This program is great fun to use and I'm certain will get its message across to young children. There are 116 word lists that test different English language topics and if that is not enough, there are user-friendly means of constructing your very own version. This facility enables parents to supply a list which coincides with their child's current reading material and ability.

A simple menu offers the choices: to summarise the available lists, to enter or practise your own list or to end. One piece of inconsistency is the use of lower case letters to denote options on the screen when plainly upper case keys have to be pressed. The lists test various awkward spelling, double consonants, vowels modified by 'r' an so on. They are lifted from 'A Classroom Index of Phonic Resources' by D. Herbert and G. Davies-Jones.

Personal lists can be entered direct, loaded and saved and easily edited. On-screen prompts are all clear for these operations and the manual takes the user through step-by-step with the aid of actual shots of what to expect on the screen.

The game itself is simple but thoroughly enjoyable. A word is printed up in large letters with the prompt 'look'. After a moment the prompt changes to 'spell'. To invest the program with a challenge, a target time is set for the completion of the test. The best bit of the game is when you get something wrong (shame about incentive). The invader-like characters, which have been in attendance all along, burst into life and chuck out all the letters you have got wrong. The letters are shifted about and correct ones inserted. I was mesmerised.

The test ends with a 'well done', the time taken and a list of words to be practised in the event of incorrect attempts. It really is tempting to make the odd deliberate mistake just to have another look at those invaders in action.