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Don't mess with me, chum. I've just killed a mammoth.

I did it this morning, after breakfast. Since then I've boarded Viking ships, fled from a Tyrannosaurus Rex and been robbed in Ancient Rome. I've picked flowers in an English country garden, battled with cavemen before the dawn of civilization, and climbed the Milky Way at its end.

I could go on and on. There are over 200 locations in this adventure, the latest from Level 9. As usual I have to take their word for it, I've been playing the game on and off for a week and haven't covered more than a hundred.

But it's not just the size of the game, it's the quality as well that is astonishing. These aren't your normal 'You're in a room. Exits lead West, East, and Down'-type locations, these are fully-described scenes to fire the imagination.

The aim of the game is to defeat the Timelords - a group of meddlesome baddies who get their kicks out of altering Earth's history. You can only win by collecting nine objects. To achieve your aim, you will have to travel, via a vast grandfather clock, through eight periods of history ranging from the ice age to the furthest future.

There is a ninth zone, but I wouldn't call it a time zone, exactly. If you want to find out more about it then you'd better go there, hadn't you?

The program has a very large vocabulary, but unfortunately it won't help you by telling you which words it doesn't understand. Unfamiliar words are greeted with responses ranging from 'Eh?' to 'Arlie Barrie Gloop'!

There is no HELP function, and if you get really stuck you'll have to write off to Level 9 for a clue.

Unusual commands include Left, Right, Forwards, and Backwards. You can repeat a command by typing AGAIN, and refer to an object previously mentioned by IT.

Lords Of Time is well up to Level 9's usual high standard, and that means it belongs on your shelf,