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Don't be fooled by the "Games Designer" tag plastered across the packaging of Scope II, this beautifully structured utility is quite unlike menu-driven customisers such as Melbourne House's Hurg and Software Studio's Games Designer. It's a far more useful medium-level language dedicated purely towards the manipulation of high-speed graphics, sound and animation. And the beauty of the system is that code generated by Scope II will run independently of its mother tongue.

The perfect tool for frustrated games writers! What's more, it's exceptionally accessible! You've a mere 36 command words to master which, once written into Basic REM statements, can be instantly compiled into machine code using a simple USR call. Of course, experienced machine code hackers will bemoan the system's limitations but others will find it a genuine boon.

Scope II itself appears remarkably clean. The only bug I came across was its total refusal to recognise the NOTE command, Scope's equivalent to the REM statement. But that's a small price to pay.

The package is completed by a useful sprite designer routine and some simple Scope II listings. With this and Gilsoft's The Quill the Spectrum games market has been blown apart. Owners of the original Scope should upgrade immediately. Great stuff!