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Finally, a program that continues to tantalise since its release in 1982. The Nowotnik Puzzle is an original concept in computer games and requires the warped thinking of the Rubik Cube devotee to solve it.

Whilst only two dimensional, it is nevertheless frustratingly difficult to solve. At the beginning, and when (and if!) completed, the puzzle is in the form of four large squares. These squares are shuffled by the computer using a random selection of eight possible movements and the idea of the game is to use these eight movements to get the four squares back to their original layout. At the simplest level, each of the four large squares is broken up into four by the shuffle giving sixteen smaller squares; at the hardest level, the four squares are each divided into 144 pieces, giving a total of 576 elements altogether!

If you complete the puzzle you are told the number of moves taken. There is also a save game facility so that a partly completed puzzle can be continued (and hopefully finished) sometime later. I would have liked an option to reduce the number of shuffles so that a logical method of solution could be developed by trial and error during the first few attempts: the sight of a well-shuffled puzzle on the first attempt is itself rather daunting.

Conceptually, the puzzle is similar to the dratted Cube. It is relatively easy to complete one square (or face), but it is solving the whole puzzle without ruining what you have already accomplished that is so infuriatingly difficult.

But, also like the Cube, the Nowotnik puzzle is an addictive game and with two other games included in the price (an interactive game called Demolition and a tenpin bowling simulation) this cassette is a very good buy.

The Nowotnik Puzzle costs £5.00 and is available from Phipps Associates, 172 Kingston Road, Ewell, Surrey KT13 0SD.