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It's off to Calgary with Winter Olympiad '88, the latest sports simulation release from Tynesoft. The game consists of six events from the Winter Olympics. These are the bob sled, speed skating, ski jump, giant slalom and the biathlon. There are three heats in each, the best score out of the three deciding which medal you get in each event.

The controls you use vary between events. In the bob sled you have two brakes, which you must use to prevent your sled from flipping over as it rises up the sides of the run. Three of the events involve continuously hitting two keys, one after the other, to obtain speed. In speed skating, this is the only thing you have to do, making it the most boring of the six.

The graphics are good enough to rival any I've seen on the Beeb. Trees halt the height of the screen rush towards you in the bob sled. The three ski jump screens are 'hand' drawn and quite detailed.

Sound in the game is also very good. It's obvious that a lot of thought has been put into its design, for instance the cassett relay is switched to produce the sound of a rifle being cocked in the biathon.

There are a few drawbacks with this game. The first is the most obvious; the hammering the keyboard receives. The second problem is that there is no test facility. Thus to practice the ski jump you must first go through the bob sled and at least one run of the speed skating.

My third grumble is that the Beeb locks up when BREAK is pressed, and since there is no built-in way of starting the game, the computer must be switched off.

Apart from these points, the game is good fun and really gets you in the spirit of the Winter Olympics - the only thing that haven't managed to simulate is the cold, and who needs it?

Gavin Gillings