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This is an extremely annoying game. It's a real curate's egg, good in parts, rotten in others.

It says "Press F7 to start", but selecting skill level plunges you straight into the first stage. Pressing F7 has no effect. I have to admit that the graphics are fantastic!

Sixteen sprites are used to animate the Black Knight (it says on the cassette insert) giving amazing results as he pursues his mission. He starts by galloping along, jumping crevasses and pot-holes, but due to lack of operational instructions it took me three goes to discover that it's joystick down (not up or fire) to jump. Then there's timing of the jump, sometimes you appear to land OK but crash, at other times hooves safely pound fresh air.

Mastering that, the Knight dismounts and tries to leap a crevass on foot. Again joystick control is guessowrk. Then there are snakes, mazes, the trapdoor-ridden castle and finally the goblin himself to deal with.

The annoying part is that with such brilliant graphics it could be a winner, but there are hoards of irritating details putting you off. Try again, Interdisc.

B.J.