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Although North and South is one of the funniest games around, the real American Civil War was no laughing matter. In the end, more Americans were killed in it than any other war, including WWII! Many people think the war was started over slavery, which was popular in the South where slaves worked on the plantations. In reality, the North was becoming more industrial and needed different government policies than the South, which eventually declared itself independent. The North fought to maintain the United States, though, and its industrial might ensured victory.

In the game you can choose from four different starting positions (the years 1861-1864). To win, you simply need to wipe out all the enemy's army units. However, you can buy extra units with taxes gained from controlling states. However, to collect the money you need a railroad: you must control two or more stations for the train to run between, and the states in between. To turn states over to your control, simply move an army unit in. There's no opposition unless the enemy bothers to send his own army in.

Capturing an enemy railroad station/fort is more difficult, though. In a multi-loaded sub-game you have just a single man who must run through the horizontally scrolling fort to raise your flag. He must jump over explosives, dodge dogs, clamber up and down ladders, and leap holes in the wall. The defending player can also send in several of his own soldiers to throw knives and punch.

A similar sort of sub-game is loaded if you have an army unit in a state through which the enemy train is trying to run. Here you must leap aboard the speeding train, jump the gaps between carriages and take on enemy soldiers. Get to the train engine and you capture the gold. Both these subgames have a strict time limit and are great fun, with colourful graphics, good animation and plenty of challenge.

With six gold bags you can buy another army unit. The standard unit consists of a cannon, three cavalrymen and six infantrymen. When you move a unit onto an enemy force, one of three battlefields is loaded - two of them divided by a river or ravine which makes attacking difficult with only two crossing places.

The battlegrounds are all very nicely drawn and although the sprites look poor, there's some nice animation and they work well. Once a battle begins, you can flick between controlling the cannons, cavalry or infantry. The cannons move vertically and you hold down fire to set the distance for your cannonball bombardment. Ammo is limited, though, and once it runs out the cannons retreat. Cavalry and infantry are controlled as groups by the joystick.

Cavalry are fast-moving and can slash down other soldiers with their swords. Infantry are more vulnerable, but can fire a withering barrage of rifle fire. Should things start going badly, you can retreat to fight another day. Devastated units can be merged with other units to make one big force.

North And South also features three optional features. Indians and Mexicans are wild cards, randomly wiping out units in the western states. Then there's Port Virginia where a ship regularly drops a unit off for whoever controls the port. Finally there's the weather, a thundercloud which moves across the map, immobilizing whichever unit it's over. These features can all be turned off, as can the arcade sub-games (including battlefield confrontations).

But, whichever way you play it, North And South is a winner! I loved the Amiga original and the C64 conversion is an amazingly good conversion. The little windows which open on the main map are amazing, these short animated sequences for the start of a battle or a fort attack are brilliantly done and complemented by some wonderful tunes. The sub-games are great too - taking a fort or train is a superb mix of humour and frustration.

The actual battles aren't as impressive. I was a little disappointed at first by the basic sprites but they're well animated and in their own way fun to look at.

North And South is an irresistible mix of arcade action and strategy.

North And South has only one serious flaw; during head-to-head battles when a river divides the two sides and no-one wants to attack. The primitive (and realistic!) solution is for the players to taunt each other with insults until someone finally attacks, pulls the plug or bops you on the nose!

Alternatively you can simply say whoever starts the battle either has to attack or withdraw. Weak units trying to hold their own are best advised to follow rivers on the map. For attacking players trying to polish off an enemy who is always retreating, just corner the unit so that there's nowhere for it to withdraw to. Of course, in most circumstances the war is decided economically. Knocking out your enemy's money run and capturing Port Virginia virtually guarantees victory.

Although we've only seen the excellent disk version, a tape version is also imminent. There are two tapes: on Tape 1, Side 1, there's the intro with game options. Side 2 has the strategic map which has to be loaded after every sub-game. Tape 2, Side 1 has the battlefield sub-game, while the train and fort sub-games are on Side 2. Fast multi-loading means it won't be too bad, although the hassle might become tedious. As soon as we get it we'll do an update. A cartridge version is under consideration.

Presentation 94%
Two player mode, three skill levels, optional sub-games and special features, superb animated sequences on map screen plus good intro/outro.

Graphics 92%
Tiny sprites on battlefield, but everything else is first class.

Sound 94%
A great selection of appropriate tunelets.

Hookability 93%
You can't get much easier to get into than this.

Lastability 89%
Three skill levels, four start positions, lots of options and two-player mode ensure good long-term appeal.

Overall 91%
Another conversion miracle from Probe.