CONNECTIONS

CONNECTIONS (Discovery Channel, CD-ROM for PC and Mac, $49.95) James Burke, creator of the noted TV series about how unrelated inventions led to major technological breakthroughs, has built a franchise (including a magazine column and a book) from one great idea. A game based on this notion could have been uniquely interesting, but this is just another Myst with a twist: Exploring a lush graphics environment, you solve puzzles that only occasionally concern technology. Unlike the show, where the thermos bottle leads purposefully to the Saturn 5 booster and on to the moon, a chain of inventions in the game meanders pointlessly from the steam engine to the pencil -- ultimately leading players to nowhere but the next level. C