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With three worthy predecessors sharing its name, Beyond Zork should be a roaring success. But it is an entirely different game from any one of those famous three, written not by Lebling and Blank, but by Brian Moriarty, who brought us Wishbriner and Trinity.

Beyond Zork combines many of the features of role-playing type adventures, with the orthodox text adventure in a way that eliminates many of the features of the former that I find tedious. A role-playing game tends to consist of a series of rather drab dungeon-like locations inhabited by fierce monsters, and much of the game revolves around doing battle with them, rather than solving problems heightened by descriptive text.

In Beyond Zork, before play can commence, a character must be set up, choosing from a list of such attributes, and only time will tell whether there is a 'correct' balance of these for success. Meanwhile, I will put up with them, for what follows is, to my mind, a whole lot more interesting than a mere role-playing game. Charged with recovering the fabled Coconut of Quendor, you set out empty-handed, save for a sole zorkmid.

You may journey to nearby Miznia, take a ride on a skyway gondola and witness at first hand the incredibly dangerous jungle. Perhaps a visit to the Magick Shoppe would not be out of place, for the little old woman who runs it, has a wealth of information about all things magick. Strange, I could swear I've seen her before, somewhere...

On the other hand, you might take a trip in the other direction, to the famous resort of Accardi-by-sea. There is another specialist shop here, where another knowledgeable little old lady will impart advice on all sorts of deadly weaponry.

Down at the Rusty Lantern, not a mile from where a sailor sits painting a picture of bygone days, there be bandits. Something very strange is being plotted around the blazing fire, and the locals are not at all keen on your presence. One false move, and you could find a dagger towards you.

And there be monsters. Apart from the inevitable grues, you will find rat-ants, crocodiles, a monkey-grider, and a host of other nasties, including the incredibly resistant cruel puppet, who can annoy you to death with a mere twist of his body. When you come up against a monster, you are drawn into battle with it, by first wielding a weapon, and then attacking with it.

Beyond Zork is not only a different kind of adventure, it has a very different screen layout. A window at the top normally carries the text description of the current location, and to the right of this is a block map, showing locations in the vicinity that have already been visited, and all obvious exits.

How addictive is the game to play? I found it to be one of those rare games that I just kept on and on playing, completely ignoring the deadline for this review until the eleventh hour! After a few 'dodgy' titles from Infocom recently, it is nice to see them back on course, with what is bound to be among their top-selling titles. Or will it? Being written in Interactive Fiction Plus, it requires a machine with at least 128K of memory - tough luck, C64 owners!