Even Steve suffers

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Just in case you can't get your quota of snooker on television you could always try your hand at the computerised version. It's less embarassing when you miss!

Of the two games, snooker and pool, I have always found that pool can be computerised very well but snooker is usually a bit of a disappointment. In scaling the big table down to TV size the balls become too small to allow the accurate judgement of angles. Steve Davis Snooker is no exception.

One point in the game's favour is the fact that it will provide you with an opponent, in the shape of Mr Davis himself.

This is the first snooker game I have played which does this. Playing a shot is also carried out in several stages. Firstly you must position the cursor next to your target ball, in this case a red.

Unfortunately the cursor will only move vertically or horizon tally, pressing both the up and left keys cannot coax it into moving diagonally.

Spin is the next factor which must be specified, this can be top, back, left, or right. You cannot apply a combination of two of these so the more fancy positional play is ruled out.

Finally, having specified the power of the shot, you can press the spacebar and watch the balls ricochet around the table. The speed of the balls' movement is governed by how many other balls are moving at the same time.

The graphics are nothing special, but I have yet to see a good snooker game on the BBC. Its main redeeming feature is the computerised opponent option.

Jon Revis