Biorhythms are one of those things that, like horoscopes, you either believe in it or you don't. For those that don't know, follovers of biorhythms maintain that the three main facets of your personality (intellect, emotions and physical well-being) go through "cycles" during which time they vary in strength. The lengths of these cycles differ in that the cycles are of 3 3, 28 and 23 days duration respectively hence the need for a computer to calculate their current positions.

The program Biorhythms comes on cassette with a series of printer drives on side A for Epson. Seikosha GP100A and Shinwa CP8Q. The Biorhythms program itself is on side two and, having loaded, starts by giving you a choice of foreground and background colours (black, buff and green since it is all in PMODE4) and then asks for the "subject's" name and date of birth. Having entered this initial information, you may then enter the 'target' month that you wish the biorythms to be calculated for. This is where the fun starts.

The program begins by calculating the number of days that have elapsed since the birthdate and the target month last year. (Allowances are made for leap years). The program then goes on to add the number of days month by month until the target month is reached. Eventually (and I mean eventually), a graph is drawn for the target month showing the status of each of the three cycles and showing the 'critical' days at which time things are at an all-time low. You have the option to print the graph or to go on and get the biorhythms for the next month, but that is it.

If you are a biorhythm believer then the information shown will make you happy. I am not a believer and so the output of the program is as exciting to me as an empty beer can (Not a bad analogy that, eh? Since I don't possess Jason's literary wit, when God was dishing that out Jason was at the front of the queue and I was in beer tent!), but what annoyed me was the face that the program shows all of its calculations one step at a time and after each step you must press a key to continue to the next.

This would not normally be too bad but because the steps are shown on the hi-res screen using an immeasurably slow text-driver I found myself reading the paper and occasionally nudging the Space bar with my elbow.

The program is very neat and has obviously had a lot of hard work put into it but it simply takes too long to get to the final screen that shows the information that you bought the program for. Before the letters page starts buzzing with insults thrown in my direction, I am not criticising Biorhythms, that is your choice, my comments are only directed at the programming.

If Biorhythms are your cup of tea then this program will do what you want it to. It will just do it slowly, that's all.