An excellent program like this is tremendous value at 5.50, I would have expected to pay more for it. It is a version of the internationally famous property trading game which most of us have spent so many wet afternoons playing. I found it more entertaining than the original board game in fact, and games definitely take a lot less time as it is impossible to cheat or quarrel when the game is between you and your micro. Thankfully no graphic representation of the board is attempted, as this would be time and memory consuming and no doubt confusing.

There are many features which make play easier: full status reports (including assets of each player, unsold properties, which sets are completely owned by one player, how many buildings are on each site, what their mortgage values are, etc. etc.), SAVE and LOAD of prolonged games, voluntary mortgages at any stage etc.

The object is to bankrupt the computer - something which the instructions say is a rare event, but I succeeded in doing so on both of my first two games on both occassions by an asset margin of around 4500. On the second occasion the victory print-out read: "I HAVE 17 POUNDS, I MUST PAY YOU 1100" on one of my built up areas.

Most of the game is enjoyable and faultless. There is however one bug (apart from spelling errors) which I found in the hotel buying option on the menu. This resulted in a error statement every time this option was chosen. Thankfully a minor alteration to the program on loading can cure this error.

Another thing which I would like to see changed concerns the voluntary and compulsory mortgage routine. I would like to be free to consult the status reports before deciding which property to mortgage, but at present this is not possible, and if you are not careful to remember which property you own, you may find yourself playing guessing games when you have to type in the name of one of your properties to be mortgaged.

On the hole this is a challenging, high quality product, and the original strategy, which is not lost by the conversion to computer, makes a welcome change to arcade games.