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With a single joystick and without a safety net I shall now be a hen, lay eggs, avoid a fox, eat food and open two sets of trapdoors so that eggs are collected and food replenished. "Huh, child's play!" I hear you mutter... and you're probably right 'cos I couldn't do it. But then I'm chicken.

The hen runs around five levels, each with a fox-hole, a shelf for egg-laying and a food tray. An energy scale shows the hen's physical state. If it reaches zero then a life is lost. Being caught by the fox is similarly fatal. Laying eggs is the name of the game. The farmer collects an egg, as long as the trapdoor, which you control, is put in the right place.

He then delivers it to the other side of the screen... slowly. The farmer also replenishes food trays be collecting corn from the lowest level via the trapdoor and depositing it via another trapdoor, again done at breakneck crawl.

Nine levels of play move everything at various speeds but it's all relative. The farmer can only do one thing at a time while you cluck about watching your energy diminish. Lay an egg too soon and it hatches into a chick (spelt 'chic' throughout the instructions - and it's not!) which then pinches some food. So tedious. Plenty to watch but you can't get on with the game.

The graphics are representative and the animation more of a brave attempt than an achievement. This program has colour, movement and music and lacks thrills, spills and tension. It just gave me the bird and that's no yolk.