April showers could turn into a deluge of new software this spring. New releases were thin on the ground at the LET (Leisure, Electronics and Trade) Show in London last week, but there were plenty of pre-release versions of games.

The cream of British software producers managed an air of cautious optimism and relaxed sufficiently to talk about - and demonstrate - what's coming up in the next few months.

Beyond is committed to three April launches, Spy Vs. Spy (Spectrum), Romper Room (Educational) and Shadowfire (due out April 17 1985). The latter was shown at CES in Las Vegas and attracted considerable interest.

The Amstrad was the machine of the show, at least in terms of future plans. Most publishers were looking to at as a third machine, along with the Commodore 64 and Spectrum, and some went so far as to declare they were dropping out of the Spectrum market in favour of the C64 and CPC464 "because of their overseas sales".

Micro Power was showing a very early version of its Amstrad ROM software and plans to produce a motherboard in the next couple of months. This will have at least four ROM bays and you'll be able to get word processing, database and spreadsheets on ROM soon. RSX Systems is also looking to Amstrad hardware, e.g. a motherboard and a RS232 port using the system bus.

Picturesque will launch its acclaimed assembler package on the Amstrad in April.

CRL will still plugging its Rocky Horror Show, but that's turning into another Great Space Race and the odds are it's going to be just as much of a disappointment.

Firebird seems to be going from strength to strength, though it may have rushed its Commodore 64 Elite conversion to the detriment of the game - it will be reviewed soon. It was also showing Gryon, one of the most complex Spectrum games we've ever seen, and graphically brilliant.

PCN readers with long memories will recognise the game as Hedron, covered in these pages well before Christmas.

Activision's new range shows that the company is doing well, but still has a long way to go. Backing the strong musical theme is a good idea, but as yet its games have been of inconsistent quality, though steadily rising in line with its prices.

Imagine is finding new life on an Ocean wave but the monastic cell behind its frontage was off-limits to your reporter. Harassed figures emerged from time to time saying only that they were too busy to talk.

Not so with Cheetah Marketing, where an IBM compatible say incongruously among the games and the interfaces. "It's 100 per cent compatible," enthused Howard Jacobson of Cheetah. The machine comes from the US, will be maintained in the UK mainly by a dealer network which is in the process of being set up, and will start at about £1,800 for a 256K system with twin floppies, a monitor, and bundled software.