Realism is the key!

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Stock Car is yet another new title from the prolific Micro Power software house.

In this game you take on the role of a stock car ace pitting your wits against three computer

controlled cars — two in the two player game - as you power your highly tuned machine around a choice of six circuits.

> The aim is to achieve the fastest average lap time for any of the circuits, the current records being displayed in the high score table.

Once loaded, the game can be set up to your own requirements by setting the number of players, choice of circuit, number of laps, and finally the degree of skid required.

This last factor is the one which provides the game with its realism. I found that when using a skid factor of 20 per cent the car was a dream to drive - the skid factor is not necessarily a disadvantage. By beginning to turn just before entering a corner the car can be drifted rally style around the bend.

> Great fun can be had by blasting down the outside of the straight in top gear and then cutting across and taking the inside line through the bend, passing some computer control led dummy who has left you the smallest of gaps. Yet another computer car "bytes" the dust. Once you think that you've mastered the game, try it with the oil slicks. These appear randomly around the circuit.

Once every car has passed them the slicks vanish and reappear somewhere else. Quite often somewhere else just happens to be directly in front of your car.

To say handling is impaired when passing through a slick is a bit of an understatement, you would have more control driving on ice.

> Taking a peek at the computer's cars, while grappling with the controls in the middle of an oil slick. I noticed that they appeared to pass through the oil without a waver. I can only assume that they were fitted with tyres of a different rubber compound to mine.

My first impression of the game had been one of disappointment with the graphics - the user's car being the only multi-coloured character. But following an hour at the wheel, this no longer seemed of any significance. The beauty of this game lies in the realism of the action.

Jon Revis