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Remember Kit Williams Masquerade? The book started a treasure hunt witnessed with great fascination by the media last year, and it ended in the successful unearthing of a golden hare worth several thousand pounds.

Pimania follows in its footsteps with another real hidden treasure. This time the quest is for the Golden Sundial of Pi - worth £6,000. It is a treasure dripping with gold, diamonds and lapis lazuli, and it's yours if you can find where it's hidden.

Pimania, set in the dimensions of both time and space, subjects the player to the same kind of see-sawing between thrills and setbacks as Masquerade. In the hunt you have to solve bizarre riddles and overcome bewildering obstacles.

While you're doing this you are alternately helped, hindered or entertained by a cartoon character dubbed the Pi-Man.

This is essentially an adventure game, in which you move on through questions and answers, using various objects along the way. Valium is just one of those available for the really baffled seeker.

The cassette comes with loading instructions, but the rest is up to you. Part of the game's appeal, in fact, lies in its lack of playing instructions - you just have to figure it out for yourself.

The game starts with the ubiquitous Pi-Man laughing at you. That gives you a taste of things to come. From time to time, he will re-appear, demanding comfort, or taking the mickey out of you.

"It's up to you, Rog!" the screen informs you as it sets yet another riddle. And if your answer is wrong it tells you: "I've got better things to do that to listen to this!" Find a TV dinner and try to eat it, and you may be abruptly told: "It's off!"

From time to time, the program will play you a tune to fit the situation. Perhaps a Beatles song will accompany you off to sleep.

And at any time, if in the Pi-Man's eyes you transgress, you may be forced to start all over again. You can take a breather, but you cannot save the same, and there is no points system, so you can never know whether you are working along the right lines or not.

Pimania is an original and amusing game, and worth the outlay, especially taking into account the possibility that you might be the one to find the Golden Sundial. I reckon it has a pretty long-lasting appeal.

You even get appalling Pimania disco music from Clair Sinclive and the Mystery Man on the flipside of the cassette. Have a go.