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Chip will do anything for Melinda the Mental Marvel. More than anything else he wants to join her exclusive computer club, the Bit Busters. Imagine his excitement when, one day, she sat down next to him in the cafeteria and offered him membership!

Unfortunately, it was a deal with plenty of strings attached. Before he can even get his armpits sweaty inside a Busters T-shirt, Chip has to indulge in some heavy interfacing with 150 levels of puzzles, traps and monsters. What's worse, there is a time limit on every level - and once he's in there, there's no way out.

In the first eight levels Chip learns some hard facts about his environment. Coloured keys open corresponding doors, blocks of soil can be moved to create bridges over - water traps or used as buffers against cherry bombs, and visible partitions impede his progress. Then there are monsters and pitfalls: horrible bugs, crazy tanks, towering flames, tenacious traps, devious thieves who steal everything he is carrying... But one fact stands above all the others: he must collect enough chips before the time limit expires in order to progress to the next level. For this is Chip's Challenge...

It might not look or sound like much, but Chip's Challenge packs a very addicive punch. The iconic graphics are colourful but little more than functional, and the musical accompaniment is inoffensive if endlessly repetitive - but in this game, the frills don't count.

What you have is a puzzle-player's dream: apart from the first eight tutorial every stage requires quick thinking to beat the time limit), a lot of experimentation with traps, and more than a little patience, since even if you get killed as you are about to collect the very last chip you have to start the whole level all over again. To offset this, every level is accompanied by a password, so you needn't play any of the levels more than once.

It's a doubly useful feature, since the game's one major drawback is that once you complete a stage you don't feel like tackling it again. Even so, with 150 very tough levels, your brain will be tied in knots for a long time to come.

What's true for the Amiga version also applies here: it looks and plays exactly the same.

Due out at the same time as the other two, PC Chip's Challenge will support CGA, EGA, VGA (in EGA mode) and Tandy graphics, as well as AdLib and Roland sound.