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From his beginnings in a short movie of the same name, Max Headroom's rise has been meteoric. There's been a book, his own music show, adverts and interviews. After a while everyone knew Max was a real bloke dressed up like a dummy (sorry Max). No wonder the guy's got such an obnoxious ego - too much too soon. The final straw is the game itself.

Max Headroom is one of those games which tries to be revolutionary, original and addictive. The end result is a product which is a hotchpotch of ideas backed up by inadequate instructions.

The game takes its plot from the film. You play cameraman Edison Carter given the task of finding the Max personality module in a TV station within six hours. Since the film itself was hardly revolutionary - ripping off its best ideas from the brilliant American Flagg series from First Comics - the game itself lumbers along in a similar vein. Icon design, lifts, puzzles - shades of several popular games here.

Screen one gets you a little puzzle just for starters, one that I haven't yet fully understood. Get it wrong, as you invariably will, and the lift goes out of control and dumps you at random somewhere up the top. After a while this simply becomes an irritant.

Once you make it onto a floor, you're going to have to call into play your icons:

1. Lift: Calls lift
2. Floor: Gives access to the floor computer. Some of the codes are provided for you in the instructions. Those for the president's floor and the lab are vital.
3. Info: The diplays the location of any other human presence in the building.
4. Scan: Allows you to check for robot guards using securicams.
5. Exit: Allows you to leave any room.
6. Rest: Allows you to recover your energy - shown as a percentage.

Once you step out of the lift you appear as a little matchman armed with what looks like a box brownie, but is undoubtedly your camera. Moments after you make your entrance, you will be beset by several similarly drawn figures who are guards. If you're not sure what the hell to do, another icon gives you the opportunity to view several different camera angles of the floor.

Moving from floor to floor is tricky because each time you want to go somewhere you have to crack the blasted lift code. You have to reverse four notes played by the computer to select a floor in the skyscraper. It's easy to make a careless error. It's well worth reading the memos printed in the instructions for further clues into the game as well.

Max Headroom, the film, gave Quicksilva a lot of scope to create an original game. Sadly they chose to ignore the possibilities raised by the plot. I was reminded of CRL's failure to make something of a similar cult film, Bladerunner. Both the films thrive on their futuristic atmosphere - neither of the games capitalise on it. Eventually I found the finickyness of the game a deterrent and began to lose interest rapidly. A wasted opportunity.