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It's rare nowadays to find a piece of software that hasn't derived from a film or an arcade machine or for that fact plagiarised from another top-selling title. In concept and design, Interphase can be claimed to be wholly original.

The plot behind Interphase is pretty complicated. Set sometime in the future the ultimate form of home leisure entertainment has been created, the DreamTracks. Fully interactive dreams where the player can not only see and hear what's going on but smell, feel, and taste the action around them. In order to produce a top-selling DreamTrack the companies have to record them from particularly vivid dreamers. In order to produce a perfect dream to tape the companies make their Dreamers attend seminars where they are fed constant information until the subject of the seminar occurs in their dreams.

One such Dreamer was Chadd. He had just had a major DreamTrack recorded when he was sacked. It wasn't until then that he realised the full potential of his dream, it could destabilise and undermine the minds of the youth of the western world.

The only thing left for Chadd to do is to attempt to break into the DreamTrack Corporation high security building and destroy the MasterTrack for his dream. The idea is for his girlfriend to enter the building while Chadd plays havoc with the security systes within the main computer.

It sounds like a recipe for a shoot-'em-up and that's what it is, plus a strategy and arcade adventure. The game starts with Chadd gliding down a Powerdrome-style tunnel following a strange bird, then the entrance to the level one computer appears. The first thing Chadd has to do is check the blueprints for the level and identify all the hazards his girlfriend must face. On level one the first step is to deactivate one of the two cameras in the main corridor. Take out the wrong one and the security droid will be activated too soon and catch Chadd's girlfriend; take out both and - beware - the robot will be left in the room she has to pass through.

The primary way of switching objects on and off or to open and close things is to destroy the switch inside the computer with a missile or your lasers. If the situation is such that something needs to be switched back again then you can use your tractor beam to carry a replacement part to the deactivated (denoted by a wireframe graphic) original. On later levels, some components can be docked with and switched internally; these tends to be objects with more than an on/off function.

The goal for each level is for Chadd to guide his girlfriend safely to the lift and up to the next level. There are twelve levels in total with each one being broken up into several floors containing the relevant components. Unfortunately for Chadd the computer doesn't take kindly to having people blasting its circuits willy nilly, the resulting defence mechanisms manifest themselves as birds, helicopters and planes, none quite as nice as the overall favourite though, the unicycling frog. Most can be destroyed with Chadd's laser but quickly reappear from the various generators around the landscape. Just as well Chadd brought along some guided missiles, isn't it?

A huge, deeply absorbing interactive game which is a welcome relief. Interphase formally Mainframe has been over a year in development, but it's well worth the wait.