BUSINESS NOT PLEASURE

Memory: 48K
Price: £8.95

The most sensible motive for buying Hareraiser is the sincere need to get rich.

The sole aim of the program is the discovery of a Golden Hare somewhere in the game landscape. Do not assume you are getting a fancy version of Kit Williams' Masquerade with complex graphics and a vast expansive plot.

The 'game' consists of a number of lacklustre, stark and simple screens depicting the countryside, with an occasional hare bouncing around and then disappearing. At the bottom of each of those thoroughly dull pictures appears an obscure phrase which may or may not help you to find the hare - or your £30,000 in lieu.

If you decide to persist with the puzzle you will still have to buy a second program before completing it.

The casette insert provides details on how to enter. The only instructions on screen tell you to follow the hare with cursor keys. There seems to be no evidence of the richness of the original book.

Quite honestly, it is rather difficult to understand why this program was produced at all, though cynics may draw their own conclusions. Me, I'm going to zap a few aliens instead.

MACHINE: 48k Spectrum
SUPPLIER: Haresoft Ltd
PRICE: £8.95

Hareraiser is not so much a game as a puzzle. It comes in two parts: Prelude is available now and Finale is yet to be released.

The "player" has the four cursor keys at his disposal, allowing him to move around the countryside in search of clues to discover the Hare's whereabouts. These are displayed as short lines of text on a graphics background of a field. Sometimes the hare comes loping in to the accompaniment of music before divulging his clue, sometimes he doesn't. Is that a clue?

The object of all this is to be the first person to solve the puzzle. If that happens to be you, then you write in to Haresoft with the Hare's location, plus an explanation of how you arrived at the answer, together with the two tapes and a letter quoting your personal numbers. You could win the Golden Hare itself, or choose to take £30,000 in cash instead.

To be eligible to enter, you must first have registered the purchase of each part, returning a card on which is printed your unique personal number.

That's the task - how will you shape up to it? All you need is pencil, paper, your eyes, patience and an inquiring mind, says the inlay. Pencil and paper certainly seemed to be useful, for the information observed is easily recorded. In fact, I could see little reason why this puzzle should be published as software.

To be honest, I wouldn't buy it unless I fancied my chances for the £30,000 (sod the Golden Hare - I'll take the cash!) But hang about! That's a huge pile of readies to be giving away. Where will it all come from? Suppose £1 per game is put into the kitty - that's one helluva lot of copies to hope to sell for a puzzle that isn't even a game!

Could it be that we have to wait for sales to reach a predetermined level before we see any sign of The Finale?