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The First Aid Program is a short instruction course which aims to teach the user how to recognise danger signs and the immediate actions to take for suffocation, bleeding, poisoning, burns and scalds, broken bones and shock.

Loading the program, which is written in Basic, takes about six minutes. After some nice introductory graphics - which are a feature throughout this program - a menu is displayed from which you can opt to study, revise a subject, or test yourself. The study course takes about 15 minutes. It is quite short in terms of the quantity of material included, and instruction is by way of short explanatory notes (rather simplistic at times) centred around a diagram of the circulatory system. This is a good idea which works well and could be developed further. Blood flow is shown through heart, lungs and tissues and the effect, for example, of suffocation on blood flow is shown. Users can opt to revise or test themselves on any of the eight subjects included in the study course, includng body mechanisms, emergency procedures, broken bones, bleeding and shock. Every time you give a wrong, or not quite right, answer to a question, the section of the program dealing with that subject is repeated. A rather tedious process, but one which should drive home the important points.

It is interesting to see the way Network Computer Systems have applied computer instruction methods to the ZX81. Basic, rather than machine code, is indeed an appropriate language - budding programmers can break into the program and modify it as they see fit, learning something of computer instruction and First Aid into the bargain.

Someone who wants to learn First Aid - and we should all prepare ourselves for emergencies - should do a proper First Aid course which includes both formal instruction and practical training. All this computer program does is to summarise some of the main principles of saving life. A 16K ZX81 program could not, of course, be expected to do more than scratch the surface of such an extensive subject - the authorised First Aid manual of the St. John Ambulance Association runs to over 200 pages!

If you want to learn First Aid, enroll with your local First Aid Centre, such as the St. John Ambulance Bridage or the Red Cross. However, I see the usefulness of this program as an introduction to First Aid for ZX81 hobbyists, awakening an interest in an important subject they might otherwise subject they might otherwise have avoided. A well thought-out program which uses the ZX81 graphics to good effect, although short in content and a little simplistic in its approach.

The First Aid Program costs £4.99 and is available from Network Computer Systems Ltd, 39 Bampton Road, Luton, Beds LU4 0DD.