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How nice to encounter a game which doesn't demand a great deal of you - all you have to do in Everest is... climb Mount Everest.

You scale Everest, or one of the two other lesser peaks also on offer, in a role-playing game that mixes text with high-resolution graphics and gives you the chance to take charge of a six-strong team and its supplies.

Your first decision is which of the three Himalayan peaks you're going to attempt, and then you choose whether to mount your expedition in the spring or autumn, with spring being the easier time of the year.

You're told that you only have three or four weeks to complete the climb before the weather's too bad to continue.

Your next task is to split the 1800 lbs of supplies between food, tents, oxygen, ropes and ladders, though the program offers you a suggested split which you can opt for with the 'A' key. Each climber can carry up to 60 lbs at a time, and the supplies must be ferried slowly upwards to the various base camps that are established on the mountains.

There is an information service provided, and this can be examined at any time, enabling you to check the weather forecast, the strength of your climbers, what each man is carrying, and the positions of both the climbers and the assorted supplies.

The graphics, which are not wonderful but amusing enough, come into effect when the climbers tramp between camps, and during these you must watch for bad weather, crevasses, avalanches or falls, some of which you can attempt to rectify by furious pressing of various keys.

My own climbers had an unfortunate habit of dying on me before I even approached the final climb to the peak, but after several attempts I was eventually able to mount a successful expedition on Nuptse, the smallest of the mountains.

At the end of this you're given a percentage rating to show how well (or otherwise) you've coped with that particular climb at that particular season.

I'm not sure that this is the type of game you would want to carry on playing forever, but it is well done and it gave me several entertaining hours while I tried it out. Not as exhausting as the real thing, and rather cheaper than a trip to Tibet.