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In the May issue of The Micro User I reviewed a copy of Xor, a maze game which pushed the player's logic and cunning to the limits. Logotron has now released Xor Designer, a utility program that allows you to create your own fiendish mazes.

Supplied on disc only, it is totally menu-driven. The main menu offers five options - the first being to play the game.

Selecting this option boots up the data disc and displays a list of the mazes available. There are only two supplied with the package, so once you've completed these you'll have to design your own.

The second option allows you to design a maze. When using a program such as this, it is always useful to be able to edit a previously designed maze: You can familiarise yourself with the controls and you're not staring at vast expanses of nothing.

Both the mazes supplied have been saved to disc using the protect facility, designed to stop other people editing your mazes - it is very effective!

The Maze Editor consists ofa miniature representation of the complete playing area, and a series of icons show the various game characters. Once you have lovingly positioned every character you can save your maze to disc, but not before the program has checked that the maze contains all the essential features of the game.

The Icon Designer enables you to create a new set of game characters. The original icons are always displayed on the editing screen as they are used, to denote their physical properties (fish fall downwards, chickens fall sideways, bombs explode) to the new characters.

Having successfully completed a maze you are given the opportunity to save your solution to disc, and this can be loaded backinto the designer using the replay option. As its name suggests, replay redisplays the game move by move from beginning to end - a real ego trip!

The final option on the menu enables you to dump the maze, or a section of it, to a printer. It will even print out 16 enlarged sections of the maze which can then be pasted together to create a large poster.

Had the designer been sold at £14.95, complete with an editable copy of the original game, then I would have no reservations about recommending it: As it stands, I feel that it is overpriced.

Carol Barrow