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Drunk or sober, Pub Quest is both difficult and amusing.

You have wandered into your local and become totally inebriated, only to find you have no money to pay for your massive consumption. You must stumble off to find the money to pay the worthy landlord. But the money is hidden somewhere in the local sewer system. Perhaps your wallet fell out of your pocket and into the drain in your mad rush to get to the pub? Many other hazards litter your way to the money.

There are extra options, the function keys are assigned commands for the game, and single keystroke entry is possible for the more common commands. You can redefine the function keys for other commands.

Before starting you must set a time limit of one, two or three hours. There is a 'time' command to see how long the game has to run. Also, a freeze command suspends the adventure. The game starts outside the pub, and the first phase deals with finding helpful articles (key, torch, etc). Next, you must find the way into the sewers and to the money.

Cultivate an enquiring mind as this attitude may save you losing the game.

The commands are given in the usual form: GO NORTH, INVENTORY, TAKE KEY and CORE are just a few examples. There is also the HELP command which is unfortunately only sometimes of assistance. You'll enjoy the game dialogue. It's extremely witty and only a little repetitive.

One feature should not go unmentioned. If you fumble the commands repeatedly, the game asks whether you are stuck or just being silly. Should you reply you are stuck, information is given. Should you admit to being silly, the 64 resets itself but press any other key and the game continues with a 'that fooled you' message. Tampering with the game produces a cryptic response and disables the 64; these two features are done well and add to the game.

For a text-based game, Pub Quest is well above average. It makes reasonable use of the Commodore 64 and the response time is good. For its price it is certainly worth adding to the collection and will provide a good deal of entertainment.