The advert claims the demo shows large-style characters walking across the screen. All I can say is: They don't half walk funny in Lancashire!

The legs open and close, from the knee down, but at no time does any leg move past the other. Nor is it explained how this extra-ordinary effect was created, should you be daft enough to wish to copy it.

In fact, this preliminary effort seems to have exhausted the programmer, since the other characters glide statically on, one leg poised in mid-air for the step that it never takes, the other apparently attached to an invisible roller skate!

The idea seems to be that you design a cartoon-type line drawing on a combination of character blocks and can glide it up, down or sideways. But only in black and white - coloured characters cannot move.

The ability to understand the instructions - a 16-page booklet plus an errata sheet - means you probably have enough knowledge to program a similar but better effect, and in full colour, yourself!

Describing this as "animation" insults the intelligence and there are many good utilities on the market offering far more for far less. Avoid this one.

D.C.