Here's one which would make a good stocking filler for Amstrad owners. Dynamic Games For The Amstrad contains a larger-than-usual selection of 50 games to key in and there seems to be pretty well something for everyone. The book is divided into eight sections of games of different types. For example, you can choose from ten different arcade games, three adventure games, or five board/card games as well as the other sections which include short "starter" games for extending as you want to, brain teasers, classic gambling games, some interesting graphics effects and some nice loud and noisy "sound" games.

They are written by Clive Gifford, who has got quite a few books under his belt and is a familiar name in the book world. This is not the first collection he has put together and it looks promising.

The programs are all of a reasonable length for typing in and you shouldn't have too much difficulty getting them to work. I think the publishers could have been a bit more generous with their instructions though. Most games have only one paragraph to introduce them, and there are no hints as to how to develop them yourself, to make them harder or easier, for example. Nor are there the usual guidelines on the pitfalls of keying in, such as the importance of distinguishing between o and O and so on.

This wouldn't be so important if the listings were at least nice and clear to read, but unhappily the print is not too good at all and you may find you have to make a few inspired guesses. There's no excuse for listings as faint and patchy as this - it looks as if the author was anticipating a world shortage of printer ribbons.

If I'd paid out for this I think I might feel a bit cheated to find at least four completely empty pages stuck in the middle of the book - which looks a bit weird. Anyway, I suppose you could use them for making your own program notes.

Overall, this book is not a bad buy. Fifty programs for £5.95 is good value for money, and if the collection is nothing startling it's handy to have so many, and of different types, to choose from.