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Argh! It's driving me mad! I've come across this body in a seedy hotel room, and I'm after Mr Big, the brains behind a crime syndicate. There's a bomb set to explode in just under the hour, and if it blows, the hotel will be reduced to a pile of rubble. But will it matter?

Frisking the body, and making off with everything useful, I head downtown, pass by a movie theatre (costs more than I can afford) and head for the zoo, where I can just about raise the price of a ticket to get in. If I haven't got a knife in my back by now, I can feel eyes on me, and it's not only those of the gorilla! A mysterious and sinister figure is lurking in the shadows, watching my every move...

After a quick tour of the zoo, I reckon this could be Mr Big's HQ, and maybe he's hidden away in the office building. Otherwise, why would the guards want to kill me for going in?

Come to think of it, I've a whole list of questions, and not many answers - not much of a 'tec, am I?! I've sussed out that the hotel waiting room is for waiting in (I think!) and I think I know why I want popcorn - if only I could afford to buy some!

But why is the fence electrified - and what's behind it? What secret does the rock in the reptile house hide - and how can I get at it without venomous fangs being sunk into me? Why the bird? Surely it must be useful if I can take it? And why does it fly away when I release it by the snake? Surely that's not how things should work, should they?

OK, I have a theory about that, and like the movies, it's all tied up with cash - there's simply not enough around! Equally scarce are bullets - there's nothing unnerves me more than carrying an unloaded gun - even if it is a .44 magnum!

Masquerade is an intriduing mystery set for you to solve, with the aid of a Commodore 64 and a disk drive. It is pleasant to play, for although only two-word commands are accepted, the vocabulary is well handled, and the response is instant if played in text only.

The graphics are very good, and cartoony in style, but when you've seen a picture more than enough (and this will happen quite quickly, I can assure you!) you can invoke 'MIXED' mode, which allows you to toggle them on and off by use of the RETURN key.

This is one of the few disk-graphic adventures I have come across that actually omits to load the graphics when in text-only mode.

If you want to redisplay the pictures, then you have only to press RETURN a second time, and the current picture is read in.

Apart from my reservations about the price, this is a mystery and suspense Adventure I can recommend without hesitation.

Right, I must go now. Can't hang about. I've got to work out just what this button on the box does when I press it... Dare I press it?