"You will find detailed instructions enclosed. Do not read them. Instead, sit down and get started. Don't ask how. Just start. You know how these things work... Resist them. Do not read them for a very long time. In fact, do not read them until you know how the game works... Then never read the instructions. Innocence is bliss."


That advice is the very first paragraph of the jacket notes to David S. Maynard's Worms?. Now, I've never met Mr. Maynard, but after playing Worms? for about 20 hours, I can tell you that he has probably the most original, refreshing and seriously weird imagination of any video game designer today.


What do I mean by "seriously weird"? Well, basically, this is a game right out of Steppenwolf's "Magic Theatre - Not for Everyone". There are no ramps to climb, no Invaders to fry, no Gorfs or Defenders or death-dealing wizards here. But if you're tired of all those game clichés and want something that really uses the potential of your computer; if you're a fanatic for the turf-stealing subtleties of go; if geometry was your favorite subject at school because you liked the pictures; or if your single most favorite magazine column was Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" in Scientific American - then, my friend, prepare yourself for a diet of Worms?.


The basic Worms? variation puts you and up to three friends in command of worms that lay trails from dot to dot in a big hexagonal grid. Each dot is the center of a territory that can be captured (score: one point for each territory) by the worm that lays the very last (sixth) trail in that territory. Each worm has to be trained at the outset on where to go in different situations - say, whether it's the the first or fifth worm to lay a trail into a particular territory. Once trained, they recognize patterns and go on autopilot, merrily laying trails until they come to another situation they haven't been trained for, at which point they stop and await your command.


The fact that you can rip off some other worm's territory just by being the last one to lay a trail in it gives Worms? all the strategic fascination of ancient classic games like go and chess. Combine that with the beautiful colors of the worm trails, and the fact that all the sound effects are keyed by particular movements of each worm and you've got an aesthetic extravaganza of a game. All four worms going at it hammer and tongs sounds like a shimmering electronic fugue, and the colors of trails and territories seem to constantly run through the spectrum as the advantage shifts from player to player. You can also save particularly crafty worms to disk for later use, play against any number of smart or stupid computer-controlled worms or combine your instructions to the worm with the computer's ideas for an odd mixture of hard logic and human inspiration.


As I said, not for everybody (that's why it's getting only three joysticks). But if you want challenge - and are dying to find a little originality among the humdrum pre-fab games being put out today - Worms? is your meat.


Save your first worms on disk and start experimenting with variations on your most successful tactics.