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Professor Potts is your typical, everyday mad scientist - complete with Mick Hucknall hairdo and scruffy lab coat. Unlike most mad professors, though, Potts just happens to have invented a time machine which allows him to go tip-toeing through time and space. Useful or what?

At the start of the game, Potts is fiddling around on his time machine outside his lab, when a group of armed terrorists run up and start terrorising. A stray hand grenade smacks into the time machine, sending the gadget's accelerator crystal and Potts whirling back through time, plopping them both safely down in the prof's back yard - but ten million years in the past...

The prof now has a bit of a task on his hands, to wit: return to his own time, replace the accelerator crystal, and try and prevent the terrorist attack which put him in this fix in the first place!

Potts carries with him a four travel pods - miniature versions of his time machine, but with limited capabilities. Each one is dropped with a jab of a function key and then, regardless of where or when the prof is, another jab sends him whizzing straight back to it (accompanied by a suitably whacky Martin Walker sound effect). But although these gizmos allow the prof to move through space and time, he can't whizz straight back to 1990 - it doesn't exist yet! Before the professor can move into future time zones, he has to make sure they're going to be there for him to travel to. With us so far?

There are five time zones, which can only be created once the previous one is in existence. Thus the prehistoric era is followed by an ice age, stone age, a medieval period and finally modern day, complete with rampaging terrorists, grubby skylines and the rest of it.

There are specific tasks which the prof must complete in order to ensure that the future happens as it's supposed to. For instance, how can the ice age happen with all these volcanic eruptions going on, warming the place up?

Potts' neighbourhood is spread over five flick screens, which are redrawn each time the prof enters (in a similar fashion to the Last Ninja games). It only takes a second or so to fill the screen, and it certainly worth the wait. Each landscape is brilliantly depicted, with neatly drawn hills, trees, swamps, buildings and so on, Each five-scene landscape is basically the same for each time zone as regards the general layout but, as you travel forward in time, the landscape alters to incorporate changes brought about by evolution, climactic changes and, of course, mankind.

Speaking of whom, as well as having to create the next time zone, the prof also has to make sure mankind evolves properly, otherwise the prof himself would cease to exist! For instance, the little scurrying mammals that get under your feet in the first prehistoric era will eventually grow up to become men and women - as long as they don't die out during the cold ice age, that is. So the prof has to find some way of making sure they don't freeze to death... (Hint - he doesn't make them all little fur coats.)

Man isn't the only thing to evolve either: plant a seed in one time zone and you may find a huge tree in another. And, of course, you can always take things from future times zones into the past and let them evolve some more...

But, of course, the past - like the future - isn't definite: things change. And just because the prof has solved an evolutionary problem once doesn't mean that he won't have to go back in time and keep a check on things!

By now, you should be getting the general idea. Time Machine is an arcade adventure which offers an array of intriguing time-dependant puzzles and forces you to think in four dimensions (well, nearly).

Once you get the grey cells on the right wavelength, things become really hectic as poor old Potts whizzes back and forth through time like a demented DeLorean, collecting objects, moving them and making sure his good work (and time itself) remains intact. The fun comes from the multitude of brain-bending problems and your increasingly manic behaviour as you struggle to keep your world from falling apart! Time Machine is a cracking game, beautifully put together and just dripping with quality. Rush out and buy one yesterday.

The panel at the top of the screen shows (from right to left) the prof's energy (he'll croak when it hits zero) and your score; the number of profs remaining; the time scanner (this shows all 25 screens, with five in each horizontal time zone. Here, only the prehistoric and ice ages are in existence. Screens flash to show where the prof has work to do); the prof's laser indicator (glows when his stun laser is overheating), and the look window (when the prof is next to an object he can use, it appears in the look window - the small apes can be used as shown in the picture on the right).

1. Tricky control method makes the game unwieldy to start off with!

1. Clever graphics system provides some amazing scenes - and all in one load!
2. Gameplay grows wonderfully hectic as the mission advances through the ages!
3. Smart sound effects are well suited to the action.
4. Animation on characters and scenery is beautifully executed.
5. Unusual puzzle aspect has been very cleverly implemented.
6. Brilliant game scenario really stretches your imagination - into four dimensions!
7. Wonderful mixture of arcade adventure and puzzle-solving is incredibly addictive.
8. Specially designed to get less repetitive as you progress.