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Espionage Island is a large adventure game with over 50 locations to be discovered, and twelve or so objects to collect on the way, to be used for various purposes. It features a SAVE routine so that you can stop the game where and when you like, come back to it another time and carry on where you left off.

The basic plot is to leave your stricken aircraft (safely, and in one piece of course) explore an island, get into a military installation, collect its secret, escape, and return to your aircraft carrier. As there are a large number of locations, it really is essential that you draw a map as you go along. To move from one location to another you must type the direction required into the computer: it is not necessary to type out 'north', 'south', 'up', etc in as complete words - 'n', 's', 'u' will do just as well.

Anything that you come across on the way, collect. The computer understands simple commands, usually a verb and noun, like 'get torch', the reply being 'OK'. If the object is something to wear, then you must first 'get whatever' and then 'wear whatever'. To get you started, this is what you must do with a parachute in the plane at the beginning. If you do not then the reply will be '...pulling you out with a rush of air. You land, making a large red mess. You are dead. Do you wish to try again?' and back to the beginning you go. As you get further into the game, this can be extremely annoying, so it is a good idea to SAVE the game every so often, so you only have to go back so far. This is done by typing 'quit', and when asked if you wish to SAVE the game, say 'y' (it is not necessary to say 'yes') and use a blank cassette. However, if you say 'n' to the request, then the computer is wiped clear, and you have to reload the entire game. A request for 'help' (and you do have to spell this word out) more often than not tells you to 'try drawing a map' but occasionally will give you something useful - for instance 'help' will tell you 'no smoking'. One thing that is not clearly explained is that if you type in 'r' it will give a recap of your location description, which can be very useful if you have typed in all sorts, got nowhere and the original description has scrolled off the screen.

One location that had me confused was 'you are in a STICHED swamp, tell me what to do'. 'STICHED' is a misspelling of 'STITCHED' and if you think of a synonym for that, it will tell you which direction to go through the 'sinking swamp' to get out on the other side. If you do not get out, you will eventually 'sink up to your neck and drown. Do you wish to try again?'. Without giving anything away, there is a point where you have to join a rope to two objects. If you type 'tie rope' it will reply 'what to?' If you type in 'A and B', it will reply again 'what to?'. If you then retype it as 'to A and B', or even 'to A and to B' then the computer will accept this but only understand the first part of it (i.e. 'to A'). The correct way appears to be 'tie rope', 'what to?', 'to A', 'OK'; 'tie rope', 'what to?', 'to B'. This will give the right answer 'I can see a rope tied to A and to B'.

If you really get stuck with this game, then a request to Artic Computing will bring a Tip sheet to help. I expect they would appreciate an SAE.

Espionage Island kept me occupied for several evenings and Artic are to be congratulated on producing such an interesting game. I can't wait to get into the other three adventure games they produce. Espionage Island requires a 48K Spectrum and costs £6.95.