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It doesn't take a great mind to figure out Vulcan Noughts And Crosses. It's that old computer classroom favourite 3D noughts and crosses. The only novelty about Salamander's version for the Dragon is that the company appears to be confused between an old board game and the way Mr. Spock used to play chess.

The game is played on a 4 x 4 x 4 cube, displayed on the screen as four planes of 16 squares.

The objective is to make a line of four points in any of the possible directions. The program is sensibly protected from keying errors.

This is a very competent version of the game. It comes in an impressive library case complete with a colour cover pic. Hidden behind this is a scruffy photocopied A4 sheet proudly titled Instruction Manual. The instructions vary from being rather obvious ("Place the cassette in the cassette player") to omitting to mention the object of the game.

As with most 3D games of this type, Vulcan Os and Xs' biggest weakness is in its design.

Noughts and crosses are entered on four separate adjacent grids.

It's usually hard to visualise the 3D effect but, of course, the computer has a "perfect" representation of the board. The program also falls into the trap of using co-ordinates for its moves. It's primarily a game for children and they may have little patience with co-ordinates.

It also falls down on presentation, since the computer's playing pieces can't be seen on a black-and-white display.

Vulcan Os and Xs will play by itself, against you or act as a board for two players. Playing the program involves a frustrating delay which isn't helped by a show of obviously random numbers while it is 'thinking'.

The program plays a simple and persistent algorithm which never misses a trick. You need a fair amount of wit to beat its brute force calculations. But anyone who understands noughts and crosses and who is prepared to concentrate should have little trouble learning to beat it.

It's a less sophisticated version of the game than it could be. But if you fancy a computer game which uses your brain rather than your fingers, this one will give you a run for your money. It's a welcome addition to the thin ranks of Dragon software.