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I shall first set the scene:

"I am standing at the bottom of eight flights of stairs leading up and up around the tower. I can see the dungeon, in which the key lies, but without the seven rings I cannot enter. I must endeavour to find the rings, though I am safe out here - eternity is a long time to wait in the cold. So here goes, up two flights of stairs, in one go. Help! There s a 'thing' waiting for me just inside the entrance, a quick flash of lightning and he is left smouldering - close shave at that. In further and through the first door. A half-full bottle of elixir on the floor. I could do with a little sustenance after that frightening encounter. Now, on with the quest in hand. Through the next door, and there stands two more 'things'. A quick couple of lightning bolts and a rapid exit should do the job. Hang on, that is a fireball he is using, it must be, it is following me!

I can play at that game. I was lucky this time, one of their own lightning bolts rebounded and hit them. They like smouldering in amongst a pile of treasure. Might as well have the treasure whilst I am here, suppose it could come in handy. I must be getting pretty low on magic by now, I'll have a quick look at my status... I was right, and I'm wounded - must have taken more of a beating in the last conflict that I thought. The best thing to do is heal myself with some of my remaining magic and rely on arrows and my sword until I can find enough elixir to replenish my supplies. This maze seems to go on and on. Is there an end to it? The rings must be somewhere.

An extract from An Addict's Guide To Things, by Arthur C. Clark.

From the above extract, you should have gained a small insight into the very intense excitement that Halls involves. The idea of the game is based on the traditional 'Dungeons and Dragons' adventure scenario. Your aim being to make your way through the multi-level maze collecting the seven rings and killing monsters as you go. Once the seven rings are found you may leave the maze, travel down the staircase to the lowest level, the dungeon. When inside you must frantically try and find your way to the key before the enormous number of 'things' manage to get to you. Getting to the end of Halls is far from an easy business. It is likely to take you weeks and weeks before even getting near.

Each level, except for the dungeon, is an enormous maze, with hundreds of rooms and corridors. Many of the rooms and corridors. Many of the rooms are enclosed by doors which may be opened or closed by either yourself or a 'thing'. An assortment of objects may be found in a room. If you are lucky, a bottle of elixir will be lying full or partially full, on the floor. Unfortunately, the 'Things' also have an affinity for it. Elixir will boost your magic level and allow you to fire more lightning bolts and fireballs as well as healing yourself. Treasure may also be found, this may be collected and so add to your score. But beware! 'Things' may disguise themselves as treasure and suddenly attack you. The only way to check is to try and fire a lightning bolt. If a 'Thing' is in the vicinity then the lightning fired will go for it; if not no action will be taken as lightning can only be fired if something is in the general area.

The one aspect which may put people off Halls on the first encounter, is the large range of controls available. It will probably take about ten to fifteen minutes before they will become second nature. Really, the game is very simple to play.

Halls lacks sound because of the immense amount of time which the computer would have to spend processing it, so slowing the game down to an unacceptable level. It is also difficult to control by joystick, unless you have one of the universal adaptors.

As far as I am concerned, and I have seen quite a large amount of software over the last year, this is the most exciting and innovative computer game I have seen for the Spectrum. No other game runs with such speed, smoothness of action and graphical quality. Crystal Computing has shown just how far it is possible to push the Spectrum, making some of the claims for more expensive micros, such as the Beeb and Dragon, look really rather silly. The question on the tip of my tongue is whether Crystal, will be No. 1 next year? It looks possible!