Previous Next

Until software appears which makes the BBC emit a smell of beer and smoke, Darts will lack some of the atmosphere of the real-life pub game, but otherwise it's a pretty faithful copy.

Graphics are functional in this game. It draws a dart board, moves darts around and records scores. Sound is minimal.

Darts offers the usual 501 down game (the starting number can be varied) with the round-the-clock and 'cricket' games as variations. In 501, you don't have to start on a double, a pity because this would have made it more challenging. You must finish on a double though, and the doubles and trebles are the only really tricky operation.

Three darts are used on each turn, and proceed around the screen controlled by keys or joysticks. Left to themselves, they track across the board at a rather stately wobble, but are pretty easy to control. I found I was scoring 20s easily, and the doubles and trebles come with practice.

Round-the-clock is self-explanatory. You start by hitting a 1 and then proceed to score in numerical order up to 20, losing a go whenever you hit the wrong target. There are, however, more difficult versions which use doubles or trebles only.

'Cricket' is a game which has one player scoring over 11 turns while the other then tries to hit bulls for 'wickets'.

Darts is fine for relaxation after some other brain (and finger) twisting game, fine for beginners and fine as a game which succeeds in what it sets out to be, but it probably will not hold most users' interest too long.