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Any game which attempts to represent absolutely loads of Olympic events is going to end up spreading itself terribly thin, and The Games: Summer Edition is no exception. It features eight very different sports jammed onto two disks, and simply looks very old fashioned - people just don't come up with this sort of thing any more.

The point is emphasised by the choice of sports - there are some seriously oddball events included which any sensible person would have kept well away from the ever-fussy computer game format in the first place.

Take Velodrome Cycling, for one. This is the one where you go terribly slowly for ages and ages, trying to force your opponent to make his break, then pedal (or in this case waggle) like crazy in his slipstream, hopefully just beating him over the line.

Yes, you're right, it doesn't work at all. The Hammer Throwing is a similar dead loss - seeming to consist of ages spent trying to get the hammer flying in the vague direction of the pitch, followed by (when you've eventually succeeded) instant kudos as a master of the sport. I don't think so.

And then there's diving, which, sad to say, is merely a case of learning the correct joystick movement combinations to use as you fall.

It's all, to its credit, quite interesting in a weird, pointless sort of way. Any game which has martial arts, hurdling and archery on the same disk is worth a look merely for curiosity value, though you'll probably decide a look is all it really deserves. The downers - like the chronically slow loading times, and that frantic joystick wiggling control method which immediately relegates it to antique-status - are simply a bit too much nowadays. Even in 1988, this one had its long term playability severely questioned - today it's little more than a novelty.

Tries hard, looks quite good, but gameplay-wise falls down all over the place. Strange, pretty, but not really a great.