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Icons, icons are everywhere. They first appeared in business packages, they've invaded adventures, now here's the first icon-driven sports game.

Sport Of Kings is also the first sporting MAD game.

The sport of kings referred to in the title is, of course, horse racing and you'll need a King's ransom to play this game.

As many as 75 horses, each with different abilities and forms run in the season's races so the computer allows you to run some races before the betting begins. Unfortunately, you have to sit and watch each race so this is ample opportunity to get all the paper and pens the contestants will need.

To do well in this game you obviously have to pick the winners and the best way to do this is to study the form. The computer stores the result of each race and allows each player to study (or print out) the form of any of the horses in the race.

However, since there are 75 horses and only between 4 and 10 in each race, each rnning diferently in different conditions (good, firm, soggy, etc), a lot is left to luck.

By selecting the games icons you can look at the lineup for the next race, study the form of the horse, save the game to tape, see how much money you've won or lost or place a bet.

Depending on how confident you are in your prediction you can bet on a horse to win, come in a place (in the first three) or better a forecast predicting the first two horses.

During the race you can watch your horses progress as they amble along the course. If you have a Currah Speech unit then you can listen to a commentary of sorts as the commentator yells out the leader's name. After the race the winnings (if any) are paid out and it's on to the next race.

Unfortunately, the program is written in Basic and is a little slow at first but soon you'll be so deep in your own form notes that you won't even notice the bookie bills that are mounting up.