As far as education goes, computers have always appeared to have been slightly disadvantaged. Creating something that is of any educational value and at the same time fun seems to be more than a little difficult. The thing is, bright colours and cute things do not an educational package make. We're glad to say, however, that it seems Alternative have got the right idea from the start.

As soon as you open the package, you'll be impressed. As well as the standard tape and manual stuff, there're two sets of nice shiny flash cards. The first shows the numbers up to 20 (complete with lustrations) and the second shows everyday objects (trees, beds. etc). These, though not covered in great depth (or at all) by the manual, are obviousty to be used in conjunction with the various activities to increase the child's benefit. A word of warning though, these cards are not at all chewable (our new dribbling acting ed ran extensive tests). [He's right, I did. - Act Ed]

Anyway... When you do get around to loading the main package, you'll be pleasantly surprised. I'm not going to harp on about some previous releases from Alternative, as everybody releases the odd dud piece of software, and Playdays seems to set the record straight. The experience starts with a dinky Playdays bus bouncing along, and credits zapping up on a lollipop. This is only a credit sequence though, and the tape has to be started again to load up the main bits.

It must be stated at this point, however, that 6128 owners (and all those with an external tape deck) will have immense hassle. The program stops and starts the tape willy-nilly, not really giving a thought to all those who have to sit patiently by their computer, fingers on buttons, stopping and starting the tape. Life's not all bad though - the computer does give prompts for stopping and starting.

Once the main program has loaded, Why Bird (a character from the TV series) asks you to stop the tape, while a little boat chugs along in the background. The boat sinks (to a complete lack of reaction on the part of the bird), and little Johnny (or whatever your child is called) is asked his name, and greeted. Text input (like all input) is via joystick. The level is then selected, and off we go again, on another tape stopping, starting, and "oh dear I didn't stop it in time and now it can't find the bit I want it to load" jaunt.

Next up is the selection of the letters that the games are to be based around. As a review example, we've selected level four, and the letter A. Why Bird then presents little Johnny with a list of things beginning with the letter A. Then come the animals. The pictures are fun, the letters huge. And we have a game of snap. The program swaps the pictures and words, and Johnny presses fire when he sees a match. If he's right, he gets a nice tune, and a visual reward (a caterpillar or such like).

As with most games in Playdays, the difficulty level seems about right, and each activity gets progressively harder as Johnny goes through. For instance, the snap game starts with one card changing, and progresses to a level where all sorts of things change, requiring an alert child, though not necessarily a fast reaction.

Then, after Peggy has said "Well Done", we play counting, and the various objects in various quantities are counted. If young Johnny gets the number wrong, Why Bird helps him count, until he gets it right.

After Wobble (the clown) has congratulated Johnny, we play moving window. This involves a picture, and a window moving over it, so only part of the picture can be seen at any one time. After a while, Johnny is asked what the object was, and he must spell the name of the object for Why Bird. If Johnny is nowhere near, he is asked to try again. If he spells the word wrongly, Why Bird tells him he is close, and encourages him to have a second go.

Some more encouragement and visual rewards come and go, and we're onto another game. This whole magazine could be filled with the huge number of fun, challenging, and beautifully thought-out games that Playdays contains, but, space being the overriding factor, we'll have to leave it there.

So, what's the package like as a whole? The answer is simple. Ifs brilliant. The software seems to have been pitched perfectly, with the age ranges well accounted for in the ease and concept of the activities. If your child is bored, or you just feel like giving little Johnny a helping hand in his development (social and psychological), Alternative's Playdays seems like a perfect opportunity. The graphics are nice and bouncy, the tone of the text simple, and the activities uncomplicated. Amstrad Action recommends Playdays as a must for all children, and the perfect answer to the need for extra-curricular activities for younger children.

Graphics 93%
Nicely bouncy and cheerful. Perfect for children.

Sonics 90%
The spot effects, jingles and tunes all work beautifully as rewards.

Grab Factor 90%
From the moment Johnny starts playing, he'll have plenty to do, and plenty to see.

Staying Power 95%
And hours later, he'll still have plenty to do, and plenty to see.

Overall 94%
An outstanding package, beautifully presented, showing incredible care and attention on the part of Alternative.

Surprisingly enough, Playdays is actually a licence! It's officially endorsed by the BBC, and was officially launched at Eureka! (the only children's museum in the UK) by the characters of Playdays 'n all! With a little luck, this should be the start of a whole stream of endorsed software to be coming from Alternative!

And, as a special extra incentive, also included in the box is a free sample issue of the official BBC Playdays magazine. It can be found in all normal newsagents, and is stuffed full of fun activities, puzzles, stories, and educationally valuable material, as well as all the usual Playdays characters.

At last someone seems to be trying to make educational programs (and, indeed, educational programmes) fun. This is real 'big time' promotional stuff for software with what everyone usually thinks of as limited appeal (although, if you're a parent or teacher, you'll always have thought of it as being jolly important).

Hurrah for everyone, we say, it's about time. If only they'd had stuff like this when I was a kid, I could probably have made something of myself...