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Being the owner of an Atari with disc drive, I have tended to concentrate my Adventure playing on disc-based games. But the tape-based Adventures from Level 9 have been hitting the headlines recently, so I thought it time to try one myself.

In this Adventure, the player has to overthrow the demon king, who is tucked away far behind many elaborate defences. Using either cunning and skill, or brute force, you must find a way through these to reach the Dark Tower. This you must destroy, for it contains his source of power.

Once at the tower, gaining entry could be a big problem for, if you have missed one of the four keys on the way there, you may never get in. Once inside, staying alive long enough to kill the demon king will involve you in a dangerous game of hide and seek with demons and some very nasty guards. Being in the right place at the right time will eventually let good (you, the player) triumph over evil.

To say that this is a big Adventure would be an understatement, for there are over 200 locations and some of the most elaborate problems to overcome that I have ever encountered.

Adventure Quest more than lived up to my expectations for a tape game. The text descriptions were long and made both compelling and exciting reading - the like of which I had only before seen on disc Adventures. The response time was good and the vocabulary understood by the program left little to be desired.

Level 9 Adventures are supplied with an envelope and card entitling the player to one free clue. But Level 9 have now gone one better and supply very comprehensive hint sheets for all their Adventures free, if you send a stamped addressed envelope.

Although available for a wide range of micros (see below), Atari fans in particular should be overjoyed at the price - £9.90 compared with the usual £30 price tag on most Atari software.

Adventure Quest is from Level 9 Computing, priced £9.90, for the following micros: BBC 32k, Commodore 64, Spectrum 48k, Lynx 48k, Nascom 32k, Oric 48k and Atari 32k.