A game with a strange history, this. It was almost released some time ago and a lot of people thought it was extremely good, but eventually it was given the big E 'cos one mag thought it wasn't up to scratch. So I was quite intrigued to find out how good it actually was.

Battleships is a computerised version of that old pencil and paper game with added features: animated battle scenes, sound FX, salvo fire, (where you can fire four shots per remaining ship), and different ship shapes (but similar Bristol fashions). Sounds okay? Well, it certainly would be, me hearties, but for the rather gormless computer player. Its strategies are dim-witted and it misses obvious targets all the time. The game is better with two players (isn't everything?) but aren't pencils and paper a lot cheaper?