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The evil dictator grinned at the figure sweating under the cruel white lights. Sweat ran down the bare torso of the man as he strained against the chair's bonds. He squinted at the figures and machinery in the murky background. The dictator spoke.

"Don't bother struggling, my friend. With our Psychic Probe, you'll soon suffer, squirm and squeal, Sisson Sebastion!"

"That's easy for you to say", said Sisson. The dictator looked pained. "Not with my lisp it isn't, you fool! Enough of this small talk. Doctor, the Probe!"

Sisson was aware of cold metal on his bare scalp, then a velvet wave drowned his thoughts...

He woke up in a strange place. He looked around. He was balanced on a platform suspended in space. The platform was composed of hundreds of square blocks, upon which wandered a number of geometrical shapes.

On some of the blocks spun discs. He knew instinctively that those discs contained energy, energy he had to get to escape from this... this place.

With a shock, he realised that his shape had changed.

No longer a man trapped in a dark dungeon, he was akin to a ball bearing on a spring. One part of his tortured mind insisted that this was the case, but another accepted the feelings as the only way to deal with the situation.

By experimentation, he found that he could bounce upon his spring, and thereby move from his original square. Shortly afterwards he made two more discoveries: Firstly, that round patterns on the blocks hid boobytraps that catapulted him into the air for many feet. And secondly that his new body was fragile, and any landing from more than a short distance resulted in a rapid discorporation. As he landed, his new world shimmered...

...and he was back at the start. Gingerly, he worked his way forwards, avoiding the wandering polygons and boobytraps. He collected an energy disc, and saw in the distance what could only be the exit square. It took a long time, and many mistakes. His new body was clumsy, and there were many ways to die.

Strangely enough, he couldn't fall off this tiny island in space, some strange force kept him on the blocks.

Eventually he made it to the exit block. With a feral snarl of triumph, he leapt on to it. The world sparkled and dissipated again...

...and he was at the start of another island, different but just as deadly. He saw now how the Baron hoped to break his mind. By an endless series of delusionary landscapes, the dictator hoped to drive him into a state of hopelessness from which the only escape would be total submission. But there had to be an escape route, a way to beat the Psychic Probe that had produced these worlds.

All he could do was keep going until he overcame the machine's power to create new permutations. By struggling on, maybe a path back to reality could be his. He had to try.

Every budget label has to have a Thing On A Spring clone. But I had hoped that Firebird could do better than this.

For starters, the joystick option on my copy didn't work. I had to use the define keys option after loading the game again. Mutter, mumble. The graphics are not splendid, and the layout demands precise control.

The response to the joystick is stodgy and slow, alas, so the control you need to get anywhere is abse is possible to steer about the place with practice, but it's a real battle. No fun, either.

You've seen Q*Bert? Yes? Then you've seen Parabola. You bounce around a pyramid, avoiding the nasties and collecting the discs.

couldn't get the joystick to work and hate diamond shaped movements. So despite the attractive mode 1 graphics I lost patience with this.

As a budget game it is OK I suppose but now some of the budget games are getting very, very good it is overshadowed.

Like to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy? Not if it's to play Parabola, sunshine_ Thrash the joystick about a bit, try and dodge 500,000 permutations of three hazards, and fall asleep.

It's all here. When it comes down to value for money, a copy of the Turkish Eurovision entrant's single would win every time. Go away, nasty game.