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Carmen Sandiego is some kind of crook. We are not talking petty theft - I mean real world treasures, like Ghandi's glasses, and the whole ceiling of the Cistine Chapel. Here is your chance to come to the aid of Interpol in tracking down and arresting the members of his fearsome organisation.

You start off as a plain Rookie. You are told what priceless article has been stolen, and from what city. That city becomes your first base, where you are able to make your initial investigations, and then relentlessly pursue the fleeing criminal.

Your case starts on a Monday at 9am, and you have until 5pm on Sunday to complete the case - after all, you wouldn't want to be late for work on the following Monday morning, would you?!

So how do you achieve success in this detective game? To start with, I have not been one hundred percent correct in giving the impression that this is purely a game of detection. It is just as much a game of general geographical knowledge. Nor is it one hundred percent an adventure. Input is selected by text-icon with a joystick.

You have four main choices: to list possible destination cities, to depart by plane, to investigate, or to visit Interpol. Obviously you will have to do a spot of sleuthing first, and the Investigate option offers you a choice of three locations, such as a library, bank, hotel, market and so on.

You can choose any or all of these in turn, and each results in a comment from someone at the scene. Their chat may give you clues on the appearance of the suspect, or to where he is heading next. For example, a bank clerk might say: "He changed his money to Kronur. He had an ugly tattoo on his right arm."

From here, it's straight down to the Interpol office to enter the information about the suspect on the computer. Gradually you narrow down the list of suspects, and only when there is one possible suspect left, will you be issued a warrant for an arrest.

Meanwhile, you may use other clues to decide where to fly from the list of possible journeys. If you follow the correct route, you will eventually catch up with the criminal - but if you haven't obtained a warrant it will all have been in vain, and the case will end without an arrest.

As you take on more assignments, and increase the number of arrests, so you are promoted from rookie to sleuth, and so on, up the ladder to the dizzy heights of Ace Detective. Your rank and number of caes solved is saved on the disk, and so when you come back to the game later, you pick up from where you left off - provided you sign back on as the same character.

The screen is split into four windows. The left hand side displays the current time, and below it is shown a picture of the capital you are in. During an investigation sequence, the picture splits, and reveals a window with icons of the places you can visit to investigate. The right hand side carries the incoming information, and there's some smart animation here, too, when you are hot on the trail of the suspect. Below this the four main option icons are situated.

This is an educational game, as well as being fun, and not too difficult. By way of a change, this makes a nice game for an adventurer to relax with. You can actually lean back in your chair, joystick in hand, instead of being hunched up over the keyboard!