MACHINE: Spectrum/CBM 64
SUPPLIER: Quicksilva/CTW
PRICE: £4.99

Softaid, the £4.99 games tape consisting of ten best selling games for the price of one, was launched in February at the LET show at Olympia.

Based on the Band Aid project founded by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, Softaid was launched jointly by Quicksilva and industry newspaper Computer Trade Weekly. Softaid is a compilation tape of the best games around for the Spectrum and CBM 64.

The Spectrum version comprises Spellbound (Beyond), Star Bike (The Edge), Kokotoni Wilf (Elite), Ant Attack (Quicksilva), Gilligan's Gold (Ocean), Horace Goes Skiing (Melbourne House/Psion), 3D Tank Duel (Real Time), Jack and the Beanstalk (Thor) and The Pyramid (Fantasy).

The Commodore 64 version comprises Pitfall (Activision), China Miner (Interceptor), Star Trader (Bug Byte), Falcon Patrol (Virgin), Fred (Quicksilva), Flak (US Gold), Gumshoe (A 'N' F) and Gyropod (Taskset), along with Gilligan's Gold and Kokotoni Wilf.

For each tape sold, £3 upwards will go directly to the Ethiopian Appeal.

The tape is great value for money - even if you have one or two of the games on it already.

PRICE: £4.99

There are some excellent games available on the Soft Aid cassette, and it is worth paying £4.99 for any of the ten games on offer when you know that your money will go to help Ethiopia.

The ten games included in the spectrum Soft Aid cassette are: Spellbound, Starbike, Kokotoni Wilf, The Pyramid, Horace goes Skiing, Gilligan's Gold, Ant Attack, 3D Tank Duel, Jack & The Beanstalk and Sorcery.

One or two dud games in that list, but they are more than counterbalanced by the good games. The Pyramid from Fantasy, for example, is a first-class arcade game which is no longer on sale.

But it is wrong to single out any of these games out for particular praise. They have all been top games, each one of them successful in their own right. Whether you have seen them before and want to replay them, or whether you have only just bought a computer and have so far missed these games it is worth buying Soft Aid.

This cassette probably represents the best value in the market at the moment. It deserves to go straight into the charts at number one.

All money raised by Soft Aid will go to the Bob Geldof Band-Aid Ethiopian Appeal Fund.

With the exception of the 1984 classic Ant Attack, almost none of the programs on this compilation tape is outstanding. And yet the sum is greater than its parts.

Masterminded by ex-Quicksilva supremo Rod Cousens, Softaid was launched in February and remained in the top ten throughout the summer, raising, by August, well over £350,000 for the Ethiopian Famine Appeal. The 10 games on the Spectrum version - Spellbound, Starbike, Kokotoni Wilf, The Pyramid, Horace Goes Skiing, Gilligan's Gold, Ant Attack, 3D Tank Duel, Jack and the Beanstalk and Sorcery - cost a mere £4.99.

One of the first collections ever released, Softaid could arguably be judged the most important games tape of 1985.