At the dawn of time when men were chauvinists and women let them get away with it, B. C. Bill ruled his domain with a club of wood.

After leaving his tribe to seek his fortune, Bill has found himself a comfy cave in a desirable area and decided to start his own dynasty.

The first thing he needs are a few wives; and prehistoric courtship being pretty basic this doesn't prove very difficult - every time an unsuspecting lady wanders into his territory, Bill simply runs up behind her and then it's a clout on the head with his club, and a quick drag by the hair back to his cave.

One of the problems with accumulating wives is feeding them - so before long Bill is running around, clubbing down food, and if that's not bad enough being a model husband invariably leads to children, and once they start arriving Bill's family feeding problems become more and more difficult.

You will be able to watch the seasons change and if Bill has kept his wives well-fed and happy they will each produce one offspring at regular intervals.

The fight for survival gets tougher and tougher as the seasons change and the tribe grows. With so many people and so much food around it's hardly surprising that the predatory flesh-eating variety of dinosaurs are attracted to Bill's clearing. Not only do they steal his food but will kill anyone who is not safely tucked away in the cave.

Before long his little kingdom is overflowing with wives, food and dinosaurs, and Bill is having a frantic time trying to keep things organised - in fact, many historians believe Bill was the first human to suffer from ulcers.

Once you get to grips with Bill and his way of life, you'll realise there's a lot to be said for female emancipation!

The object of the game is to collect as many wives as you can whilst at the same time collecting enough food to satisfy your ever-growing family. You must keep all your kids well fed for a period of five 'years', then they will be old enough to leave your family to set up on their own.

Every season your wives and kids will need to consume one unit of food each to avoid starvation. If all your wives die, so will you, of a broken heart.

To keep your family well-fed and alive, it will be necessary to kill the marauding dinosaurs who will attack your food and dependants.

As your kids leave the tribe it is up to you to protect them until they leave your domain, i.e. the screen.

If you lose a life protecting a kid who is leaving the screen, all your other mature offspring die.

Whilst hunting wives, food or dinosaurs, you can, with clever manipulation of the keyboard, move in a diagonal fashion.

Note that you can only wield your club if you are moving, or facing left or right.

Once you have 'clubbed' a wife or some food and move towards your cave, the 'clubbed' object will automatically be dragged behind you. You can not use your club whilst dragging.

By passing across the entrance to your cave the object you are dragging will automatically disappear into it.

There are two status lines at the bottom of the screen.

The top line will give you (from left to right) score, food units, the year and the screen.

The bottom line gives you (from left to right) number of lives remaining, number of wives and number of kids.

The play keys have been laid out in a way so as to offer the player as wide a variety of combinations of keys to make the play as comfortable as possible.

To move left, all the keys on the bottom row beginning with Z then every alternate key from thereon, i.e. Z, C, B, etc.

To move right, the remaining keys on the bottom row enable you to move right, i.e. X, V, N, etc.

To move up, any of the keys on the third row up may be used, i.e. Q, W, E, R, T, etc.

To move down, any of the keys on the second row may be used, i.e. A, S, D, F, G, etc.

Any key on the top row will allow you to wield your club.

George was born in Liverpool in 1961 where he lived until 1973 before going to America for a year to stay with relatives. Whilst in America he attended Raytown Junior High School in Kansas City. On returning to his native Liverpool, George went to Alsop Comprehensive in Walton where he obtained 5 'O' and 3 'A' levels.

After leaving school, George went on to complete a three year degree course at Liverpool University in Computational Science.

It was during this time that George joined the University Micro Computer Society, and his interest in programming was kindled.

By the time he left University George had written many programs on his own computer for personal pleasure.

On returning from an extended holiday to the States in 1983 George saw that the software industry had really taken off and decided that his future should be a part of it.

Luckily one of the most dynamic software hosues in the world was in his home city of Liverpool, Imagine.

After successfully applying for a post at Imagine, George soon found himself immersed in many of their exciting projects.

When he occasionally slips out of his computing mode, George is a keen supporter of Liverpool Football Club and regularly plays five-a-side football himself.

He is single and lives in Liverpool.

B. C. Bill for the Dragon 32 is his first major project for Imagine.

Game Idea: Mark Butler
Program: George Barnes
Graphics: Dawn Jones
Conversion: Robbie Morgan
Illustrations: Brian Wall
Music: Fred Gray
Coffee: "Bianca"

CLOADM (ENTER)

The game runs automatically after loading.