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FAIRY TALES AND FACTORIES IN GLASGOW

LIFE in a Glaswegian warehouse is evidently dangerous to judge from Bewarehouse. Glasgow-based Positive Image has created a game in which death goes hand in hand with the boredom of manual labour.

You must climb up through the various floors of the warehouse, avoiding barrels which roll along the floor. At later levels the warehouse acquires a few ghosts which chase you with murderous intent.

Unfortunately the game is a lame version of Donkey Kong with no gorilla, no maiden to rescue, no variety in the levels and very little in the way of addictive excitement. The cassette insert describes programmer Tom Canavan as one of Scotland's finest. I shudder to think what the others are like.

Frog Face, a text adventure from the same company, is rather more attractive. The program credits the Quill adventure system, but includes a number of attractive pictures of locations.

You have had your face turned into a frog by the evil Meegan, and must find a magic potion to restore your natural beauty. The game setting is clearly based on the land of fairytales, with whispering flowers, lucky silver spoons, royal castles and the like, although there are darker and more deadly creatures as well.

The only real fault is that it is very easy to be killed in a somewhat arbitrary fashion early on. Death traps are by no means a bad thing in adventures, but there should not be too many of them.

That said, Frog Face is a pleasant romp, and since there is an option to play as a man or a woman, may have a wider appeal than the more macho monster-bashing adventures.

Chris Bourne

Memory: 48K Price: £5.95