Cracker is a machine code spreadsheet which allows up to 52 columns by 255 rows, can read and write files for Basic and Fortran, and comes with a conversion utility for dBase II files.

The Music System is from Island Logic, the new sister company to Island Records. The program will be available from mid-October and comes with a song and sound library. the claim is that the suite is the most advanced micro-music based program on the market.

Microgo 1 is a computer version of the Japanese 'national' game Go. Versions for Commodore 64, Spectrum and MSX are under developments. The rules of the game are fairly simple, but it's one of the most absorbing and demanding board games. The program has variable skill levels, beginner mode and rule demonstration.

French On The Run tests your knowledge of grammatical structures, vocabulary, idiomatic phrases etc. Using multiple-choice answers you plough your way through the four different routes (though you'll have to call Silversoft for the code for the fourth). The scenario is war-time France and in your roll as a grounded pilot you have to work your way back to Blighty, in contact with French-only speakers.

Music programs are very much in vogue at present. Supersoft's Music Master requires no prior musical knowledge, but Supersoft claim that "in the hands of an experienced musician it will prove an invaluable tool". We'll be reviewing the program in the next few weeks and it'll be interesting to compare it with the brilliant Musicalc.

Rolf Harris' Picture Builder is more a younger user 'fun' package than a graphics designer. It offers sets of pre-designed characters which can be used to build up a picture in 17 colours, then saved to tape or disk.

The software bandwagon rolls on - the latest fad is BMX games. Hyper Biker allows up to four players to turn their hands to the handlebars of "bikes, doing long jumps, bunny hops, wheelies and the like on tracks such as table tops, whoop-de-doos (who dreams up these names?) and ramps.

The Magic Sword is described as "a totally new experience for the very young", but is really a sort of watered-down adventure. There are magic objects to collect and the text is double-height.

Possibly the best releases this week were Battlecars and D-Day from the Games Workshop. Battlecars is for one or two players - you first have to build your cars, select a setting (speed circuit or town) and it's a battle to the death. The excellent graphics feature speed, fuel and damage gauges. D-Day is a two-player graphics strategy game based in Normandy 1944. Reviews of both are on their way.

With less than twelve weeks to Christmas, Creative Sparks, the games software arm of Thorn-EMI, has launched Special Delivery. The game involves helping Santa deliver Christmas presents and is released simultaneously on the Spectrum, Commodore 64 and Atari 32. Danger Mouse In Double Trouble has an associated, if small, competition - spot the screen change after a few successful world savings and you could win a ride in a Rolls-Royce and free software for your Spectrum.

Underworlde and Knight Lore are continuation of Sabreman's adventures. Ultimate claim that the latter "represents the very pinnacle of software development on the Spectrum".

Tiny Code is a "teach yourself the rudiments of assembly language" program. It's a sort of mini-assembler, but the lack of useful sample listings rather detracts from its potential value.

Mega Vault shows what made Imagine great, and is the best game for the unexpanded Vic 20 since Chariot Race. The game is pretty simple but quite amazing given it fits in just 3.5K. You have to negotiate a maze containing corridors down which hurtle deadly beings - it's all a matter of timing and is infuriatingly difficult.

Squish and Bricks are both from Palace Software, the publishers of Evil Dead for the Commodore 64 and BBC. Neither of them are easy, far from it, but they lack the direct impact of Mega Vault.

In Bricks you have to avoid falling masonry, but once it's landed you can shunt blocks around to make stairs to climb. In Squish you shunt green blobs around trying to trap beasts and avoiding their deadly arrows.