasn't appeared yet is Columns, Sega's Tetris lookalike with Klax overtones, where you change the order of the colours in falling lines of blocks in an attempt to form lines of three or more of the same colour, which then disappear and make room for more blocks. (Look, it's simple when you play it, okay?). Zeppelin have sought to put matters right with the release of this budget effort which bears a number of striking resemblances to the Sega game, except that in this case it's not so much 'Columns' as 'Rows', since the blocks fall in horizontal lines rather than vertical. And a very nice job they've made of it too, with a slickly-presented and addictive game offering easily-grasped gameplay and a rapidly escalating level of challenge (but with variable skill levels and a practice option to help you get the hang of it). If you didn't like Tetris don't even think about it, but if you did then this is probably the nearest thing to a proper sequel there's been so far. At £3.99, what have you got to lose? (Apart from, er, £3.99).

HATSTAND CORNER

Did you know that in 1978, top deaf rock stars The Who trucked a Space Invaders arcade machine along with them on every single date of their world tour? It's thought by many experts that this was the only way in which Roger Daltrey could actually fulfil his oft-stated desire to die before he grew old.