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This game was originally produced by Ariolasoft, was written by the RamJam Corporation, designed by Tigress, from an original idea by somebody unknown, and is loosely based around Connect Four. Now Firebird get in on the act by re-releasing it at a budget price.

The game concept is very simple: two player take it in turns to introduce counters onto a chequered board, when four of one colour are all in a line that player wins.

If this sounds a bit too much Connect Four don't worry, it isn't because there is one big addition. Instead of dropping counters in from the top of the frame, counters are pushed on from anywhere on the far right column or bottom row. The action of pushing a counter serves to shunt any counters already on that row or column along one.

All this takes a while to get used to, but after a while you work all the common gambits out and things become quite enjoyable. The game has a self-teaching mode where you can play the computer and it gives you suggestions and a percentage score depending on how good your move was.

Everything is icon-controlled and the horrid little icon pictures appear all over the screen at various times. Joystick or keyboard are used. The joystick is better for selecting icons, the keyboard for actually playing the game - this is because the columns and rows are labelled with letters and numbers.

All the usual chess options are included (including six pre-set problems), reviewing, timers, take-back, suggestions and a printer option.

Altogether, a well thought out variation on an old game and well worth two quid.