LIVING JIGSAWS

 What was your first jigsaw puzzle like? Was it one of those with pieces that
fit into an outline of the United States? Or perhaps something a bit more
difficult, such as: "Polar Bears in a Blizzard"? Whatever your experience with
jigsaws has been, it couldn't have prepared you for Miles Computing's LIVING
JIGSAWS. (This review is based on the IBM-PC version.)

 LIVING JIGSAWS is just what the name implies: jigsaw puzzles with animated
pictures. "Yawn," you say? But wait: Not only do the completed pictures move,
the incomplete pictures and their loose pieces writhe with color and movement. A
piece which may have been green a moment ago will suddenly change before your
eyes as some object in the picture moves across its surface, turning it bright
crimson with black spots, then green again. Or a single, tiny bird on a blue
background will suddenly disappear, never to be seen again.

 So much for this intriguing new approach to jigsaw puzzles. Oh, you want more?
Try this: These pictures are beautiful, interesting, and delightful to watch
after they're completed. They're professionally drawn and animated, with vibrant
colors, and at least one has totally non-repetitive animation.

 Sound too easy? Don't you believe it! You can choose from four skill levels
(super easy, easy, medium, and hard), and within each of the skill levels,
choose the type of pieces you want. Each skill level has a selection of eight
puzzle-piece types. The first puzzle I tried, I chose super easy; even then, I
was unable to complete it without help.

 There's all sorts of help available in LIVING JIGSAWS. A little gnome sits
patiently behind a wooden door on your screen; if you need him, knock on his
door. He'll come out, pick one of the loose pieces at random, stroll over to the
incomplete puzzle, and plop it into place. If that kind of help is a bit too
much, you can use one of the built-in helps accessible via the function keys --
from turning off the animation to putting all the pieces in their proper places.
If you take too much time to pick up or place a piece, the cursor (a tiny hand)
will begin tapping its fingers in irritation.

 LIVING JIGSAWS comes on six unprotected 5-1/4" diskettes (four of which contain
nothing but picture puzzles). There's a program for installing the disks on a
hard drive (highly recommended); you can play from the floppies, but be prepared
for a lot of disk-swapping and slower game response. Copy protection is
manual-based with 5-character passwords printed on that funny brown paper
everybody's using these days. CGA (256K), EGA and Tandy (384K), and VGA and MCGA
(512K) graphics modes are supported.

 There are only two drawbacks to the game. First, you can play with either the
keyboard or a Microsoft-compatible mouse; however, the mouse has a totally
unacceptable user interface. Instead of being "free floating" on your screen,
the program "forces" the mouse pointer to an available option. I found the
keyboard to be more intuitive for selecting pieces and options.

 The second drawback is in regard to speed. This problem is even mentioned on
the "System Information Sheet." If your clock speed is less than 12 MHz, LIVING
JIGSAWS will drag. One way around this is to turn off the animation; the other
is to get a faster CPU.

 Don't let these minor shortcomings stop you from purchasing this game. By no
means is LIVING JIGSAWS "child's play." It's adult entertainment all the way.
But let the kids play with it now and then; they'll enjoy it, too!

 LIVING JIGSAWS is published by Miles Computing and distributed by Electronic
Arts.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253