If you think you have trouble with bugs in your PC, and with games that don't work terribly well, then take a look into the not-too-distant future...

Alarmingly early one morning Game Kid was woken by the harsh and jarring blare of his apartment's buzzer. Feeling slightly sick and panicky he threw back the greasy weight of his duvet and, head spinning, picked his way through the wreckage of two weeks’ worth of take-aways and other assorted debris, and stumbled to the door.

"Hello?"

"Delivery for you," a voice crackled over the intercom.

"Oh. Ah... you'd better come up".

Five minutes later he was standing staring thoughtfully at a large cardboard box. Taped onto the box was a letter. After a few moments he ripped off the envelope, tore it open and, brushing some litter off the sofa, sat down and began to read.

Game Kid,
Having seen the other day the tip that you live in that you call a home I've taken it upon myself to buy you a little present which should help with the housework. His name is Cedric.
Love Mumsy

Moments later, the floor of his living room strewn with torn cardboard and bits of polystyrene, he was standing in front of a object that looked like a dull black pepper pot about a meter in height. He sat on his haunches looking at it for a moment and then jumped back startled as the thing suddenly began to move.

Two stalks with black sucker-like like feet emerged from the bottom of the cylinder, lifting it off the ground, and from its sides there came snaking four pairs of arms ending in snapping pincers which probed the air about it. He watched it, mesmerised for a little while, and then suddenly he jumped back again as the top of cylinder began to revolve until he was faced with two faint glowing blue lights. The two regarded each other in silence for a little while, and then the little black creature spoke, after searching the trashed living room with its beady blue orbs.

"Me Cedric. Cedric clean home".

Game Kid smiled, delighted. "That's right. Credric clean home".

Over the next few days the two of them got on famously. Game Kid would go out to work and when he got back Cedric would be still be cleaning the flat. In fact, Cedric did nothing but clean the flat. Day and night his arms would be a whirl as he stalked about the place, dish cloth or duster in pincer. He would even clean away the cobwebs by hanging from the ceilings by his suckered feet. Soon not one encrusted drop of cooking fat or a single dodgy stain could be found about the house, and Game Kid slept soundly at nights between dry and sweet-smelling sheets.