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Backgammon is one of those games that you only see around your grandparents' house, sat on top of the radiogram and cunningly placed next to the Punch annual of 1934. Its secrets remain impenetrable to most of us, but someone somewhere keeps saying Backgammon is terribly good fun.

The idea of the game is to get all fifteen of your pieces into the inner table on your side of the board (he said, reading the manual). You can play either a human opponent or one of the ST-generated characters. Obviously the further you get, the harder it becomes to beat your machine's blackgammoning entourage.

To move one of your pieces, you simply drag it to a new position. The ST of your opponent then makes a move. If you find yourself in a losing position, you can swap sides or take a move back. There is also a save game option. You can even modify dice values - and this comes in very handy for betting.

There are some nice touches in Backgammon Royale. The stills of the computer opponents are drawn effectively and there is a commentary above these that adds a human touch to the gameplay. While this game isn't likely to leap up the charts, it could prove to be fun if you're into something a bit more thoughtful than alien-shooting.