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A year ago, C&VG carried a world exclusive when they were the first to publish extracts from the diary of a Little Computer Person (LCP), living inside their Commodore 64. Since then, LCPs have been discovered in a number of other machines including the Amiga and, now it seems, the ST.

For the uninitiated, LCPs were first discovered on June 1st 1985 by David Crane (of Ghostbusters fame) and a musician named Rich Gold.

Both had suspected the existence of something or someone in their computers after repeated and inexplicable glitches (that's bugs to you and I) continuously cropped up in their code. But it wasn't until a "House on a Disk" was designed by Crane that the first sightings were made.

Now you can buy a "House on a Disk" for your ST, and experience your very own 16-bit LCP. The package comes with a deed of ownership for your house, a 14-page glossy magazine covering such diverse subjects as LCP's voting rights and political leanings, and a guidebook full of tips on how to treat your little friend.

Compared with the Commodore original, the ST conversion of LCP is better in some areas but, surprisingly, it scores badly on animation and sound effects.

The graphics of the house are great. They've been redesigned to take advantage of the ST's superior graphical capabilities. With meticulous attention to detail, each room has been outfitted with every mod con an LCP could dream of, even the clock pendulum swings!

The house graphics represent a significant improvement over the C64 version, but the sprite animation and sound effects do not. In some cases they are worse than the original, a crime when you think of the increased power at the programmers' disposal.

In fact, it is those tiny details like the spring in the LCP's step when he walks and the cute way he talks that are sadly missing from this version which could, indeed, should, have been so much better where it mattered.

Instead he walks far too slowly with feet sliding on the floor just like a hundred other walking sprites and he sounds like he is talking through a comb covered with toilet paper!

Two other cute touches have been lost in the conversion; firstly the little fella's hands no longer play the piano in time with the music but randomly bob up and down like a bad mime artist.

Secondly, when my LCP (called Michael) wrote me a letter, I was saddened to see I was not to be treated to the sight and sound of his typewriter carriage moving along the paper and zooming back at the start of each new line.

Even though you can play a larger selection of games with your mini-chum who lives in a graphically impressive house, you may be better advised to look at Little Computer People on the Commodore 64 rather than shell out £25 for the 16-bit version.