Hodj 'n' Podj

Hodj N' Podj is a series of mini-games that can either be played against the computer or against another player.

The game is designed as a computerised board game in which two princes, Hodj and Podj, travel around the country of Po-Poree solving puzzles in an attempt to rescue two princesses Mish and Mosh. There are three game modes, the board game, the individual mini games, or the 'Grand Tour'.

Board game mode: The player always controls Hodj, while Podj can be controlled either by the second player or by the computer. In this mode the objective is to locate the kidnapped princesses and get them back to their castle. A game spinner determines how many squares/furlongs the player can move around the board, there are also boats, skycars and shortcuts which speed up travel between distant points.

To win, the game players must collect a specific number of objects and pieces of information, Appendix A of the manual explains which game is in which location and whether the reward is crowns, information or an item. The number to be collected depends upon the type of game the player(s) are playing; short: around thirty minutes; medium: around an hour; or long: up to two hours. The required objects are not necessarily earned directly, some objects needed will have to be bought usually by selling unwanted items in the pawn shop and using the cash in one of the two in-game stores.

When one player knows where the princesses have been taken and has the appropriate quantities of goods and information they go to the ladies locations and then head for the castle. Along the way the other player can intercept and issue a challenge, win or lose further challenges can be issued by either player until one enters the castle with Mish and Mosh top win the game.

This game mode has three difficulty settings and when playing a two player game the difficulty can be set separately for each player.

Mini Game mode: There nineteen games in all and all can be played separately from the board game if desired and when played in this way the player has access to configuration options that are not available in Board game mode. All games have rules which are both displayed on-screen and read aloud in a very British accent.

The mini games are:

• Archeroids: a sideways version of a Space Invader game
• Art Parts: a jigsaw puzzle game
• Barbershop Quintet: A solitaire game played with an unusual deck of cards
• Battlefish, inspired by Battleship
• Beacon: a colour based puzzle
• Cryptograms: literally decrypt the code on the crypt
• Dam Furry Animals: a whac-a-mole game
• Fuge: a circular breakout game
• Garfunkel: a game similar to Simon
• Th Gesng Gam: a bit like Jeopardy, guess the word/phrase before time runs out
• Life: this version is based on villages and economy instead of cells
• Mancala: the African strategy game
• Maze o' Doom: find your way out of a maze
• No vacancy: a dice game
• Pack Rat: inspired by Pac-Man
• Peggleboz: a peg solitaire game
• Poker: a video poker game
• Riddles: a timed puzzle where the player must solve the riddle and type in the answer
• Word Search: a timed puzzle where all the words relate to a specific theme

Grand Tour Mode: in this mode, the player plays eighteen of the nineteen games, poker is the one that's not available, in alphabetic, geographic or random order. As with the Board game the player undertakes the grand Tour in any of the three difficulty settings and if two players are taking the 'Tour they can do so using separate difficulty levels..