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This is an educational game for up to four players, designed to improve a child's word recognition.

A word is displayed at the top of the screen with one letter missing. A chicken then hops along the screen laying six eggs, which begin to move about. The child must shoot an egg, which reveals a letter. If the child thinks the letter fits into the gap in the incomplete word he presses RETURN. Otherwise he continues shooting.

If the child gets the letter correct, a small bird flies up and takes the letter down.

Chickaroo comes with two files, each containing 50 words, and a parent or teacher may enter up to 50 of his/her own words, which may be saved.

The graphics are reasonable and do their job (they don't need to be too elaborate) and are smooth, though for some reason the small bird is flickery.

Some kind of sound effect is to be heard all the time except during the instruction session at the beginning: when the eggs are moving, on reaching 200 points, firing, successfully shooting an egg, little bird flying; Chickaroo hopping and getting an answer right and wrong.

Up to four players can play, and you are allowed to load and save files. The game is controlled from three keys and I found they were occasionally slow to respond. A joystick option would have helped the younger child, who might well get the keys mixed up.

Chickaroo is a good educational program. It's a bit like space invaders, making the learning process fun. Good graphics and sound add to its quality.