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The Space Warp package comes as a cassette with a 14-page booklet, and a slip of paper to place under the perspex strip to remind you of the softkey functions.

I was glad, at first, to discover that the cassette was recorded at 1200 baud. However, I soon changed my mind when it took 45 minutes before I could get it to run, because I had such severe loading problems. The cassette contains more than one program; the first program loads the second. In the manual it states that it is so complicated to load, that it is too complicated for them to tell you how to make a back-up copy, so with the loading problems I only played the game about six times.

Once running, the helpful user manual seems to tell you everything you would expect to find in a science fiction novel, but nothing clear enough about the objectives of the game, and how to play it. I read things over and over again, but still couldn't seem to get far. Wondering if my computing experience was clouding my vision, I got some total beginners to try it on their own. They came to the same overall conclusion. It leaves the user frustrated, because it is virtually 'teach yourself'.

In conclusion, Space Warp is probably a good game, a sort of Star Trek-type game played in real-time, with sound effects and visual movement. Unfortunately, I could not get a good idea of how good it is in just a few days. This is a good point for two reasons; either you will put it in a cupboard and ignore it forever with frustration, or you will find it worth persevering with.

If it is this difficult to learn then it could be worth persevering as it may mean that, once learned, it won't be too trivial.