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This is certainly the era of compilations. By their very nature such releases tend to be gambles, and when I saw this one from Adventure International, which includes four Scott Adams text adventures, I was a bit sceptical.

Why, on a four adventure compilation, was there the need to include two of Scott's most mediocre offerings, Voodoo Castle and Pirate Adventure? Voodoo Castle is a good mystical taster for absolute beginners but that is as far as I would go in recommending it.

Strange Odyssey and the previously unreleased Buckaroo Banzai whetted the appetite, but if the object of the exercise had been to release a cross-section of the best of Scott Adams, wouldn't U.S. Gold have been more judicious in including a classic such as Golden Voyage instead of the minute Pirate Adventure?

Having played all of Scott Adams' adventures when they were first released, I was anxious to experience Buckaroo Banzai. The sales hype states, "Only by unravelling the many puzzles set by Scott Adams do you stand any chance of completing this futuristic adventure set in the world of pop groups and science fiction." I wish I had been given the chance!

The copy I was sent - like many others - was riddled with garbled messages and annoying bugs. The little of the game I was able to play did not convince me of its merits.

It is not, as Adventuresoft accredit, an adventure of moderate difficulty but rather, totally confusing. I understand that unbugged copies are now in circulation - a little late for many, I am afraid.

Strange Odyssey is a superb science fiction jaunt which will involve much head scratching if you are to succeed in your quest on an alien planet. Its parser and text compression are rather limited by today's standards, but this adventure is more than four years old.

Pirate Adventure has nothing, in my opinion, to recommend it. It is supposedly an escapade involving the discovery of fabulous treasure on a strange island. It is, in fact, nothing more than a collection of short brain teasers with only two treasures and 20 odd locations, doing little to tax the old grey stuff.

This is a Pandora's box of a compilation which would be a bargain investment for the beginner to text adventuring, but will hold little of any substance for the more experienced traveller.

Pendragon