Game manual Yesterday, Ruff Rodgers was a normal, happy-go-lucky eight year old, with a spring in his step and a penchant for shiny marbles. Today, he's transformed into a ruthless, sadistic killing machine. It was the Summer holidays, and Ruff scampered out of his house, and up the road to the park. He enjoyed it there because it had loads of different places to play, not like his Mum's garden with its clipped lawn and tidy flower beds. And anyway, he could show of his brilliant marble collection to the other kids there. This particular evening, though, there was nobody else in the park. As he walked through the gates sunlight dimmed, as though a storm was coming; and suddenly the sky was filled with black clouds. A strong wind picked up and whistled through the trees, creating... well, an interesting atmosphere, let's put it that way. For added effect, it also rustled up some dead leaves from the ground and showered them in all directions. This would have unnerved most people, but not Ruff. He'd seen all this kind of stuff before, mostly when he was daydreaming in a boring History lesson, and he was ready for any nasty things that might come for him from out of the woods. It was then he saw it; just a glimpse out of the corner of his eye. A bright light, shining into the trees from just across the other side of the path. He padded carefully towards it, holding his heavy bag of marbles tightly in both hands, ready to swing it into action should anything horrible appear. As he drew closer, he noticed that the source of the light, a tiny hole in the ground, was marked with an equally tiny sign, which read: WANT TO PLAY? An arrow pointed towards the hole. Ruff looked around, just to make sure that nobody was playing tricks with him (and so he didn't look stupid to any of his friends, of course), and then knelt down before the light. Reaching his hand into his bag, he pulled out a marble: a big, red shiny one; his favourite kind. Carefully he aimed towards the hole, and fired. Plop! The marble rolled down, out of sight. Almost immediately there was an unearthly roar from under Ruff's feet, and the ground began to shake violently. Still kneeling, he started to sink into the earth, and he tried - too late - to get to his feet. The ground collapsed, and he fell into a brilliant white light. Ruff landed, heavily, in a tree-lined cave. He rubbed his grazed knees and elbows, and looked up. Curiously, the hole he had just fallen through had disappeared. Even more strangely, his bag of marbles had gone; and a large gun lay nearby with a note attached to it. The note read: `Master Rodgers, I'm afraid i've had to confiscate your marbles, dear fellow. I'm incredibly evil, you see, and I need them to power my supreme machine which will help me take over the world! Ha ha ha!' A sudden clap of thunder made Ruff jump. Bloody theatrics, he thought, and then read on. `But because I'm a sporting kind of chap, I've decided to allow you a chance to get your marbles back. Grab the gun, climb into the teleporter, and you'll be taken to my secret netherworld. Of course, you've got no real hope: even if you get all the marbles, I'll just have to kill you. Yours evil-ly Doctor Destiny' "Oh yeah, you and whose army?" shouted Ruff, to nobody in particular. As though in answer the note continued: `PS. Er, my army, actually. I built them myself. I call them the Tinheads, and they're programmed to blow the pants off anybody who tries to come and take the marbles away. Especially you, of course, my dear boy. To rise to my evil challenge and face them, climb into my clever teleporter and prepare to meet your Destiny! Ta-ta.' Almost immediately he read the words there was a blinding flash, and when the smoke cleared, before him stood a bright metal box - a sort of steel phone booth. A door in the side opened, revealing another sign: IN HERE. He'd never heard of theso-called `Doctor Destiny' before, but already he was building up an intense dislike for the man. Anybody who calls himself such a jumped-up name must be a bit of a megalomaniac, he thought. And in all the movies, it's always the megalomaniacs who eat their words in the end. Confused, but annoyed that the rotten git had taken his prized marbles, Ruff scooped up the gun and ammo, swung them over his shoulder, and clambered into the teleporter. How tough can these Tinhead things be anyway?