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It's an adventure folks, with you cast as the Warrior-Mage of Castle Argent, summoned by the Wizards to destroy Mainor the Screaming Shadow - come back mother in law, all is forgiven! No but seriously...

This medieval fantasy is fully created by reading the accompanying manual. The background to the story, the setting and much more are found here. Apparently, Malnor was previously defeated but must again be challenged by the reuniting of the gold and silver gauntlets, only one of which you hold. You must find the holder of the other, then journey to the Tower of Despair and fight it out.

The game, written with the Quill, fills both sides of the tape and sounds very complex. Unlike other adventures, however, you are given a map of the whole area of play. Quilled adventures are, of course, text only - but not this one! A finely designed character set is featured on the screen, but the illustrations are in the form of excellent line drawings in the manual. These merit very close attention as visual clues are to be found here. Not only that, but you actually get plans of the castle in which you start.

Ironically, although all this information is provided, there's still a very tight lipped attitude to the commands and features of the program, so there's still plenty to find out. You do get a chance to get started before dying tool Different and challenging, though not perhaps an adventure for first timers.

D.M.