This book is fairly typical of the adventure handbooks around. There is a brief history of the 'pure text' adventure (nothing on graphics or sound). The history was a bit too brief for me, but may well be of interest to a newcomer.

Like most adventure books, considerable attention is given to the construction of adventures, in this instance with a small case study in Basic. You will not get much in the way of sophistication, speed or originality in the Underground Adventure the case study is based on. You might learn one or two fairly simple things about how adventures are constructed; but if you seriously want to write adventures you would be better using one of the adventure generators coming on the market.

There is the standard section of hints on well-known adventures. Here again, this book is rather weak. There is no mention of the later Acornsoft or Level 9 adventures, though Philosopher's Quest gets an honourable mention, and Colossal Cave is documented rather too thoroughly. As the original dventure, Colossal naturally deserves attention, but it is a shame to give away the secrets of some of the best puzzles.

Overall, this is not an exciting book. You are unlikely to think you are getting your money's worth, unless you are going to sit down and type in the case study adventure and read the appropriate section as you do so. Before you buy, take a close look at the competition.