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Addictive Games is the name of the company and the program which has existed for a year on the Spectrum lives up to the title, having tremendous lasting interest - unless of course you hate football.

Thrust into the role of football manager you have to guide your chosen team through league seasons and cup competitions. You start as a humble fourth division side and aspire to the heights of the first division and cup winners.

You have full control of your players and finances - so any disasters are down to you.

Before playing a match, you will be asked to select your team on the basis of their energy, morale, defence, midfield and attack ratings. Having done this you are shown 3D highlights of the game through which you do nothing except sit and chew your nails as the team you have picked goes to work.

Next thing you know, the bills start arriving. You have to try and cover your weekly out lay on wages, loans and players bought with the gate money and players sold. The more successful you are, the more gate money you receive, but if in trouble you can always get a loan.

The various options allow you to sell or list players, obtain loans, change team or player names or save the game - which is essential for completing seasons.

At the end of the season you can be promoted (if in the first three) or relegated (if in the bottom three). Then you stall all over again at the beginning.

It is one of the most addictive games I have ever played and if you will excuse me I'm just off to take Wimbledon to the Cup Final.

Great to see this classic converted to the C64 (and soon to the BBC and other machines). It's one of the few strategy games which has really caught on.

The new version is almost identical to that on the Spectrum, except that the C64's extra sound and graphics facilities have been used to spice up the match highlights a little.

For any football enthusiast, it's a must.

As a strategy game, it is less complex that The Boss from Peaksoft which is also a football management game. But in other ways it scores over The Boss, which doesn't have any display of the actual matches.

I thought the graphics needed polishing up - but there are seven levels of play and a save-game facility. It's addictive, fast, responsive and entertaining.

Even at beginners' level, the going is tough, so don't expect to win the F.A. Cup if you're in the Third Division or below. A fun game with nail-biting match highlights.