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Beebugsoft have steadily gained a good reputation among owners of the BBC and Electron micros, and so I was pleased to receive this cassette for review.

There have been other drawing packages for the Electron, and it is perhaps important to look for enhancements and original features. One telling point for this program is that there are too many options to fit into the main menu, and so there are some placed in a secondary menu which has to accessed from the first.

The options are "acquired" in a rather Ikon-like style, with the cursor being moved by the keyboard or joystick to the symbol. Certain "dangerous" options have to be acquired twice by the Space bar, thus providing a safety net for unwary users.

Working in Mode 0, 1 or 2, there is a wide range of colours available with the most colourful screens being of course in Mode 2. Shapes can be drawn using a continuous row of dots, using any colour, with colour changes easily being made at any point. The dot can be replaced by a brush of variable width, and also variable shape, including a very powerful option to define your own shape of brush.

Just these few options kept me occupied for quite a while as I explored their potential by drawing variations of triangles, rectangles, circles and more complex shapes. As is almost standard now, there's a rubber band facility. This allows for accurate placement of shapes by showing what is about to appear on-screen just before the final selection is made.

Indeed, another colour may still be chosen while in this mode, thus increasing the possibilities. Shapes can be infilled, although complex shapes tend to need several attempts. Text can easily be interspersed with the graphics, and this is just one of the range of features whose use is clearly displayed in the accompanying 48-page booklet. This is essential reading if the true potential of this system is to be fully exploited and explored.

With GCOL options available, and the colour palette changeable, there is enough to bewilder or excite any user. I have used other drawing packages on the Electron, but I haven't found a better one yet.

Phil Tayler