It's not often you find BBC software at £3.45 so I wasn't sure what to expect. The wrapping is a bit plain, with few instructions.

Crystal is not a game! It is designed to foretell the future in the style of Nostradamus. The author describes it as radically different. I agree.

One is first confronted with another set of instructions. This still did not create a full image of the program in my mind. I was invited to press any key and unknowingly I conformed. It definitely was original. Line after line or morbid prophecies passed before me. These are organised into 10 decades with 10 prophecies for each year in the form of four-liners, or quatrains.

The mode 7 display contains no graphics and sound is non-existent. The predictions, which to the unaccustomed eye might seem fairly useless, may in fact hold a great and deep philosophical meaning to those of us who can understand the complex forms of Nostradamus.

The meanings are often beyond me. However, if you wish to gaze into the crystal ball you should know it is only available by mail.

D.B.