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In 1984, you play the role of the Prime Minister, running the British economy. You must negotiate pay settlements, fix annual government budgets, interest rates, taxes and so on. Your success on a variety of economic indicators (inflation, unemployment, trade balance, etc) is indicated annually, together with public opinion poll ratings. The object is to survive in office as long as possible. Incompetent government may lead to premature resignation or failure to get re-elected.

Few computer games are original and this strategy game is remarkably similar in conception to the earlier Great Britain Limited by Simon Hessel. Whilst 1984 is more complex and has noticeably better screen displays - the use of Mode 7 graphics for bar charts is particularly impressive! - I would not recommend purchase if you already own the Hessel game. Having said that, the game is well presented, has excellent documentation and is good value for money.

The game is rather difficult - as a good strategy game should be. I tended to rush for growth, pumping money into industry and the economy generally. Unfortunately, my short term gains in falling unemployment soon turned into disastrous inflation and uncontrolled public expenditure. Was Nigel Lawson an advisor on the program, I wonder? There is a serious point here, of course. A program like this appears to be educational, but you have to take on trust the quality of the simulation.

After all, economists cannot seem to agree about the correct way to model our economy and any program for a 32K micro must be highly simplified. Like a flight simulator, one should enjoy this type of program without taking it too seriously.