This is an adventure game, and for the uninitiated an adventure game is one of a 'search' usually for treasure of some description hidden in caves, passages, jungles, Egyptian pyramids and the like. Just to make matters more complicated, there are usually a number of monsters and mysterious objects whose sole aim in life is to hinder or help you on your quest.

Abersoft's adventure, however, has no harmful monsters but makes you rely on your own intelligence to get around the passages and utilise the objects you find to help you win the treasure. In the first scene, you are looking at a water house and you can see a large set of keys, a shiny brass lamp, some tasty food and a bottle of water. You can instruct the computer by giving it simple one or two word instructions such as 'get keys' or 'take lamp'. Using these keywords, you can pick up a number of items that you might think will be of use to you at a later point in the game; you are allowed to 'hold' up to eight items.

To find out what you are holding at any stage in the game, you type 'inventory'; the computer's recognition of vocabulary is very good, and fast too due to the fact that the vast majority of the program is written in machine code. The computer only scans the first four letters of each keyword so 'inve is the same as 'inventory'.

To move about in the game, simple compass directions should be given such as 'N', 'E', 'S' and 'W'. Instructions such as 'enter' are obeyed such that if you are next to a building or the entrance to a passage, you will appear inside.

The adventure is based on a series of caves, canyon crawls and passages. There are countless rooms with a white mist lingering on the floor (similar to a Top of the Pops rehearsal, maybe?). Most passages, rooms, etc, are empty but some will contain useful objects and treasure. The treasure varies from extremely heavy golden nuggets to easily breakable Ming vases.

The Ming vase had me in some confusion for a few days (Don't get the idea that you'll manage to finsih this game in a week!). The problem with the vase is that the only way to put something down is to use the command 'drop' which is countered with the reply 'you hurled it delicately to the ground'. (You have to put some of the objects down again as for every item of treasure you return to the water house, you receive 10 points). So all I got the first few times I tried this was a smashed vase! Until I found the pillow, of course...

There are 21 items of treasure to find in the game in all, so don't expect an easy time. The adventure holds many secrets for the player to work out, one of which is the meaning of the secret messages on the walls in certain rooms. I managed to work out most of them, but I won't spoil your fun by telling you.

At one point in the game I came across a very strange room in which I was standing at a window looking down on a pit (complete with mist). Opposite me, I could see a man at another window waving back at me. It has been a puzzle to me ever since - what is the relevance of the eerie figure/ Perhaps he was, like me, another player driven to madness by this game.

I fear he might have been, as the game is non-graphical, and requires great enthusiasm to play for more than a few hours at a stretch. Pure text, with no colour or sound, is a clear waste of the ZX Spectrum's talent and would clearly wear the interest of the player. (There is also a ZX81 version of the game available for £8.95.)

Far too often in the game, I found myself going round and round in circles. However, there's no resting to cook the odd meal or read a book or two while you await some happening - the computer always has a quick answer for you. For instance, in the depth of frustration, I told the computer 'where to go' to watch it promptly told me 'Watch it. The wizard is watching you.'. I found its understanding on my use of 'non-Queen's English' quite amusing and fprompt me to appaud the author's sense of humour.

One of my main criticisms of the game is the actual quality of the cassettes themselves. One of the two copies I had for review had a header that was full of rubbish, so that the normally tolerant Spectrum rejected it. The whole program was littered with clicks and buzzes. However, I did manage to load the second copy, albeit with some difficulty.

Adventure 1 is priced at £9.95 and is available from Abersoft, 7 Maes Afallen, Bow Street, Dyfed SY24 5BA.