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"Would you shoot your granny for a thousand pounds?"

"Would you eat dog food for a month to win a slap up meal for you and Samantha Fox at Stringfellows?"

You've all seen them on the box. Those absurd questions that get sprung on passersby in the street in the Scruples board game TV advertisements.

In the computer versions each player is dealt a number of 'Dilemma Cards', each of which contains a set of circumstances and a related question. To give you a flavour of the game, and a better understanding of the dilemmas it can cause (arguments while playing Scruples have been sighted in a number of divorce cases in the States!), here's what's written on just three dilemma cards:

"In the supermarket, you send a dozen packages tumbling into the aile. No-one sees you. Do you walk away?"

"You hear the conversation of two strangers when you pick up the phone. Do you listen to it?"

"Your neighbour in an adjacent block of flats insists on doing yoga nude, in full view. Do you complain to the landlord?"

With the dilemma cards, you are also given one 'Answer card', on which is written either Yes, No or Depends. When it is your turn, you must select a dilemma card and read it to one of your opponents. Your choice of card and opponent is governed by what is contained on your Answer card, because the idea is to illicit, from your opponent, the same answer as is on your own card.

Thus, if you knew Don to be a particularly honest person, and you were holding a 'No' answer card, you might ask him the first Dilemma question (about the supermarket packages), expecting him to say "No, I wouldn't just walk away". The thing is that Don knows full well you would be expecting him to say No and so might answer 'Yes' instead. But, then again, you may be trying to double-blugg, and be holding a 'Yes' card after all; this is what makes Scruples such fun to play.

If Don doesn't give the answer you were hoping for, you throw away the dilemma and answer cards, just used, and pick one more of each. If Don's response matches your answer card, you pick a new answer card, but do not have to pick another dilemma card.

If you think he is lying, you can challenge Don to justify his answer after which it is put to the vote. If youo wish, you can give Don one of your remaining dilemma cards; if not, he gives you one of his. The first plyer to be left with no Dilemma cards is the winner.

The computer version sticks very much to the rules of the original, but has a few added features such as four reasons associated with each answer that may be given to ever dilemma question. These answers are used when a player must justify his position prior to a vote, and also serve to show why a player makes the decisions he does.

The program also elegantly side-steps the problem of the computer players knowing nothing of their human (or computer) opponents. At the start of the game, each human player must enter their personality so that the others can try and predict how they might react to various dilemmas.

A player's personality profile is built up from the following variables, each given a rating between +8 and -8 by the player himself. You will be required to assess your own character in terms of principles, personal integrity, professional integrity, trust, family relationships, partner relations, friendships, busy-body factor, humanity, greed, shyness, anti-honesty.

Although the computer uses a player's profile to predict how he might react to certain dilemmas, if a player's answers are 'out of character', the computer will automatically amend that player's personality to fit the way he is reacting.

Scruples is a game for three to ten players. In the computer version there can be any mix of human and computer player, meaning that you can use the program simply as a dealer and electronic board, or as a source of opponents; you can even sit back and watch a batch of computer players slog it out on their own.

There are 64 different computer players to choose from, on all the reviewed systems, drawn from all walks of life. You can play against anyone from a punk to a vicar, from a model to a businessman. Each character has his or her own face and their personality profile is randomly constructed every time the game is loaded, so you may never play with the same character twice.

The screen layout is well conceived, and the program is simplicity itself to use, with prompts at all the right places.

Each version of the game is designed to get the most from the various computers, especially the Speccy version. We shall have to wait and see what restrictions will be placed on the 48K version.

If you fancy a laugh during the Christmas holidays, or enjoy playing Scruples but have difficulty finding opponents, then this could be right up your street. Also recommended for older children up to the age of about 70!