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Take several elements from various games, add a dollop of originality and you end up with Hocus Focus.

You are Jeremy, a punk YOP trainee, given the task of photographing the inventions of a mad professor which are kept, in pieces, hidden around the prof's laboratory in caves under Hyde Park.

Of course it's not that simple. The caves are protected by mutants who appear when you trigger a detector device. These destroy your film and take away your sword (every punk YOP photographer carries a sword!) and you have to go back to the start for another one. The screen is divided into four areas. Top centre is the action screen where small but finely drawn and animated Jeremy walks in front of and behind objects.

Bottom centre is the panel showing the number of photos developed for an invention, 20 pics for each and only 16 pics per film; this means at least one trip to the start evn if you do not lose your film to a mutant, and there are sixteen inventions to photograph.

Actions are controlled by selection of icons in a small window to the right of the main photo panel and a small window left of it shows the pictures ready to be positioned in the main photo panel. All in all, there is enough action, challenge and problems for the most demanding arcade-adventure fan.

Playing the game took a little practice, perseverence was rewarded though as the game is worth sticking with. A joystick option is provided and keys are well chosen, though on my keyboard the M key became the comma one for firing.

My biggest gripe is that the game takes a long while to play and there is no save/load option that I could find. Perhaps not a classic, but a worthwhile addition to any games player's collection.