1942 (Elite)

Apart from being able to move the plane backwards forwards and from side to side on the screen, you can also perform rolls which come in handy in tight spots.

Buccaneer (Firebird)

The use of colour is quite good, but clashes occur often. The sprites are flickery too, but the parallax scrolling is nice.

Bullseye (Macsen)

Two additional question files are supplied on the cassette should you too familiar with those in the basic set.

Captain Slog (Alpha Omega)

A slow, drab game with small and undetailed graphics. Sound is about average.

Countdown (Macsen)

Use the whole keyboard to input, very slowly, the words you want to form. Rubbish colour, rubbish graphics and a just passable rendition of the theme tune.

Dekorating Blues (Alpha Omega)

It's response and it's pretty but, in the end, it's also pretty boring.

Expose (Key Software)

There are a number of programs on the market based on this idea, but this is by far the best I have seen.

Futurezoo (Clywd Adventure Software)

A reasonably quick and easy adventure. Its presentation is poor with no highlights of inventory, etc.

The Grammar Tree: Verbs And Adverbs (Sulis)

I'm afraid that this program is no better than the worst sort of grammar text book, and at least the latter doesn't make silly noises. Also, when I played, one of the questions was repeated three times!

The Greatest Show On Earth (Central Solutions)

A fairly colourful, basic game with sound that's not very good at all.

Grimble (Microtech)

The most insensible, pie in the sky, unoriginal, exaggerated, untruthful etc, etc game I have ever played!

Head Coach (Addictive)

Head Coach has a large following already, but with such a lack of realism it is very hard to see how anyone could gain the real pleasure and thrill of American football from playing it.

Hunchback: The Adventure (Ocean)

This won't enthral adventure freaks but it will keep many a novice chuckling before they get the hump.

Icups (Thor)

At the end of the two tests, an assessment is given of overall performance as well as a total score.

Johnny Reb II (Lothlorien)

For £9.95, I can't say I'm overly impressed. Rebelstar was only £1.99 - and that was a better game!

Kane (Mastertronic)

Graphics aren't particularly good, but there are three skill levels to the game, each increasing in difficulty and speed.

Knight Games 2 (Black Knight)

Graphics are good on the first game and acceptable on the other two.

Knight Rider (Ocean)

The opening menu allows you to select a plot to the game, or the scenario can be allocated at random.

Lap Of The Gods (Mastertronic)

The game has slightly jerky scrolling, but nice animation, and pleasant characters.

Lernon Esperanto (Lez Peranto)

A package bursting at the seams with information. It's well worth getting if you are interested in mastering Esperanto.

Mindstone (The Edge)

The game doesn't allow for the team to go their separate ways... but mostly everything else is truly impressive.

Moonlight Madness (Bubble Bus)

A slow and unresponsive game with lots of colour, resulting in lots of colour clash.

N.E.X.O.R. (Design Design)

Very good 3D graphics and the same monochromatic Filmation masking as is usual in these types of game. Pleasantly responsive too.

Nightmare And Potholer (Southway)

The programs are specially structured for classroom use with groups of children, and the screen text directs the children towards a variety of activities.

O Level Maths (GCE Tutoring)

There are already a fairly large number of study aid programs for O Level Maths revision on the market, and these are of such a high standard that this looks somewhat amateurish.

The Octagon Squad (Mastertronic)

Graphics are very jerky and hard to follow, but with nice characters. Response time is fair, but the fire button is too far from the rest of the controls.

Olympiad '86 (Atlantis)

A garish-looking game that looks nothing special and doesn't always respond correctly.

Paperboy (Elite)

A fast and responsive game done in monochrone, to avoid colour clash. Scrolling is fair and there are a few nice tunes too.

Rescue On Fractalus (Activision)

Nice title tune and good fractal techniques used in the game. Control of it is a bit difficult though.

Revolution (Vortex)

Just because you've managed to complete the game once, don't think playing it through is a doddle - each time a new game starts the puzzles and their positions are redistributed amongst the levels randomly!

Rugby Manager (Artic)

An unadventurous game with bad colour clashes on the match screen.

Scooby Doo (Elite)

An excellent, very responsive scrolling level game... for once, the dog gets to play the hero!

Starter Wordsplits/Junior Wordsplits (Sulis)

The programs are easy to operate and useful in their own way, but I would like to have seen a more imaginative use of graphics.

Strike Force Cobra (Piranha)

You'll need to practice to get the hang of this but the use of colour is neat with some good animations and a tidy 3D effect. Good spot effects too.

Strike Force Harrier (Mirrorsoft)

Three levels of combat difficulty are provided: Pilot, Commander and Ace which make different demands on the skill of the pilot.

Supercom (Atlantis)

A nice little program for encouraging logical thought.

Tennis (Imagine)

You must play your best as they're all rooting for you in amongst the bottles of bubbly and strawberries and cream.

The Trap Door (Piranha)

Feed the boss in this excellent, responsive graphic adventure. Superb big characters, and great animation.

Trivial Pursuits (Domark)

A tidy boardgame representation.

Universal Hero (Mastertronic)

A great, very responsive game with excellent use of colour, some very nice characters and good backdrops.

Zythum (Mirrorsoft)

A monochrome game with large and wiry graphics. The screen scrolls as you move around.

Zzzz (Mastertronic)

Ok, it's a cheap game, but the most difficult thing about it is coming to terms with the atrocious input system.