Very few Dragon games can claim the success attributed to similar games on other computers: indeed, few Dragon games can claim to be the inspiration behind converting the idea to other computers. Yet both of these prestigious qualities form the basis of one insurmountable Dragon game, Harry Whitehouse's Champions.

Champions, launched in 1983, rapidly captured the imagination of many Dragon users, the result being that it secured a palace in the Dragon hall of fame as one of the most popular all-time Dragon games. And yet, while its popularity has never been in question, a review has never found its way into the pages of Dragon User.

To those not yet familiar, the game involves placing one in the intriguing position of a fourth division football manager whose aim is simply to become the next Brain Clough, taking the pre-selected team to the dizzy heights of the first division, and subsequently into the realms of European football.

There are indeed many realistic features incorporated within the game, many of which were updated in 1986 in a successful attempt to fight off the mounting opposition which Addictive's famous Football Manager imposed. Such features include a transfer market, a revamped 'Bank Manager' (perhaps reminding us that football has as many battles off the pitch as on it!), a competitive and enthralling F A Cup, with limited graphics, enabling one to view the game in progress', while still prominently boasting the often, fatal 'weekly news' feature which simulates the weeks events. Indeed, it is hard to envisage an aspect of football which the game doesn't portray.

If you ever find one of your Brand X-owning friends playing The Boss, or Soccer Boss, point out that it is a conversion of a Dragon game!

Harry Whitehouse, perhaps best still remembered in his former guise as Peaksoft, is quick to emphasise the game's success, not only in the Dragon market but more unusually in other formats as well. "The point about Champs is that it is still one of the most successful games, although few people recognise it," says Harry. "Champs did so well on the Dragon that we thought 'This can't be bad', so we re-wrote it for the ZX81, then the BBC/Electron, Tandy CoCo, Oric and Spectrum off it zoomed again. During this time, we'd been thinking of new features, so we did a pretty thorough re-write before we brought it out for the Commodore 64, renaming it The Boss. That zipped off into the top twenty, so we incorporated all the improvements into the Spectrum and BBC/Electron versions, together with a new version for the Oric Atmos, Commodore 16, MSX and Amstrad CPC."

"We still sell quite a few copies by mail order through the football magazines, but the most interesting current point is that we've licensed The Boss as a budget product to Alternative Software, who have released it as Soccer Boss for several computers. In its new clothes, it has been in the national Top Twenty for a number of months (best position so far, number two, but we're keeping our fingers crossed).

"The point about all this is that if you ever find one of your Commodore 64-owning friends playing The Boss or Soccer Boss, point out to him that he is actually playing a conversion of a Dragon game. And if he happens to have another Top Twenty game called International Cricket in his collection... well, guess how that began life?"

Self evidently. Champions has become somewhat of a cult among Dragon users, and indeed in the computer industry in general. If the game has yet to find its way into your collection, whether you are interested in football or not, then you can be sure you will not find many more addictive and entertaining games than Harry Whitehouse's Champions.