What you might call an interesting little number, or might not, depending I suppose, on exactly where your interests lie. Hit And Miss is one of those 'master-mind' type games where you attempt to guess a computer generated number sequence.

You can play on your own or try and prove your intellectual superiority over an opponent, a younger brother or sister strikes me as a fairly safe bet.

To start with, things are fairly simple. The C16 thinks up a two digit random number and you have several bashes at guessing what it is. To help you out, you are given various useful clues like what the digits in the secret number add up to. You are told how many digits you have guessed in their correct positions and their total value when added together.

This is more useful than it sounds as it enables you to determine which numbers you guessed correctly. Finally, you are told exactly how many of the digits in your guess are in the hidden number. By now, you're undoubtedly thinking that only a complete and utter drongo would find such a task intellectually stimulating, and you'd be dead right. But things get more difficult. When you've guessed the two digit nuber you get a three digit one to fathom and so on, up to ten digits.

After each correct guess, you get a sort of progress report. This includes the total time taken, number of moves, your score and intellect rating. I played in starter mode, but the more ambitious will probably move on to skilled or expert modes which offer less information on the validity of your guesses.

If I slag this off I'll probably be branded as a mindless moron whose idea of an intellectually stimulating program is Crossroads. All the same, I don't think it will have a wide appeal.