Egyptian adventure

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In order to protect their wondrous treasures from the unwelcome attentions of grave robbers, it was customary for the Pharaohs to put a curse on the entrance to their tomb. Convincing yourself that it's just a load of superstitious rubbish, you prepare to enter Tutankhamun's tomb. Will you return amillionaire? Will you return at all?

The treasures for which you search are cleverly disguised as golden keys and there can be up to four in any one room. You are allowed to wander relatively freely through the tomb and there's no need to collect every key in aroom before you move on to the next. In fact some rooms must be entered via two different doors if you are to collect all the treasure.

The instructions recommend that you map the tomb, as certain of the rooms operate a one way system on their exits: They will let you out, but you'll have to find a different way back in. The map is also useful when you want to return to the surface to deposit your treasure in the bank.

A total of five explorers are provided to help you complete your task. These are lost through contact with giant spiders that frequent most rooms, or by dropping them through a distance of greater than one brick. There is no time limit so you can sit and ponder ascreen for as long as you wish before making a move.

The danger of death via gravity can give rise to certain dilemmas: Several of the exits present themselves as pits and unfortunately some prove bottomless. As ageneral rule the narrower exits are the genuine ones - but don't hold me to that. The program comes with aRevenge Designer - three programs that can be used to create sprites and screens, and then put them all together as a complete game.

The screen utility allows the addition or removal of bricks, sprites, lifts, trapdoors, moving floors and treasure. Screens may be played or edited at any stage of development and this allows you to perfect adisplay before saving it to disc for inclusion in the finished game.

The character designer can be used to create new, or edit existing sprites. Characters are edited on a large grid and may contain up to four colours. The third program - the game designer - will load up to amaximum of 20 of your screens from disc in a pre-determined sequence.

As arcade adventures go, Tutankhamun's Revenge breaks no new ground. The graphics are only mediocre, with amateurish sprites patrolling around crude backdrops. Even the music is second rate - a laborious Egyptian dittie that is best turned off.

Carol Barrow