Producer: Virgin Games, 48K
£5.95

This can't go under an 'arcade' heading and should probably be consigned to the dustbin anyway. But if anything does come into this game it is a touch of strategy and a hell of a lot of luck. The object is to get your electronic collie dog to herd a load of sheep into a pen and prevent them drowning or chomping the crops. It's all incredibly slow and tedious to play, and very BASIC.

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K
£5.95

This can't go under an 'arcade' heading and should probably be consigned to the dustbin anyway. But if anything does come into this game it is a touch of strategy and a hell of a lot of luck. The object is to get your electronic collie dog to herd a load of sheep into a pen and prevent them drowning or chomping the crops. It's all incredibly slow and tedious to play, and very BASIC.

Producer: Virgin Games, 48K
£5.95

This can't go under an 'arcade' heading and should probably be consigned to the dustbin anyway. But if anything does come into this game it is a touch of strategy and a hell of a lot of luck. The object is to get your electronic collie dog to herd a load of sheep into a pen and prevent them drowning or chomping the crops. It's all incredibly slow and tedious to play, and very BASIC.

WILL YOU FLOCK TO BUY THIS GAME?

Sheepwalk is one of the much publicised new titles from Virgin Games - a spin-off from the Virgin record and publishing company.

If this is the standard of their games then I would respectfully suggest that Mr Branson stick to records. At £7.95 it has got to be the rip-off of the year and a dead cert for our Great Software Disasters page.

The idea of the game is to round up all the sheep which have strayed from their pen. You play the part of the sheep-dog - although you could be forgiven for not realising this as the hound is nothing more than a tiny black speck on the screen. The animal must also have a gammy leg as it moves with the speed of a farmyard ox rather than a scampering dog!

Points are awarded according to the speed at which the sheep have been rounded up and the amount of crops saved from the rampaging flock in the vegetable patch.

The idea for the game is a good one though not entirely original. It falls down on its execution. Written in Basic it's just far too slow. I can't think of any other professional software house who would bring out a game of this type and at this price without first improving its graphics and then speeding it up with machine code.

Perhaps this is the point. Do Virgin Rah see themselves as a software house at all, or is this just another example of the gold-rush mentality which is killing the computer games business with poor quality products.

The idea behind this approach to the business seems to be grab any program you can, and publish as quickly as possible to make a quick killing. Never mind the quality, just look at the full colour cassette inlay.

You have probably gathered by now that I'm not going to rush out and hand over almost £8 for Sheepwalk. Despite this there is something good about the game which I think is worthy of mention.

The author of the game is fully credited on the cassette inlay. We are given a picture of Gregory Trelise as well as a short biography. Software, like records and books, has to be thought of, programmed, and put forward for publishing by the author. The programmers therefore deserve our recognition for their efforts.

Give your laser finger a rest, take time out from defending the Galaxy against marauding meanies, and try your hand instead at this interesting and original game which simulates a sheepdog trial.

You control a sheepdog which tries to round up nine sheep. If left for too long to their own devices, the sheep will eat the corn, carrots and other crops growing in the field. Your dog too can damage the crops by trampling them underfoot whilst attempting to drive the sheep away. Additional hazards to negotiate are two haystacks in the centre of the field and a river which takes up a large part of the left hand side of the field. Your sheep, of course, cannot swim!

When all the surviving sheep have been penned, your score is given and points deducted for drowned sheep and crop damage. The time taken is also displayed and points taken off for that, too. It is possible to end with a minus score, as I did on my first attempt, despite successfully penning five of the sheep.

Scores do, of course, improve with practice, and with the discovery that the dog can swim across the river.

It really is an advantage to have watched "One man and his dog" before you play, as the game is very realistic - the sheep move in an infuriatingly lifelike manner - they will sneak out of the pen while the dog is occupied elsewhere, and stampede if the dog gets too close, particularly the last two sheep.

The game has attractive graphics and runs in Basic at a gentle pace. It is easy to master the essentials of the game but difficult to get a high score.

The presentation of the cassette is, however, disappointing. The loading instructions are well hidden (on the cassette label), and the program is only recorded on one side of the the tape. The other side is taken up with a boring bit of music.

I would unhesitatingly recommend Sheepwalk to all armchair shepherds, if it were not for the price. £7.95 is too much for this game, enjoyable and original as it is. How about a price reduction, Virgin Games, say to around £5.50?