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A summit conference taking place in the summer of 1996 has been cut short by startling events. On June 6th, a confidential meeting was to convene in Liechtenstein, during which negotiations were to take place between European heads of State and Robert J. Matton, the president of the USA.

Soon after the meeting began, though, a trio of helicopters approached the meeting's location, and were given clearance to approach. As they neared the building, a salvo of rockets was launched at the conference hall releasing knockout gas, which incapacitated ground forces and left the VIPs unprotected.

In the melee, the three helicopters were able to kidnap all the heads of State, and head out of the area, leaving a number of stupified security forces to discover that their leaders had gone, among them, President Matton...

The central computer of the Counter Terrorist branch of the CIA is simulated in The President Is Missing, and you are a special investigator. The game is played via four menus, accessed by their command names of Files, Agent, Codes and Comms (communications). These commands, and other necessary text, are entered in a work area at the bottom of the computer screen, via the keyboard. At the top is a message window, displaying information as it is received, and a status line giving the current date, time and case name, indicators flash when information from the State department, a field agent, or general Bulletin source is available, and this is received by the press of a key. These display areas are often overlaid with menus needed to gain information to aid your enquiries.

Information is first found using the Files menu. Suspect data is held under Subject, and accessing this gives a list of 38 people. The name, status, piece and date of birth, and personal details of each person is given, with a digitised photo and history of their education, career, and military background. Photographic pictures have matching information, and can be examined in detail with a magnify function. Document allows viewing of information concerning the events on that fateful June 6th, and Records gives useful miscellaneous data. Case files loads and saves clues from and to your disk. Reports and Confidential give perusal of Secret Service agent reports and conidential coded files, needed special clearance, respectively.

An encoded piece of received information can be decoded, to varying degrees of success, by the CAD (Cryptographic Analysis and Deciphering) section of the CIA, from the Codes menu, the investigator can attempt decoding him or herself by entering code with a variable deciphering parameter, but intelligence and ingenuity is evidence is gathered, a suspect can be detained and questioned by the State Department, or a building searched by them, with the two options under the Comms menu.

Many clues can be found on a 30 minute audio cassette, given as needed to reap rewards.

Once, through investigation, part of the game packaging. This contains the sounds of TV/radio reports, morse code messages, the President at the kidnappers hideout, phone taps, police evidence, and move. You can only hope it wll help your cause, since the alternative is political chaos.

Note: Disk version only. A cassette version has been announced and will be rated separately when released.

My powers of detection never got much further than Scooby-Doo and Columbo, so it was about time I deveveloped my skills! Luckily, The President Is Missing gives plenty of scope for deductive thinking, though that is quite an understatement, as the amount of information to sift through is enormous.

Beginning with the 38 suspects, a lot has to be absorbed, then you have to go straight on the abduction report, records and examination of the photographic evidence.

You expect comprehensive instructions to accompany both Microprose and Cosmi products, but this time they have excelled themselves - the audio cassette is a great idea and adds a very effective atmosphere to the proceedings. Any disk drive user can give himself a thorough mental workout with a copy of The President Is Missing.

Interactive menu games always seem to be about spying or other covert operations, and The President Is Missing also fits under this banner.

It's very well produced and executed, with outstanding presentation and abundant content; where it falls down, however, is that it gets so wrapped up in its subject matter that there is little to grab the attention of the casual strategist.

One example of an interactive role-player that worked extremely well was The Fourth Protocol, mainly because it kept the information and clues coming at close enough intervals to keep you interested, whereas TPIM just throws you in at the deep end with a bulging file of confusing information.

It all seems to lean towards the adventure side of things, and should only be attempted by those who have a lot of time on their hands and *lots* of patience.

The style in which this game is played immediately reminded me of Cosmi's thought-provoking Chernobyl, and like that game The President Is Missing has a strange form of playability which just grows on you, and as I say at the game I just found myself becoming more and more engrossed in the Machiavellian thrill of espionage.

The game's presentation is pretty much flawless, all the information being about as fast and easy to access as possible, and the typing in of commands gives you the feeling that you're operating a real security data terminal.

The packaging is equally well-accomplished, with loads of clue-ridden secret documents and an interesting cassette of reports and conversations. There's certainly plenty here to assure any investigators with disk drives of a few long nights.

Presentation 97%
Near faultless. Detailed instructions and documents, audio cassette, neat screen layout, and essential save/load option.

Graphics 60%
The digitised picture lacks detail, but graphics are generally functional.

Sound 3%
A few in-game beeps - but who needs sound when the gameplay is as good as this? And no, we don't count the audio tape in this section - so no letters, ok?

Hookability 64%
Difficult to begin with, due to the amount of thought needed for progression.

Lastability 91%
Once familiarity with the system is gained, weeks of investigating lie ahead.

Overall 83%
A must for anyone with an enquiring mind (and a disk drive).