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The Electron acts as your eyes and ears in this all-text adventure game where you wander a fantasy world trying to rescue a princess from magic caverns. You have a compass, but it is fairly unreliable, often making it impossible to retrace your steps. You're well advised to make a map as you go along.

The keyboard entry uses the standard verb/noun system such as TAKE AXE or GO WEST. The vocabulary available is fairly large though the game leaves you to discover this for yourself, only telling you the most basic commands.

One annoying feature is that the Electron can get bored if you take your time - and it tells you so! This is usually when you're completely lost and it doesn't help. The game can be listed, but this provides no answers, which annoys me as I still can't get past the fierce rat and you can't kill him yourself. As the cassette insert tells you, your recollection of stories from the Arabian Nights should stand you in good stead.

As you might expect, there are various treasures and objects in the adventure, including a bottle of potent wine. You can drink the wine but hang on to the bottle.

All in all, the game is well written and the answers may take some time to work out, but the clues are all there. It's the type of program that has people looking over your shoulder giving "helpful" hints and ideas to try.

Although perhaps a little simple for the experienced adventurer, for the beginner it is an extremely good game.

Neil Graham