The first of the five programs on this package is the Sliding Blocks Puzzle, a slant on the little games we used to get in Christmas crackers. The idea is to rearrange a jumble of letters into some sort of order, but this can only be achieved by sliding one block at a time within a framework.

You have the option to choose the size of the block, ranging from a 3 x 3 block up to a 6 x 6 block. After this you can instruct the computer to shuffle the tiles any number of times, between the limits of 3 and 100. When completed, you then use the cursor control keys to shift the blocks about until they are in order, if yuo can not do it, and believe me that's not hard, by pressing the copy key, it will show you how to actually solve it!

With clever use of colour, and a clear screen layout, this program is very playable, and is something of a challenge, even on the small blocks with not many shifts!

The second program of the package is Draughts, now this is a game that I cannot for the life of me remember how to play properly, and I could not get any help from the program, as there were no instructions, a bit of a shame this as everyone can't know how to play it.

The game itself is laid out on a net red and black chequered board with a clear indication of whose pieces are whose. A very nice feature of the program is that, when a move is made, all the pieces concerned with that particular move, are 'flashed' on and off for a couple of seconds, so as there is no doubt as to what was moved.

Not being very good at the game, it is very difficult for me to judge the quality of the computer's play, however, it did seem to be very intelligent in its strategy, not allowing itself to fall into many traps, and if it did, it recovered well and still went on to win by a comfortable margin.

Moves are entered by grid co-ordinates, the grid being marked in numbers and letters around the board, and are easy to enter, the computer not allowing you to enter an illegal move, and giving you another go.

All in all, a very good game can be had with this program, and it does seem to be of a fairly high standard.

Noughts And Crosses is the favourite. The grid is a large blue framework drawn in the centre of the screen and after you have chosen your market (the noughts or the crosses) it asks you who is to go first.

Like Draughts, the moves are entered by grid co-ordinates, entered at the keyboard. Once entered, the shape is drawn in the box, it seems very easy to stop the program beating you, and at the first, and second, levels of skill, it is not very hard to beat the computer quite convincingly, but at the hardest level, level tree, to get a draw was average, but to beat it was quite hard, but for it to beat you, was quite rare. This one does not really live up to the package title, of mind bending.

Program four is the best on the tape, this is called Masterbrain, and is based on the code-breaking game known as Mastermind.

The final program is called Simon's Game, and, yes, you've guessed it, it's based on the game Simon!

The idea, for those who have been living in caves for the past six years, is that the screen is divided up into a number of different coloured blocks, each numbered, and the computer will flash a colour; with it will be a tone, and the idea is for you to mimic the computer. This goes on, and the number of colours and tone build up, and at the same time gets faster. This goes on until you can no longer keep up with the computer.

In addition to playing just you against the computer, you also have the option of playing the party game version, known as knockout, where up to 50 named players can play and are knocked out as they can no longer keep up. The winner being the last player to still be playing.

This package seems to provide a 'thinking' game for the whole spectrum of ages. For this alone it must be worth it if your BBC is a family item.