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The President of The United States is missing, and he's not the only one. Ten European heads of state attending an economic summit in Austria have also been kidnapped by international terrorists. You have been assigned as Special Agent to recover them before the global political situation degenerates into chaos.

This is the drastic scenario you are faced with as you load up the disk and log on to your terminal in this 'interactive graphics adventure simulation' from Cosmi. While you're waiting for the log-on sequence you can take a quick look through the other material which comes with the 'game': an instruction manual with detailed operating instructions for your terminal, including how to access various classified files, documents and photographs relating to the abduction, how to assign agents, decipher codes and so on; advice on how to conduct your investigation; and an audio tape containing further evidence - telephone tapes, intercepted morse code messages, a demand from the kidnapping terrorists together with a message from the President, TV and radio coverage, etc.

So this is a detective assignment on a massive scale. A global whodunnit. Your job is to sift through the mass of filed evidence, examining and recording every small detail that might yield a clue to the president's captors or his whereabouts. It's also a race against time, because as the seconds tick by the political situation deteriorates, governments grow restless and the terrorists' objective - whatever that might be - comes closer to reality.

Having logged on and entered the necessary security codes (NB: ensure you type in full stops where necessary) you are now free to examine all but the most highly classified material, unless, of course you find a way to get at that too. From the control screen you can gain access to the security file index, open communications with the eight field operatives assigned to you, access the deciphering section and open communications with the authorities.

It always pays to do a bit of background reading so a visit to the files section is a good place to start. Files are categorised according to:

1. Subjects
   Individuals known to be terrorists by White House staff.
2. Photographic
   Surveillance, satellite and aerial photos.
3. Document
   Official papers, orders, government releases.
4. Records
   Police, medical, sales, passports.
5. Case files
   For your own notes.
6. Audio
   Transcripts of the audio tape (actually, all I could access was a list of contents!)
7. Reports
   Filed reports from field operatives.
8. Confidential
   Require special clearance from the Vice President.

If, for example, you wanted some info on a particular you heard mentioned on the tape, you would access files, then subject and you would be presented with a list of records classified by surname. Selection of the appropriate record reveals a personal file complete with photo and details of the subject's history, military service and any other relevant intelligence information.

Photographic files can throw up useful snippets and are worth examining in detail until the zoom facility. This helps you spot little secure particular premises - just give them the address.

All of these requests will be followed up and the relevant agents will report back to you via the control screen when their assignments are completed. Incoming reports from the State Department and your operatives are signalled by a flashing indicator and can be accessed via the files and reports menus. They may have recovered one of the European Prime Ministers, or discovered a murdered man with known terrorist links in a bar in Tripoli - he may have provided them with invaluable information before he croaked. It is up to you to act on this new evidence.

Perhaps a coded message will need to be deciphered, in which case you can go to the coding section. Here messages can be sent to CAD (Cryptographic Analysis and Deciphering) who will report back in the usual fashion, or you can have a bash yourself using the enigma machine, or the morse decoder. The first thing to do in the coding section is decode the intercepted morse messages from the audio tape. This is more difficult than it sounds, my first effort came out as *anrst icmf? fkjm?, fkjhg ntkrt, mie erg mi fp?*. Perhaps it needed deciphering further?

While you are conducting your investigation, reading files, analysing reports, finding clues, assigning agents and taking action, the outside world carries on around you. Messages as to the current state of the world such as relevant news items, government statements and UN resolutions are flashed to the control screen. These will directly reflect the state of the world as a result of your success (or failure) in locating and releasing the captive heads of state.

Success is largely a question of attention to detail. Every significant fact must be recorded in your case files, if for no other reason than if you succeed in your task those involved must be brought to justice and your material will be required as evidence.

The President Is Missing is a superbly well-presented piece of software - by which I mean more than just a good looking box. It's obvious that a great deal of research has gone into producing it from the fantastically realistic recordings on the audio tape to the files on terrorist suspects. This attention to detail and accuracy gives the whole thing a worrying sense of realism.

There are one or two things that let it down a little. The instructions are so unclear that parts of the game are inaccessible. For example, when I tired to send coded material to CAD I was asked for a file number and then told it hadn't yet received the report. What report? What file number? The Audio file is supposed to contain transcripts of the tape, but I couldn't find them. And there appears to be some kind of a bug in the agent reporting file database. You have to idea of the number of the latest report filed so you have to read through the lot until you get to the end. Furthermore, when any file is accessed you have to go back to the control screen and initiate the whole process again (e.g. files, subject, Amal) to view the next one in line; there should be some kind of forward, back, last, function.

Don't let that put you off though. This is a thoroughly engrossing and realistic adventure that will keep your nose to the monitor well into the early hours before you realise what the time is. And even if you don't manage to find the President I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. The world's probably better off without him anyway.