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There's always a market for armchair athletics fans, but nothing major has appeared on the ST in that mould for a while. However, after last month's budget re-release of the excellent California Games, Kixx is following it with this compilation of Olympic sports.

The Games includes eight events, these being archery, velodrome cycling, diving, hammer throw, hurdles, pole vault, uneven parallel bars and the rings. Archery is quite easy to get the hang of - it's basically a test of your aim while allowing for the wind and the strength of your shot. Cycling takes place in a velodrome (a velodrome being one of those circular stadiums that cyclists whizz round in), hence, perhaps, the name. Control here is a bit iffy, because you have to joggle the joystick up and down to build up speed and also move left and right to avoid the other cyclist - if you can catch him. The graphics in this section are very good, and the 3D view of the stadium move exceptionally smoothly.

Diving gives you another chance to pose. The easiest dive is, of course, the "falling straight down feet-first" manoeuvre, which is probably the first dive you execute until you learn th controls properly. The dives are graded according to their difficulty, so remember - no strain, no gain.

Throwing a hammer sounds as easy as falling off a particularly tall building, but it's surprising how many times it goes off in the wrong direction. Get the timing right - you have to judge the speed and direction of the throw as the athlete spins round - and it sails off into the distance. One good touch is the way that if you send it flying towards the screen the glass shatters with a crunching sound and an impressive graphic display. If you think you'd have trouble simply carrying a pole, let alone vaulting over a bar with it, you'd best give pole vaulting a miss.

Controlling the athlete so he (a) doesn't snap the pole, (b) does leave the ground at some point and (c) ends up somewhere in the region of the landing mat takes a lot of practice. But the most trouble comes with the uneven parallel bars. To be successful in this event, you need to study the complicated flow diagram in the instructions, detailing which action follows which other action when you execute each joystick move. Alternatively, you could wildly wang the joystick about in all directions and hope the athlete does something impressive. The same can be said for the rings, which again is governed by a flow chart. Not only that, but each move is scored differently, so you need to know which move scores what to go for top points.

The Games Summer Edition is excellent value for money. The range of events covered by the game should ensure that, even if you don't like a certain event you can concentrate on the others, and a practice option gives you the chance to hone your skills in each. On the whole, the graphics are detailed and fairly realistic and there's some sampled sound. Even the spot effects are above average. About the only minus point is the constant disk swapping. Let's face it, at this price the only thing you can lose are the events.