CRL
£7.95

Fans of The Jung Ones should love this. Or will they? Who cares? as ID himself (but is he a "he"?) would say - and frequently does, it you're as good at this game as me! This is one for those people who like to engage in long surreal correspondence with the gas board as to why they plumbed your cooker into the bathroom. Hours of mirthless endeavour will come to no fruitful end - and you'll still end up making omelettes in your shower cap.

In its own immortal words the game plan is to piece together ID's shattered memory to discover "who I am, who I was, who will I be". The poor thing is an intelligence left on earth before time began and needs your help to remember his and our history. To do this you can use a line of text to ask pertinent questions. Warning: ID's idea of pertinent won't be yours.

The screen will go different colours according to ID's response - black for depressed, red for angry - and the amount of trust you win is shown as a percentage. Abuse a nonsensical questions lose trust. ID will want to know those closest to you for the weirdest or fiercest) and will "think" about your answers and bring them up at the most unexpected times. It's sophisticated 20 questions, though "give us a clue" might be your plea.

The blurb hints that ID's persona is more sinister than it first seems - and some pains (in the neck, most of them) are taken to endow him with human qualities. He gets scared, crazy confused - even dribbly and scrungy. And he often gets annoyed, nay incensed, and demands that you speak to him. Aeons of amnesia have done nothing for his manners. ID even dreams and babbles with arcane clues secreted therein. But forget the pseudo-psychology - it's nearer Fraud than Freud. It provides a veneer of sophistication and a lot of red herrings. ID is a straightforward lateral thinking game. And like so many it ultimately fails because it takes itself too seriously. It lacks wit, humour and fundamentally, charm. Charm? Yup. Spock is logical and lovable. ID is just a smartass!

Nu Wave
£8.95

If you've always believed that there was someone living inside your computer this game will confirm all your hopes or fears.

iD, the new inhabitant has crept inside your Spectrum casing and taken up residence. He has a bad case of split personality, in fact he has seven of them which you must persuade him to reveal.

Winning iD'S trust is a major battle and his impatience lurks just under the surface if you fail to keep his attention he will veer off into pages of rambling text. If you run out of questions to ask iD he will come back at you with some of his own - many of them quite personal but as we are told that iD has been around since the beginning of time he's probably heard all the answers.

Your answers to iDs questions are stored and thrown back into the dialogue in surprising ways. A neat touch.

iD's moods are very changeable but he likes compliments and these are often rewarded by iD'S revelation that he is feeling scrungy or dribbly (at least I think that means he's pleased).

In order to get anywhere near one of iD's identities you have to build up the trust rating to near 70 per cent which can be a long process if iD's having a bad day. Any clues you may get may be red herrings. At different points in one game I was convinced he was Hitler then Einstein before plumping wrongly for Mussolini.

This game by Mel Croucher will either seem like a fascinating mystery or a complete waste of time. Either way be warned - iD knows how to swear back.