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In last month's Crash I joked about writing a review live. That joke has now cracked up because I'm doing just that, sitting here typing out after my 'copy' date with May's Crash lying beside me. The reason behind this slipshod attitude is not the snooker on the telly (although this provides the best background entertainment I can think of) but a problem which fills acres of Lloyd 's letter pages that is, how do you get the infernal program to load when some dimwit needs his head examining? After trying many tape recorders I selected the one which seemed the nearest to a load, turned its realignment screw fully and pushed down on it hard with the screwdriver as only in this way would this program load (about once in every three attempts). Persons about to submit software to The Trail please note.

I thought it worth the effort because this game is well presented, with a very attractive redesigned ye olde character sette, neat little graphics slotted in above the text, and providing a vast area to run around in and explore. Also, who knows what software will turn up in the shops in the months ahead. Although not credited as such it is in fact a Quilled game. Surprisingly, though, not all the available memory is used up, something akin to arrogance for a game which makes use of a programming aid.

There are no easy problems to get you into this game, in fact there aren't that many problems per se, a fact which made itself plain after I had played for over three hours and visited some 40 locations. The only problems after all that time were two locked doors and a deadly mummy.

Any difficulties with these will not be eased with a useful HELP command far from it, the program does not seem to understand HELP. Further, EXAMINE always gives 'There is nothing of interest'. The only object on these travels which appeared to be of any use was a spade and digging with this proved impossible.

This summing up paragraph could have had some cheap joke directed at the title of this software, but that would not be in keeping with the tone of The Trail.

Difficulty: Very
Graphics: Small token graphics on most locations
Presentation: Good
Input facility: Verb/noun
Response: Very fast