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The Valley is an attractive adventure game in which you have to successfully cross a landscape to enter a wooded or swamp area of your choice and penetrate a castle in search of a magic helm.

On the way, you may find hidden treasure, or be attacked by a legion of monsters. Fighting them and any injuries sap your strength, and although you usually win, the nasties keep on coming.

During play the lower part of the screen shows scores, strengths and a blow-by-blow text account of combat. The upper shows one of three displays, a map, the castle grounds or the castle interior, as each stage is reached.

The graphics are good, but the monsters are not visible - just everywhere.

The program loaded easily, but did not autorun, so the colourful well-labelled listing is easy to get at. An early invitation to position the tape and load was puzzling, but refers to the option to save your present score and have a breather.

A wide range of monsters and weapons, and randomly-generated layouts ensures a different game each time. You can choose grades of difficulty during the game, and the monsters get nastier nearer the target.

H.C.