Split Personalities is a sliding puzzle game featuring topical people from the 1980s (Margaret Thatcher, Neil Kinnock, Charles and Diana, Reagan, Breshnev, and so on). The game was first released in 1986 by Domark and was a critical success, but not a commercial one.

Before I talk about the game itself I want to mention that Split Personalities does feature a level with ‘king nonce’ Andrew Windsor and his then wife, Sarah Ferguson, and Playboy bunny logos. The final image is a shocking one to see – especially when you look at how he’s been drawn (with his eyes obviously bulging out at her boobs). It’s almost as if the developers knew something… Which I don’t think they did; they just wanted to portray him as a playboy… Anyway, moving on…

You move various tiles around using a colourful cursor and must keep your eye out for harmful objects that are thrown into play to distrupt you. The box in the top left-hand corner of play dispenses tiles along the top row, and you can either throw them downward into the play area, or out of play using the opening and closing panels. The aim of the game is to put all the tiles in the correct places so that a completed final image is shown.

You can push related pairs of items together for bonuses (for example: pushing the gun into the bullet), and also use items as ‘props’ (to hold other pieces in place to better position them), but if they become too numerous then the board becomes too cramped. You can throw unwanted items and tiles out of play using the open doors, which gives room to bring more pieces into play. Hopefully the pieces you want.

The game has ten different levels, which increase in difficulty as you progress. Most of the people in the game are shown on the loading screen, although level ten is a strange one. The final image looks like Marilyn Monroe, but it must surely be Madonna (since Monroe was not really a topical person in the 1980s). Who do you think it is? Answers on a postcard to our comment section…

As a sliding puzzle game, Split Personalities is different, playable and interesting. As a video game in general: it does have limited appeal. If you like sliding puzzle games, then Split Personalities is definitely worth a play now.

More: Split Personalities on World of Spectrum