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If you've played Monopoly with dice on that classic board, you won't need to be told what an engrossing, frustrating and downright evil game it can be. If you haven't, most of this review will be gibberish to you and you may as well pass on to the next one.

The first genuine computer version of the game, published with the blessing of Waddingtons, preserves all the elements of the original. You don't see the whole board at any time - that would be asking too much of the Beeb's graphics - but Mode 7 is used cleverly to display four adjoining squares (in their traditional colours), which scroll along as the pieces are moved according to the throw of the dice. You use the function keys for an update on your cash and assets, to buy and sell and take out mortgages, and to remind you of who owns what.

Up to six people can play (although this seems to cause a 'No room' error if all six play for any length of time), and the computer can be invited to join in, playing one or more roles. I can't help wondering *why* six people would want to play Monopoly gathered round a micro, when they could play exactly the same game round a board, but I suppose there is something to be learned from the skillful, calculating way the computer plays. And, to be sure, there are some nice additional touches, like the Go To Jail routine: when you land on that fateful square, a police siren accompanies your mournful progress back round the board to Jail (not passing Go, of course), and you're incarcerated to the sound of a heavy cell door clanging shut.

In this good but slightly buggy transferral of the game, there's only one thing I miss from the original: the opportunity to say "Look! What's that outside the window?" - then, when everyone's looking outside, surreptitiously stealing a few thousand from the Bank and transferring a few houses on to my property. Who said cheaters never prosper?