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Anyone familiar with CDS' Steve Davis Snooker will immediately feel at home with this program. It has been care-fully designed to conform as far as possible to the rules of the English Pool Association, and having spent some time playing the real thing - signs of a mis-spent youth - I can verify this.

For the uninitiated, eight ball pool has 15 balls; seven spotted, seven striped, and a black. To start a game each player takes a go until one of them pockets a ball. If a striped ball is pocketed then that player has to eliminate the rest of the striped balls, and his opponent has to tackle the spotted balls. The game is finished by pocketing the black. If the black goes down at any other time you lose the game. Easy isn't it!

To start a game you have to place the white cue ball in the desired position within the 'D' at one end of the table. A large flashing cross appears on the cue ball to allow you to set the direction in which you want it to travel. You must then select the force you wish to exert, and the amount of spin - left, right, top or bottom. If this all sounds tedious then I assure you it isn't; it takes much longer to describe than to do! Then, with a little luck and a lot of judgement, one of the balls is speedily despatched into a pocket.

With an option to use two joysticks, and Amstrad speech synthesiser compatible, this is an excellent program guaranteeing hours of enjoyment.

A.W.