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"That's the forest. The natives live in the forest," said Steve, pointing at the pencil sketch map in front of us.

"No they don't," said Dan. Dan Malone is the game's designer so he gets to win that argument. It turns out that the forest is full of "nasties" and all the natives live outside the forest, but it's in the forest that the hero, Tal, begins his quest for the Sacred Armour of Antiriad in the next game from Palace Software, due for release in late September/October.

Like many of the people working at Palace, Dan is an artist rather than a programmer and he concentrates on designing games - ideas and graphics - rather than the nuts and bolts of writing the computer program. He first got the idea for Antiriad in February this year, and then worked on the game design for a few months before starting work with the programmers who would help to put together the completed game. Antiriad is set in the distant future, after a nuclear war has wiped out our civilisation and a new race - hardy but primitive - has taken over. They live in peace until a race of aliens invade the Earth and enslave the natives, using them as slave labour to mine the Earth's core.

The aliens install themselves in the heart of an ancient volcano, taking over the remnants of an old pre-war city built at the foot of the volcano and surrounded by the forest that you've already heard about. And right at the centre of the volcano is the aliens' generator, heavily defended and highly radioactive, which is the source of their power and without it they are vulnerable.

In secrecy, a small group of free humans have been rearing their children as warriors, and one day their champion, Tal, is chosen to penetrate the alien complex and destroy the power centre. Not an easy task for an unarmed barbarian, but the legends of Tal's people tell of the sacred armour and its magic powers which could enable Tal to complete his task. The armour, an AntiRadiation combat suit left over from before the nuclear war, is hidden in the forest along with a number of other items that are needed to power and equip it.

Your task is to take the part of Tal and to venture into the forest to seek out the armour and then reach the aliens' power centre. But there are many dangers lying in wait for you. The forest is inhabited by many deadly creatures, including mutated wildlife and humans who have collaborated with the aliens, having weapons grafted onto their bodies. Then there are the alien droids: Hunter droids that can home in on you and follow you all over the city, and Alarm droids which send out signals informing all the other droids and aliens of your position.

The city is also defended by these droids, not to mention the acid rain that falls from above and the traps that I'm not going to tell you about. And the closer you get to the power centre, the higher and deadlier the radiation level becomes, resulting in fried Tal if you're not careful and quick. The generator itself is heavily defended, and getting through the last rooms, is a task in itself. "We wanted to make it as spectacular as possible," Dan told me. The Spectrum version of Antiriad was still about a month from completion when I saw it, but what was there looked pretty good. In fact, just for once, the Spectrum's graphics look like they can match the opposition. I also saw the Commodore version of the game and it actually looked a bit less colourful.

"It's swings and roundabouts," said Steve Brown, another of Palace's artist/designers. "You get more detail on the Spectrum, but less colour."

With so many artists working there, Palace seem to specialise in graphically stylish games and judging by what I've seen so far Antiriad looks set to continue that trend. What's more, Palace have even brought their graphic flair to the boring business of wading through cassette inlays. All the plot details that I outlined before are explained in a small comic book that Dan has written and drawn, and which will be included in the finished package.

It's an original idea and the comic is very professionally produced, and if it's any indication of the quality of the finished game then keep a look out for Antiriad in the shops in about a month's time.