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For once it's a joy to get hold of a totally original game. Deactivators has a simple objective - remove unexploded bombs from a building.

You wouldn't want to be anywhere near an unexploded bomb now would you? So, you've got a team of remotely-controlled droids to take all the risks! The droids are quite lovable little characters, reminiscent of 'Dusty Bin' and in theory, all you have to do is pick up a bomb, carry it to a window and throw it out. Trouble is, there's never a direct route to the only exit, so you have to chuck the bombs through internal windows to other droids. Sort of pass the suspect device. A droid can be moved freely through doors and holes in the floors, slide up and down poles and use matter-transmitters.

Before you can complete your task, you will need to find a number of computer cards scattered around and install them in the building's central computer. This will reveal hidden doors, disable force-fields and enable matter-transmitters.

Your task is further complicated by the presence of robot guard droids, any contact with one will result in the destruction of that droid. Guard droids will give chase if you move within range of their sensors, but if they drop through holes in the floor frequently enough they are destroyed.

Your main viewing screen shows a 3D view of two adjacent rooms in the building, while the location of the rooms in view are displayed on a map underneath. Also displayed on the map are the locations of the bombs and your droids. Adjacent to the map is a panel that displays an icon representing an object you may be carrying, a bomb (if it's lit the fuse steadily burns away), or a computer card. Displayed to the left of the map is your current score and any bonus droids you may have collected by completing a level successfully. Pressing the Fire button calls up a menu of icons allowing you to enter droid selection, throwing or viewing modes.

When in throwing mode, the map disappears to reveal a 'trajectometer', indicating the angle and direction of the throw. When the angle is right, pressing fire will complete the throw experiment with different strategies for dealing with the other bombs before attempting that level again.

Playing the game requires a combination of mental agility and hand-to-eye coordination. The bombs are set to go off in a certain order, and a warning klaxon sounds as each fuse is lit. If a fuse runs out, naturally enough the bomb explodes, taking the room and its contents with it! Should this happen, all is not lost. Although you can't complete a level until all the bombs are successfully removed, you can still carry on for practice.

The rooms differ in two respects, gravity and orientation. The gravity in a room is artificially generated and the strength varies from 1/26 to 36; bear this in mind when throwing things! Floors are not always where you expect them, some rooms are upside-down or on their side!

Level one is a four storey building, four rooms wide with three bombs, three droids ad three computer cards. Completing this level shouldn't tax your grey matter too much, but after that the buildings get larger and more complicated.

All in all, Deactivators is one of the most challenging games I've played in a long time.