Since the Daily Info Oxford Guide was last produced, in 1990, things have changed considerably. Every single machine mentioned is now completely obsolete, to a massive degree - there is a law of computing ['Moore's Law', Ed.] that says that computer power doubles every eighteen months. We had personal computers more powerful than the ones that put us on the moon over ten years ago; now we have personal computers more powerful than yesterday's supercomputers. At the time of writing, Intel had made one of its PC microprocessors run at 1GHz - over 200 times the speed of the Commodore Amiga, which was popular six or seven years ago. In a year's time, they will be popular, and in four or five, completely obsolete.

To go along with this rapid increase in power, prices are falling all the time. One of the cheapest places to buy computers and related equipment is Sinoco (7 The Roundway, tel 765558, fax 765668), which rivals the traditionally cheaper mail order in terms of price. For a full system, you'll probably end up paying around £600, which, while expensive, is less so than you would find elsewhere. If you want to deal with a more established company, look around - even Sainsbury's is selling computers these days.

Macintosh users are catered for by High Level Hardware (Windmill Road, tel 750494).

If you're not after a full system, and just want to play games, you could do worse than buy a Sony Playstation or Nintendo N64, which you can purchase for £100 - £200 from both the Virgin Megastore (tel 723906) and HMV (tel 728190), both on Cornmarket Street. But beware, prices for individual games rival that for computer software - expect to spend £40 a title.

Software for both games machines and full personal computers can be fund, amongst other places, at the Electronic Boutique (Westgate, tel 798300).