BATTLE OF THE MENTAL BLOCKS

MANOR SOFTWARE calls its Scatterbrain for the 48K Spectrum a game of logic and deduction. The basic idea is that your brain contains a number of mental blocks which prevent you thinking straight. The first stage in eliminating the mental blocks is to bunch mind probes to find them and the second stage is to fire surgical lasers to destroy them.

Locating the blocks is made more difficult by the fact that if your probe gets near them, it will go in an unexpected direction; if it hits one, the probe will disappear. Eventually, you deduce the position of the blocks from the behaviour of the probes.

The brain and its mental blocks are represented by a grid which looks very much like the old pencil and paper game of Battleships. You launch your probe by inputting the numbers of the side and column in which you think the block might be.

If you lose patience with elaborate instructions and a complex set of rules, the game is not for you. It starts with a seemingly endless succession of screens giving information which you must absorb fully to be able to play the game. If you are persistent and like a taxing puzzle, it should provide an absorbing occupation. It is for one or two people and there are nine levels.

Scatterbrain is produced by Manor Software, 24 Manor Gardens, London SW20 9A8. It costs £5.95.