They're better by the quartet

The first venture into the games market from Capital Programs is a four-in-one package called, aptly, Four Games.

In the first, Picket Line, the object is to get up to 10 pickets to the picket line. Someone had to cash in on it sooner or later...

Starting off with four Jives, you have to guide your strikers through the hedges and fences, collecting money and food. Your stock of money and food is shown as a percentage and if you let either drop to zero, you lose a life.

After four screens similar in objective, you finally have to collect as much falling coal as you can from a passing NCB freight train.

Once you have completed the final screen your stiker goes on the picket line and you start all over again.

The second game. The Lost Cavern, is a ladders-and-levels game looking rather similar to Blagger.

As in most of these games, you have to find a route round the screen to collect a number of items, in this case gold pots.

You also have to negotiate a number of obstacles such as disintegrating floorboards, spin ning cogs, and lava-flows, avoiding demons and other meanies as you do.

When all the gold pots on one level have been collected, a flashing beacon appearsand you must jump on to it to move to the next level.

The third game, Caterpillar, is an old favourite. You have to guide the beast round the garden getting points for eating cab bages and flowers.

These also add to the lengthof the caterpillar, making the task more difficult.

You must avoid spiders, bushes and the garden wall, for thesewill kill you, as will turning back on yourself.

There is not much you can say about the last game, Pontoon. It's a pleasant graphic reproduction of the popular gambling game. You start with £500 and play the computer, which acts as the bank.

The end comes when you are broke and I'm absolutely con vincedthat the computer cheats. Most occasions when I bet a small amount I got good, easy-to-win hands. But if I got greedy and tried gambling a large amount, the computer inevitably won.

The games, in isolation, would be nothing to write home about, but together, at a few pence under £8, they make quite a good value-for-money package.

The graphics on the first two games are very good, and on the last two are acceptable.

It's true that you only get what you pay for, and a little more time should have been spent tidying up the instruction screens.

Minor irritations such as spelling mistakes - there was one in the instruction screen of each game - marred what would have been a first-rate package.

David Andrews