Not quite the local, but fun

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So there I sat. All alone with my can of light and my Beeb, wishing I was down at the pub. Well at least I can have a game of darts to while away the time, I thought. So I loaded up this tape, vacuumed up the crisp crumbs from the keyboard, and started to play.

A choice of three games - 501, Round the Board, and Cricket - all standard at the local. I elected to play myself at 501 - at least that way I could be assured of winning!

I liked the pleasant procedure of drawing the board, though later I became a little irritated by its slowness. Anyway, my score was shown on the chalk-board, and my 'dark' was quivering away - I knew I'd had a few, but my hand isn't usually that unsteady! The blasted dart wouldn't keep still while I aimed! So I concentrated on treble 20, threw, and scored one - just like down the pub.

I improved with practice, and evolved some techniquesw for overcoming to some extent the in-built DTs. I found there were some shortcomings in the games - e.g. an inner wire is counted 'out' while an outer wire is 'in' and occasionally a shot that was clearly 'in' was scored 'out'.

But the worst part was that when I eventually scored 180 there wasn't even a little jingle, let alone a round of applause!

The other games are fun for a change. Cricket is standard - one side scores 'runs', the other side goes for 'wickets' (two for a bull, one for an inner). I found the way of deciding how many goes you had in the Round the Board game different to my expectations, but you may be used to more generous rules than me.

It's available on tape, but is transferable to disc with a shifting routine, and works from keyboard or using one or two joysticks.

It's a good game, though. It lacks the social appeal of the real thing but it's fun for parties, and at least you don't get dart-holes in the plaster playing it.

George Hill