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The blurb on the back of this package reads "Peter Killworth - the programmer - fell in love with adventures when he discovered Colossal Cave. His own first attempt at this new art form (Philosopher's Quest) sold 25,000 copies."

What the blurb doesn't say is that that was some time ago, and that since then much has changed in the adventure world. Indeed, all the same criticisms apply to this product as to Countdown To Doom (also reviewed in this issue) so I shan't repeat them here.

As for the game itself, however, it is fairly evident that Mr. Killworth's fascination with Colossal Cave had a decisive influence over his own game design. Philosopher's Quest is nothing other than a straightforward Cave derivative, with all the usual "Junctions of several horizontal passages", magic words to utter, strangely inaccessible rooms to penetrate, and treasure to amass.

Unfortunately, we've seen it all before, in a thousand different disguises of which one recent example (Treasure Tunnels) cost under £3.00. The only thing that sets this game apart from the others is (1) the fact that it is disk-only and (2) the fact that it costs £17.95.

Neither of these assets is likely to convince you or me to pay for it.