One of the better learn-as-you-flick-through books for the 600XL, and first-time users will find it gives an excellent introduction to their new machine's Basic.

Peter Goode's style is simple but not patronising, and he takes the tedium out of fundamental programming technicalities with some entertaining routines.

The first part deals with elementary commands and program structures and gives a clear break-down of the Atari's mathematical functions with a step-by-step explanation of numerical and string variables.

Once past that the reader moves on to the real goodies of sound and graphics - a section which gives the author ample opportunity to plug his book of listings for the 600XL.

He has exploited that chance by including two programs from the book, which wil be a little disappointing for those who have already spent some time typing them in.

Nonetheless, the examples given are a good introduction for the beginner, though the Atari's Player/Missile sprite system is skipped over with the somewhat misleading suggestion that it is outside the scope of Basic.

Similarly, a chapter on 'advanced programming' is so superficial that it might as well not have been included, except that it serves as an introduction to yet another listing from Peter Goode's other book - a text adventure.

Considering the limitations, the book makes a good primer for the 600XL but most users will outgrow it within a few hours.

Stuart Cooke