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Firebird, British Telecom's new software arm is putting out games for the C64, Spectrum and others at £2.50. Headache neatly bridges the £1.99 and £5.95 price gap, but how does the game match up?

To begin with, the game comes with the now mandatory fast-loader and has been programmed by the software house, Software Shed. It's essentially a rather simple, but not easy, levels and ladders game.

The field of play is a head in profile, divided into seven levels, each linked by a ladder or two. Right at the top sits part of a grey brain. Your task is to move Ned, a blue-trousered, cloth-capped figure, around the head to collect impulses which appear at what seem to be little figures sitting up. The impulses are little more than coloured squares but they have to be carried up to the brain. If an impulse appears at the brain, it has to be carried down to the neck.

All the time objects descend, traversing levels at random. These are Throbs which should be avoided at all costs because the slightest contact loses you a life as Ned plummets to the foot of the screen.

There are eight levels, and the Throbs may look like flying jellyfish, rotating shreddies or revolving diamonds. Throbs can be atomised, but this isn't always too easy as their movement can be tricky to predict. Worse is the little head banger who appears from time to time, scuttling about rather too quickly and carrying a hammer.

Control of Ned is not very easy using the keyboard, but apart from that the game is infuriatingly difficult.