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This is the first in a series of 'Artemis quests' from SCR Adventures. It is a text-only, machine code program giving extremely fast response times. Essentially it is a medieval fantasy, similar in theme to Knight's Quest. The object is to enter the castle and recover the power orb, located in the vast (no understatement) underground caves.

Maximum (240) points are awarded for collecting all the treasures, completing certain special tasks (by overcoming puzzles) and returning the orb to the Goddess. All the usual commands are understood from a comprehensive vocabulary of some 200 words (it uses approx 40K of memory). If you get frustrated at any point, don't be tempted to swear, as this will cost you one object! There are many nice, humorous touches along the way, as well as a few red-herrings.

The game is not in real-time, so you can sit back and thing your way out of each situation. It isn't interactive either, so you can't go round talking to the few characters you occasionally meet. Single and four-letter strings are used. For example: I = inventory, L = look, SCOR = points so far, N, S, SW, NE, U, D, etc. Plus some new and interesting commands: 'GOES' for number of turns taken, 'VERBOSE' for full descriptions, and 'QUIET' for shorter text on each location. (Although I couldn't see that 'quiet' had any noticeable effect!) This feature is not usually seen on anything smaller than a disc-based program.

The description themselves are very long (they may even fill an entire screen) and certainly create the atmosphere appropriate to the game's period. Sadly there is no provision for a 'HELP' feature for those of us who get stuck easily. Thankfully 'QUIT', 'SAVE' and 'LOAD' are all supported. One feature I do like is that there are a number of possible ways around some of the problems. This means that you don't suddenly come to an impasse (akin to hitting a brick wall), as often happens in some other adventures.

One awkward point is that not all the available directions are displayed on the screen - you have to guess - and it's easy to forget to try allof the possible ways. There are *many* locations, so good mapping is essential (especially as there are numerous levels: castle; upper and lower levels, two towers, tunnels and caverns, plus the huge cave system). Fortunately these are very accessible, so without having to solve too many problems you can easily get to see over 90 locations. This is very useful for the novice. However, the puzzles are challenging enough to keep the hardened adventurer busy for quite some time (due to the fact that they were written by fellow adventure-player).

Hidden in the game are a number of death-traps. Dark plaes are to be avoided for fear of very nasty Deodans, who appear to enjoy decapitating unwary players! Getting killed isn't necessarily the end of the game; you merely drop all objects at that location, lose some points, and very handily get reincarnated back at the start. Hint: Beware of the forest, without the objects needed to map it, and remember the lamps and oil can run out.

The program also contains some oblique references to various literary sources. For example: a pentagram and an Angel of Death from 'The Devil Rides Out, a sword in a stone from the 'Arthur' legends, and runes about Smaug on a Mithril knife from a certain well-known book! The manual is well-written, but doesn't give anything away. SCR can be contacted if you really get stuck; and if you're brilliant the first 50 to complete the quest get free 'Castle Blackstar' T-shirts. Overall, an excellent adventure especially for the beginner. The next one in this series, Pyramid Of The Sun, is due out later this year. If it's as good as this one, it should certainly be worth playing.