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Tennis has moved from the early days of Pong to the realism of Matchpoint and On-Court Tennis and now squash has done the same.

The game gives you the view a spectator would have from behind and above the court where the two players are. You can play against the computer or another player, or even put the game into demo.

The players are animated quite well with even the sweaty creases in the shirts moving around. However, they don't respond to diagonals on the joystick.

The ball can be put on one of four speeds with red being the easiest. At this speed the computer gives a good game while on a yellow fast ball it is incredibly mean.

You hit the ball just by pressing fire and if you're close enough to it, it is automatically hit. The timing of the stroke can determine the speed and angle of the ball, there being six angles possible.

All the usual rules of squash apply with obstructions and outs. You can play one, three or five game matches, with the winner of each having to reach nine points.

The score is constantly called by Jonah Barrington and the quality of the speech is pretty good too, although it does sound a little muffled. Just like he's speaking through a pane of glass, which he is of course.

There isn't much colour, with the players wearing white and yellow, but the ball is black and big enough to see easily.

The excellent speech and realistic ball movement gave me some initial interest. Umpteen games later I wasn't so impressed: I didn't feel as if I were truly controlling the shots (especially when going for a ball coming from the left - the racquet stays to the right!). This made Squash an unrealistic and annoying simulation for me to play, and I think I'll stick with the liquid variety.

I enjoyed this new sports simulation and once I got the hang of the timing and getting to the ball, fluent rallies were possible. The speech isn't as good as Impossible Mission or Ghostbusters and it seems superfluous, I think this may well be a hit with sports players, my only disappointment being the lack of diagonal movement.

The speech got rather grating after a while and your man falling on his bum every time he was hit by a squash ball was annoying. Control was rather fiddly and the graphics weren't particularly amazing, but nevertheless this is bound to appeal to C64-owning squash players.

Presentation 76%
You're told all the rules of squash and the speech is good.

Originality 50%
Our usual cop-out sports simulation rating.

Graphics 61%
Reasonable animation but there's not much else on a squash court.

Hookability 71%
The computer is a good starting opponent and control is easily learnt.

Sound 64%
Good speech but little else.

Lastability 70%
The computer skill level gets really tough and two players is fun.

Value For Money 70%
A good simulation that is very playable.