Revving up at Silverstone

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Revs isn't the banger-racing type of Grand Prix game with spectacular explosions where you spin off, and scenery from a spaghetti western. It's a serious attempt to model a Formula 3 racing car by Geoff Crammond, with the attention to detail and style he invented for Acornsoft on Aviator.

It's not cheap, but Acornsoft has gone for quality with an excellent game which is very well put together, and documentation to match.

The game owes its existence to Acorn's sponsorship last year of the Eddie Jordan racing team at Formula 3 level.

David Hunt, who drove the very car modelled here, was the test bed for Crammond's code and provided many of the comments in the "driver's manual" and racing programme.

You can approach this game on two levels - as an F3 simulation at the Silverstone race track and a game. Having tackled Silverstone in just such a car, I can say that the Revs version goes out of control and spins just like the real thing (and having done a lot of spinning I should know!). Hunt reckons his best lap time on Revs is just 0.3 seconds faster than the real thing.

There is a software 'hook' so new tracks can be included, but there are no definite plans to make use of this.

Where the detail really shows is in things like the rear-view mirrors revealing other racers coming up behind, and the thump-thump as the car runs on the corner kerbs.

When it comes to controlling the car, the keyboard is a handfull, but worth persevering with. There are four keys in regular use for the left hand, and three for the right (come back Elite, all is forgiven). The game does work with joysticks, and was tested on the B+.

As a game, it lacks the unrealistic whizz, bang and crash of some, but this in no way diminishes its appeal, and those who appreciated the challenges of Aviator and Elite will find Revs in the same mould.

Tony Quinn