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Melbourne House are continuing their plans to convert their Spectrum hero for other micros.

The Horace games were very popular with Sinclair owners and the range is now being produced for Dragon owners.

Horace Goes Skiing is a game in two parts. First, there's a Frogger-type game where our cuddly hero must buy his skis from the shop across the road.

There are cars, lorries and motorbikes travelling across the screen and Horace must avoid them. If he fails, then he loses a life and after three attempts he will have run out of money. In this case, the game is over and you'll have to start again.

If Horace manages to get his skis, then he can start on the piste. The slope is similar to the mass of skiing games which were popular at one time. It's the same as the Commodore 64 or Spectrum versions and isn't really that exciting.

The slope scrolls up the screen and you have to guide Horace, clad in his skis, through the gates but avoiding the trees and obstacles. If you manage to reach the finish, then you're in line for a bonus.

There are a few sound effects in the game. The skiing section is silent, except when you hit a tree, which produces a solitary moan from the television's speaker.

The best sound, though, is the music which plays over the title screen between games. You can interrupt it with the fire button and start the game, but I preferred to listen. It sounds like the theme from a TV documentary and I enjoyed it.

Control is via a joystick which is the main failing of the game in my opinion. The official Dragon joysticks are appalling and aren't really worth using.

You can't actually stop Horace from moving, because the joysticks are not self-centring. So if you don't want him to move, you must point the joystick at the top of the screen.

The graphics are above average for a Dragon game, but only have a limited number of colours. High resolution graphics are used to draw the cars and characters but they didn't appear too clearly on my TV set.

Horace Goes Skiing is almost worth buying. It's not a bad game but I don't think that I'd come back to it very often.