Rise of Nations problem.
Thanks for reminding me about the 14 day returns policy. I have since spent some time with their 'genius bar' people at an Apple store some 40 miles from me. Basically this can be summarised as:
"The game ain't ever going to run properly on their Intel chips. Although it did run on older Mac Book Pro, this was a workround of some kind and it was sluggish" (I can vouch for this !).
They gave me a complete refund for the iMac, Parallels program and Elgato TV product which was very twitchy.
Before buying the iMac I had researched a fair bit over a two month time-frame. The RON game is 10 years old and developers have withered off the vine. Microsoft still have their name on the box but offer no support or help whatsoever. User communities had no useful suggestions etc etc. I spoke to numerous techies at Apple stores throughout England (Bristol, Manchester, Bath) - they were convinced Paralles would do it.
I now run the game on Windows 7 on my PC and have connected a 32" Samsung tv via a HDMI cable. Not quite the resolution of the iMac 27" but still very, very good.
Its a positive outcome as the Samsung tv cost me a tenth of the iMac bundle (£2200) and gives a much better tv performance (Elgato was ok but twitchy and would suddenly hang).
So thanks very much for pointing out the 14 day return period that Apple have - you did me a very big favour!