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There have been BBC quiz programs before of course - notably Domark's Trivial Pursuit. This, however, is rather different. On a series of five tapes, or three disks, 60,000 questions covering the last thirty years of pop music have been compiled. For trivia addicts that is a database of some 720K!

The questions are arranged into five simple games: a trivia quiz; a musical hangman game; a general quiz - with extra clues to help you if you're stuck - and a quiz on connections between songs or singers. All draw on the same bank of frighteningly trivial questions. Fortunately, you can specify particular periods so you're not stuck trying to remember what was top of the pops in 1956! There are no graphics and no sound.

You need wide-ranging interests to do very well. However, unless you're playing with Tim Rice, your opponents will be in the same position.

The big disadvantage of such a massive database is the time it takes to load in the start position - about two minutes on disk for the BBC and I dread to think how long tape users will have to wait...

The wait is worth it, though. The quizes are exceptionally good and the lack of sound, even in a musical quiz, is not a nuisance. I was hooked and, there being so many questions, have not yet come across any repeats. Even if they do repeat, some are so obscure I doubt I could remember the answers anyway.

I don't think there will be many impulse buys at this price however. A real intellectual challenge and an excellent piece of software - perhaps Outlook Enterprises will release extra question discs later for addicts like me!