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J.R. is a very interesting two player game. As the name suggests, the game is about oil. The idea of the game is to become the richest oil tycoon by outdrilling, outselling and outmanoeuvering your opponent. You must bankrupt him by exploring, drilling, researching and repricing, as well as controlling your workers.

You must cope with many problems, for instance, pay demand strikes, blowouts and tanker spills.

When the game starts, each player is asked the name of his company. The computer chooses who is going to go first. Each player has one turn, in which he may explore, drill, reprice his oil, research, alter his workforce of pass over to his opponent.

By exploring you find how deep oil is and how much there is. You may then decide to drill. By putting money to research you may reduce your drilling costs. You may need to employ or remove workers (if the union will let you) as your oil-field expands. Depending on what wage you pay, this task may not be easy.

Each turn you are given data such as cash holdings, flow of oil, reserves, sales, costs, profits, return, wages and the number of wells you own. You will need to be careful in your wages and pricing policies if you want to remain in business.

The game is run in Mode 1 and has a split-screen display: in addition an oil-well to show progress at your current site. Considering the type of game, the sound and graphics are average, but nothing too spectacular on this line.

Altogether a lively and interesting family game.