In the future, gridiron could be even rougher - too rough, in fact, for humans to play. In Cyberball the players are huge robots, which is just as well 'coz the ball is a time bomb!

Instead of having several downs to make the yardage, you have until the ball explodes, injuring its carrier - a useful tactic is to deliberately chuck it to the opposition when it's about to blow. Also unlike the present-day sport, there's no kicking game at all - you even get to do a World-League-style goal-line play for the point-after-touchdown.

Three types of offensive plays are availabe: Pass, Run and Option - each bringing up a sub-meny of moves randomly selected from the program's huge repertoire. In practise these are relatively easy to execute: running's switching between three static targets and timing the throw.

Even though there's only six players per side, it all works well enough. With just four teams and no league, the solo game lacks long-term interest, but the two-player mode is always worth a throw. Originally only on cartridge. Cyberball is now out on budget cassette.