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I've never really thought that a computer really lends itself to a simulation of football, unless, of course, you happen to be 11 part schizophrenic, World Cup from Artie, however, still provides a reasonable game if you try and forget what it is really trying to be like. In play, each side has five players -obviously these cannot all be controlled at once, so you only get to control the player who is nearest the ball at any time.

The currently active player is indicated by a change in colour of his shorts. This is the most annoying aspect of the game: you're just about to move a player into a good defensive position when the ball rolls a little closer to one of your other men and you must quickly react to move him to the correct position instead. This is fine when the game is played against a human opponent who has an equal reaction speed, but when playing against the computer, it always seems to be one jump ahead of you.

The ball casts a shadow on the ground which gives a pseudo 3D effect and the goal markings at either end are also drawn to give a 3D view. Unfortunately, in mid-field, the game tends to look very 2D, this is not helped by the fact that the players don't look at all 3D either. Surely in the sixteen colour mode that the program uses, a little bit of shading could have been included to enhance the effect. Another irritation of the game is the fact that the moving objects are exclusive ORed into place - causing all sorts of interesting multi-coloured patterns when two objects cross.

The game does have some redeeming features: the crowd noise is well done and the provision of a demo mode always enhances a game: I think however that I'd rather use the money to see some real football.