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Bridge is a quiet, civilised game - but its vocabulary betrays the latent violence that skulks in parlours and lounges all over the country. Contracts, for example, and vulnerable. Clubs speak for themselves.

Sagittarian Software has produced a faithful version of the game, with the violence appropriately suppressed - even the cut is missing from the cut and thrust, since the cards are shuffled and dealt electronically!

The screen gives you a green baize table, with boxes to hold the score-card and a record of the bidding. You play South, bidding in abbreviations with only your hand on view. If you play the contract, North (as dummy) reveals his hand, and the game proceeds in the usual way with the computer playing East and West.

The program tries to be educational. During bidding you can analyse each bid, and after a contract you can review all the hands. The record of the bidding is useful but promotes laziness - with this crucial item displayed for you, your memory takes a holiday and you forget to keep count during the play.

Minor irritations are that the computer doesn't permit cheating and that it won't recognise a lay-down - each hand must be played to the bitter end. There are also the nagging suspicions that North, your partner, is unnecessarily timid, and that East and West are feeble bidders. Bridge Player II doesn't encourage impetuous play.

But it recognises the usual protocols and can be relied on to play rationally. It is no substitute for the real thing, but when you can't find three like-minded individuals it passes the time and it might also improve your game in a negative, cautious way.

But for absolute beginners, it is too sterile. Find some friends and learn with real cards.