COMPUTER DEALER GOES BUST

Memory: 48K
Price: £6.50

Card games such as Bridge enjoy obvious benefits from computerised versions, which can act as tutors in enhancing players'skills. Games of chance are another matter as the excitement lies in the bluffing and risk taking. Computers cannot provide the atmosphere and tension which comes from human interaction.

MFM Software have produced Double Dealer, a program which offers both Blackjack - pontoon - and five card Stud Poker. In both options the cards are displayed clearly on a green background with a prompt and betting window beneath.

In Blackjack the player can split, stick or twist as well as lay out money from the initial float of £3,000. The Poker option allows you to raise, fold or look at your own blind card and offers four levels of play, each with larger financial limits on each bet.

There is no two-player option and that could be seen as a severe limitation especially since the player's only inputs are to register bets or to make decisions on folding, sticking and so on. After a time the whole business seems rather passive, hardly the fantastic, superb and exciting game promised by the hyberbole of the cassette inlay.

As you might guess from the title, it's a card game. There are two games, one on either side.

Game 1 is 'Black Jack' or for the less informed, 'Pontoon'. A fairly simple game where you are dealt two cards and, with the cards you have or more if you require, hope they add up to 21. Go over 2 1 and you have 'bust and lost. If your cards are less than 21 you have the option of either 'sticking' with what have got and hope the computer cannot beat you, or 'twisting' and have another card to try and reach 21.

On the other side the game is a little more complex, but nothing as complicated as bridge. It's 'Stud Poker', one of the best gambling card games there is. I won't go into the rules now, but basically each player has a 'hand' which carries a value. You have to try and assess the value of your opponent's cards and if you think your cards are worth more than his, then you bet money which he has to equal to stay in the game. If he has a low value he can 'fold' and drop out. However he might have a low value and try and bluff you. The computer will play the most experienced player and has all the abilities of bluffing and clever betting.

A very good game and well written, but I thought the layout of the cards could have been better. For the 'Mavericks' amongst you it's played with a French deck with 2's as a wild option.

Double Dealer is for the 48K mavericks only £6.50.