Is there a Becker in the box?

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Should you be one of the many thousands of people who spend Wimbledon fortnight glued to the TV set you may have considered trying a computer simulation.

Bug-Byte have just released one such program, though I doubt whether it's destined to be a winner.

You have the option of playing one or three sets with either four or six games per set.

Control is via keyboard or joystick and your opponent is always the computer - you cannot challenge a friend.

This is a pity as the computer provides such stiff opposition that you will normally only win one or two points during a complete set.

The court is drawn with perspective going into your screen, the computer always being at the top of the screen.

Serving is performed by pressing the fire button, but do remember to keep your feet behind the baseline or you willbe foot faulted.

Your player can travel left, right, and up and down the court, and balls can either be volleyed or taken as groundstrokes.

When volleying from the net I would suggest that you do not stand too close as you will tend to hit the ball out of court.

I can only assume that the angle of the shot which you play is determined by your position in relation to the ball, though I didn't find that this made too much difference.

The ball's flight and its associated shadow, was rela tively smooth, although on several occasions it vanished for a fraction of a second in mid-flight.

The characters representing the players are large, angular and rather crude. The best part of the screen is the scoreboard where electronic style numbers display sets, points, and server.

Had the game employed a user selectable skill option it would probably have had more lasting appeal. But in its present form I feel it would soon be abandoned by a thoroughly demoralised player.

James Riddell