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After an undistinguished but eventful political career, Sir James Hacker is inexplicably elevated to the position of Prime Minister. With the competent (if not always straightforward) aid of senior civil servant Sir Humphrey Appleby and the straightforward (if not always competent) aid of Secretary Bernard Woolley, Hacker must make the most difficult decisions of his career.

And in Yes, Prime Minister - a licence from the eponymous TV show - you take the role of Hacker, ensconced in an office full of icons: a telephone (calls report crises in the outside world), an internal intercom, a teletype, an ideas box, memos and a diary.

Hacker can leave his office to make visits to such places as the Foreign Office, the Cabinet Room, of his minions' offices - though they're not always in. (Those Whitehall lunches do drag on...)

His diary gives a list of meetings, and a desk clock indicates how near an appointment is.

During the in-depth conversations, frank exchanges of views and wide-ranging discussions that he has with Appleby, Woolley, and other political colleagues such as the Foreign Secretary, Hacker is presented with sets of choices in a text-only format.

Each choice represents a different viewpoint and each has a difference consequence. The choices Hacker makes, 'advised' of course by his aides, affect his popularity in the opinion polls. To check that the voters still love him, this blundersome political supreme can open his office safe and discover his previous day's rating in the polls and his present popularity - one these numbers depends Hacker's future.

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: excellent digitised faces, otherwise reasonable
Sound: limited

'When it comes to 'choice' games Mosaic Publishing has the industry sewn up, what with The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and The Archers and now Yes Prime Minister. They're all the same - funny the first time, but the losing attraction. Runnign the country is all very well but none of the decisions you make in Yes Prime Minister have any bearing on the game, and I never felt in contact with my public - the action is limited to the confines of the very drab Prime Ministerial office. And after playing all the way through I didn't feel any compulsion to run the country again - especially not for almost £15.'

'Yes Prime Minister doesn't the interest for long - after just four games I'd seen all the text, and though the rather thin humour works first time round things are very tedious thereafter. I did enjoy the odd parts of the 'TV series which my overworked schedule allowed me to see, and I find the computer version disappointing. The screen display is bright and functional, but still looks a little unattractive. I'd recommend Yes Prime Minister only to fans, and then purely as a collector's item.'