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First, there was the purely text adventure game. Next were text/graphic, and pure graphics adventure games. Examples of all have passed through my Spectrum, ranging from absolutely gripping, to pathetically boring.

This adventure, a text-graphics mixture, is somewhere in the middle. The graphics display the rooms, and contents, through which you are travelling. At top right is an indicator which shows direction of travel, and swigs like a compass needle according to which cursor key you have pressed. Also displayed are objects collected, and current room number, a great help if you make maps. Among the indicators is one showing the proximity of the damsel you are trying to rescue.

Although you, the player, are not portrayed, you do get the feeling of actually moving through the game. This is what it's all about, this sense of involvement, and I found the screen part excellent. The let-down is the actual text. Not the plot, or theme, but the dialogue. Which is a pity. Closer attention to the finer details of dialogue and careful program structure, to achieve faster responses, would lift this program from the ordinary to the gripping.

B.B.