The year is 2003. But time on a small island off Alaska has gone back 100 years.

A doctor and a team of researchers working on a project to investigate time travel suddenly find themselves back in the year 1903.

This is the backdrop to a new computer game masterminded by a team of final-year media-technology students at Bradford University.

Players take the role of agents sent to solve the problem, working their way around the island, collecting clues to try to shift time back to the present day.

Project producer Mark Bryant, 21, who came up with the idea for GhosTown, said: "It's a great game, a bit like the Crystal Maze."

The team has drafted in top voice-over man Marc Silk, the voice of cartoon character Johnny Bravo, to add the vocals.

Marc also provided the voices of two baddies in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and is the UK voice of Scooby Doo. He also did the voice-over for Cadbury's sponsorship of Coronation Street.

"It's an exciting project and I'm sure Mark and his friends will go far," said Marc, 27. "I've worked on big-budget films, like Star Wars with George Lucas, as well as adverts and local radio voice-overs, and I've done a number of games for PlayStation.

"I'm looking forward to working with these guys. I hear it's quite an exciting story."

Mark and his colleagues filmed at Beamish, the north of England open-air museum, using virtual-reality technology, which allows users to explore locations as if they were actually there. Actors from the university's Theatre in the Mill also feature in the video sequences.

David Eccles, 21, was responsible for animation, Marc Atkins, 25, was the Macromedia director and Steven Bancroft, 25, was responsible for co-ordinating the project. "We're eager to hear what people think," added Mark. "We're planning to send it off to games manufacturers to see if they want to buy the idea from us and develop it."

Sue Coffey, publicity officer at the university, said: "It's most impressive. Who knows, maybe they'll be snapped up by a games company."

Anyone interested in trying out GhosTown should contact the website tester@ghostown.co.uk or write to Mark Bryant, MTP GhosTown Project, Dept of EIMC, University of Bradford.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.