This is the grandfather of the modern computer adventure, the first ever adventure game, written on a DEC mainframe computer by Crowther and Woods, two Americans in the mid-1970s. As home computers became cheaper and cheaper and the amount of memory they had spare grew and grew, home computerised adventure gaming became a possibility. This adventure has been converted to almost every popular home. computer and it is a sign of its great quality that it is still as entertaining today as it was back in the late 70s.

Colossal Adventure is a very tough adventure to solve. Set in a hybrid world of fantasy mixed with modern day devices, you must find all the treasure littered around the mass of locations, collect it and manage to get it back to the building, The text to this adventure is so atmospheric and filled with clues, riddles and red herrings. The solutions to the many puzzles that confront you require lateral thinking; this is not an adventure you are going to finish in a couple of evenings.

Level 9, known for its excellent adventures for a host of other home micros, is the company behind this conversion and it has given the user an additional bonus. While they have stuck pretty faithfully to the original's storyline and puzzles including pretty faithfully to the original's storyline and puzzles including the annoying omission of the word LIST as a command, they have added an extra end-game once you have collected all the treasures. This additional part of the adventure covers a staggering further 70 locations and is in the same style as the original. Without doubt, this is a must if you have never played the game before. A superb version of the adventure classic.

C.G.