Mystic Meg Tarot

Mystic Meg, so the box tells us, is the 'world's best-known fortune teller', and, 'in this special multimedia format, you can get the full experience of a Tarot reading'. To celebrate, she has created a special pack of cards with the help of 'international' artist Caroline Smith. It's a shame, therefore, that we only get to see Ms Smith's works at a tiny resolution. The Minor Arcana, whose suits are usually named swords, pentacles, wands and cups, are called earth, air, fire and water in this version. In the Major Arcana, the awkwardly-named Death, Hanged Man, Devil and Fool have been sanitised into Changing, Self Sacrifice, Temptation and Beginning.

You can get to know this Tarot by browsing the cards: each has a general description, followed by love, life and luck readings and a short 'Cosmic Counsel'. If you're not in a hurry you can get Meg to read these out. You can then go on to a reading. Enter age, sex, element and a question and choose between a three-card reading, the destiny reading or the twelve card spread. The destiny and twelve-card readings are supposedly general, rather than question-specific, but you still have to type something in the question field, and it seems uncertain whether your choice of element should be based on star sign or self-assessment. After learning the significance of each card on various areas of your life, you turn them over, and read the same text seen in browsing.

No interpretation is offered on the possible interrelation between cards, or a card being inverted, which rather strains the credibility of the 'full experience'. We'll put our cards on the table and state that we don't believe that future events have a causal relationship with the way a pack - real or virtual - is dealt. We do, however, defend others' right to believe so. We also appreciate that a skilled fortune teller can direct a client's thoughts to solving their own problems. It's hard, however, to see any great value here: potential seekers would be better off with a real Tarot pack and an introductory book.

A rather disappointing implementation of the Tarot - we can't really see a great future for this product.

- £19.95 (inc VAT)

- GSP: 01480 496575, www.gspltd.co.uk

Mystic Meg Tarot

Overall: *

Minimum requirements: Windows 95, 486 processor, 8Mb of RAM, 12Mb of hard disk space, 16-bit colour display card, CD-ROM drive, sound card recommended.

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