Intrigue's 1984 Pentathlon consists of two track and three field events. In order they are 100 metres, 1500 metres, discus, long and high jumps. It is for two players or one player competing against the computer.

Competitors are given names: 'TI' being the opponent for a one player game. Athletes' colours are also selected with 'TI' competing in black. Some colours clash with event backdrops. Don't use these unless you want a competitor to look like the invisible man.

After kitting out, you can select an event to practise or go for the full pentathlon. In two player mode, competitors may practise different events.

The track events and discus throw backgrounds are stadia with clever moving advertisements for Intrigue Software which give apparent movement to the events.

In the 100 and 1500 metre races, keys are pressed at optimum speed to try and win the event in the least time. World records are displayed, although the values remain a mystery, and it is possible to break them. For example, the 100 metres record of 9.10 is realistic enough in seconds, but how coud 87.70 possibly relate to the 1,500 metres? Perhaps this is an artificially shortened time to lessen the agony and boredom of continual key pressing.

The disjointed and disproportionately large discus thrower works up into a frenzy and you must judge the right time to release the discus before a foul occurs when the semi-circle is overstepped. Trajectory angle figures then appear, and you must choose the correct one to give maximum distance. The discus then flies off at the selected angle for each of the three attempts given.

The long jump world record seems easy to break and by a startlingly large margin at that. Can anyone break 11.50? The jumper must be checked behind a take off line and then the angle of jump is selectd from a rapidly varying number. Three attempts are allowed. In contrast, the high jumper must be checked some way from the bar before take-off. The jump angle is then selected as for the long jump. In mid air the jumper can be manoeuvred four times to do a flip over the bar. Three attempts are given at each height with the bar incrementing automatically after a successful jump.

In the pentathlon proper, points are awarded for the scores obtained. These are displayed, along with event titles, world records, competitors' names, best performance and attempts made. Annoyingly, the result of an attempt is only displayed if it betters a previous one. At the end of a competition the total scores achieved by each athlete are shown.

The review cassette sound wa almost non-existent, no matter how loaded from either side.

Sadly, not up to the usual Intrigue standards in all respects.