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Near naked and clad only in a dirty ragged sack, you cry through your parched lips as you are thrown into your prison cell by the king - for stealing water.

The cell reeks of death and decay and you scan the windowless granite walls in vain for some way of escape. For escape you must, not only from the prison, but the island on which it is situated. And to do this, you must not only be able to disguise yourself, but find enough treasure to pay for your passage.

A pretty powerful scenario and the game matches up to it. This is a text machine code adventure for the BBC, and the great decree-er that text only adventures are a non-runner these days should think again. I don't want mediocre illustrations - here I can imagine myself sneaking out into the freezing corridor and shivering through lack of clothes! I can see the evil guards in my mind's eye, even if I can't get the better of them... yet!

The problems are hard right from the start, but the sheer desperation of my plight soon got me wild enough to try anything - and something turned up! A nice feature of the game is that when the program does not recognise either word of your two-word command, it tells you about both! For example, if you type UNLOCK WINDOW, the reply you get is "I don't understand how to unlock or what window means'. I've never seen that before!

My sole criticism is that, if you Quit, you don't get the chance to resume play. But it is so easy to get yourself killed, and thereby get the option to restart, that it's a problem easily overcome!