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Having played a variety of football management simulations, I eagerly loaded the first of these twin cassettes, which deals with the qualifying stages. Actually it also includes a couple of European friendlies and the South American tour, which give ample opportunity to review your strengths and weaknesses. It also gave me the ideal opportunity to do the same to Qualsoft's program.

In some respects I was a little disappointed, for I began at the easiest skill level where the results seemed just too random and often incredible.

The sound effects are not particularly exciting, but these can be turned off. The most disappointing aspect was that when I actually managed to reach the final where England beat Italy, there wasn't a cup in sight - merely a one word message of congratulations!

The graphics, however, do give the impression of a football match, with 22 little match men rushing up and down the pitch with great effort although poor skill. This is, naturally, computer-controlled so you can just watch the action for a minute or so.

At the higher skill levels the whole idea becomes far more interesting with the players' strengths and weaknesses taken into far greater account. Great skill is needed, as I found it very easy to lose many a critical game.

However, when the England team does eventually qualify it is necessary to save the data on to a blank cassette, which can then be reloaded into the second part, that dealing with the finals in Mexico.

Once there, a squad of 20 is selected from the players used so far. Yes, there is an option to add extra players, so you too can play for your country! The stages here are really very authentic, but when you've won the cup once I would strongly suggest that you try at a more competitive level in order to capture the real challenge the program offers.

Sadly, although the qualifying cassette can obviously be reused, there is no save facility elsewhere, and the whole program is a bit monotonous at one sitting. Still, it is a credit to Qualsoft to see just how complex an idea can be programmed into the Electron.

Phil Tayler