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Unlike the author of this game, Gary Marsh (no relation!) I am not a fan of The Beatles, being more at home with the likes of Iron Maiden. Therefore, when I read the instructions which said "...bear in mind that Beatle Quest is based on Beatles' lyrics and wherever possible the storylines have been followed..." I had a feeling that I would have problems getting to grips with the game...

The accompanying booklet sets the scene for your journey into Beatle Quest. The year is 2953 and everything is sedate and peaceful. It is also very boring. You are "keeper of the archives" - the whole history of the earth. In your work you stumble across the four kings of Emi, The Beatles. Mesmerised by the lyrics found in the ballads, you take all known information about the "Four Kings" to the pleasure dome, where feeding the information into the data banks creates a world inside your mind.

Very far fetched - those purple power-pills must have affected Mr. Marsh's sense of reality.

The game starts in a bedsit circa 1969. On exploring, you find a test tube, a book and, inside a telephone, an innocent-looking sugar lump. Upon eating the sugar, the game responds "Wow... psychedelic man."

The most distasteful part of The Beatles' era was the drug-taking and, with the current nationwide problem with drug addiction, I find this abhorrent. It is a very sick way of introducing humour into the game.

Once outside the bedsit, you find yourself on a street leading east to west. You feel sure you are being followed and a few moves later you are dead. "Bang bang. Maxwell's silver hammer comes down on your head. Bang bang. Maxwell's silver hammer comes down on your head."

It seemed impossible to escape this fate (although no doubt it wasn't) so that is where I decided to leave this dreadful game.

Don't expect any music in this game for it is completely silent. Maybe this is due to copyright issues, or because it is written with The Quill - either way, it is incredible that a game with The Beatles as its subject should have no music, especially on a computer like the Commodore 64!