In Business This Week: HEADLINER: PHANTASMAGORIA

YOU CALL THIS GROWING UP?

In the shadows of a huge mansion, a demon has entered Don's body. Don, understandably upset, plots to kill his wife, Adrienne. She plots to avoid being killed. Murder, rape, and blood ensue. There is no happy ending.

You now know all you need to about Phantasmagoria, a live-action CD-ROM game from Sierra On-Line. The $69.95 exercise in horror appeared on Aug. 24 and is selling briskly at Egghead Software and Computer City outlets. But not at CompUSA. The No.1 computer retailer, apparently expecting outrage, won't stock it. "Software comes out all the time. Some we buy; some we don't," the company said in a statement.

Not all software is so gory, though, or so...real. Sierra's technology puts actors in a 3-D world, creating some formidable special effects. "It's time to let computer games grow up and enter the adult world," says Roberta Williams, Sierra On-Line's co-founder. Phantasmagoria's mature rating is displayed on the box, and a password option lets parents limit what their kids see. But odds are the kids will figure it out anyway.EDITED BY KEITH H. HAMMONDS By Seanna Browder