The re-birth of interest in the Electron has persuaded many manufacturers to invest in new hardware add-ons.

These extras come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, and with many differing uses. The Sidewinder Interface from Wizard Development Company is a two-in-one device, combining a joystick interface and a Sideways ROM card.

It is housed in a sturdy plastic box which connects straight to the computer's expansion port. You don't need anything else to use it.

The box will make your Electron about four inches deeper. A connection on the rear of Sidewinder allows other devices such as the Acorn Plus 1 to be added as well.

The strong but clear plastic lid allows you to see what ROMs are installed. The connection for the joystick is, conveniently, at the side. In fact it's a well thought out and well constructed device.

The joystick port allows the use of switched Atari style joysticks for the majority of games. If you have Acorn Plus 1 analogue joysticks they will not work on Sidewinder. However, most games players prefer the more positive feel of the switched style, so you could decide that Sidewinder was useful for games even if you have a Acorn Plus 1.

It is very easy to use as it carries its own software in one of the Sideways ROM sockets. On power up you just type *JS ON. You are then prompted to enter the normal control keys for the program you wish to use, and to load the program in the usual way.

You will still be able to play the game from the keyboard or, hopefully, with a joystick.

Some games just wouldn't work with joysticks. Repton 2, for example, uses the memory that the joystick requires. Killer Gorilla, for some reason would not work and Swag refused to even load.

All other games that I tried - some two dozen - ran properly on joysticks, including programs I had written myself. I consider that a very high success rate.

Alongside the joystick software are three empty sockets. Into these you can plug Sideways ROM software.

The Electron has a very clever Operating System which can allow up to 16 16k ROMs to share the same piece of memory. This means that, with Sidewinder fitted, you could have a computer with 96k of ROM as well as the 32k of RAM.

These extra sockets are invaluable for the more serious computer user. Sideways ROMs make word processors, spreadsheets, databases and hosts of other applications software instantly available.

And if you want a break from the serious stuff a few games are also produced on ROM because they are much harder to copy and leave much more memory free for data.

The socket that has the joy ROM in can be configured for 4k, 8k or 16k ROMs. The other three sockets can only take ROMs of 8k and above. There is no provision for Sideways RAM.

There is one drawback to Sidewinder though. If you wish to use a printer, or upgrade to discs, it will make your system rather cumbersome, and I would suggest other ways of adding ROM capability to your computer.

However if your needs are for a competent joystick port for games, and for some serious applications as well, Sidewinder could be a winner. It certainly represents good value for money at £39.95.

Rog Frost