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Master Of Magic is the latest of Mastertronic's MAD games. Gordon Hamlett explores this joystick adventure that costs only £2.99!

I never did like vampires. Orcs and skeletons I can handle, but there are a couple of particularly vicious vampires who insist on chasing me round vast areas of dungeon with the usual outcome being my untimely death.

Master Of Magic is a menu-driven role playing adventure game. You were exploring a dark, mysterious pool in some caves one day when a hand suddenly appeared and pulled you under. Instead of drowning, you are transported into a strange land of magic. The perpetrator of this dastardly deed in one Thelric, Master of Magic. He alone, he explains, can transport you back to your own land but there is a catch. He is afraid of dying and wants you to find the lost Amulet of Immortality.

The screen is divided into five main areas. The top line has details of your current mental and physical energies and a clock. Mental energy shows the amount of power you have left for spell casting whilst the physical chart shows how much damage you can take before dying. The clock records the amount of time you have spent in the dungeon. It stops though when you are performing an action so you have as much time as you want to decide how you are going to tackle a problem.

The top left hand corner shows a map of your current surroundings. Only items that you can actually see are displayed so that if you want to know what is behind a closed door, you will have to open it first. The dungeons are a mixturn of passages, rooms and caverns. It is probably a good idea to draw some sort of a map as you go. This need only be rough and probably will be! Have you ever tried mapping acurately whilst being chased by Hellhounds? You are depicted on the map as a small yellow blob with other objects shown as small indistinct pictures but this is only to give you a rough idea of where everything is in relation to you and large pictures of what you meet are shown at the bottom of the screen. The scrolling of the map is a bit jerky and you have to make sure that you enter passages exactly in the middle.

The other window at the top of the screen is your information box. Messages are displayed here such as the outcome of any combat you engage in. Also appearing here are confirmation of the actions you have chosen and descriptions of items which you examine.

The central part of the screen displays a list of commands that can currently be chosen. Selecting an action is either joystick or keyboard controlled.

The bottom window displays large pictures of any object you can see. These can be of monsters that are attacking you, weapons that they have dropped, treasure that they were guarding or special features of the dungeon such as doors and staircases.

Your character is controlled entirely via the menu system so there is no need to find exactly the right phrase to type in. You are not always given the full list of commands, but only those choices that are available to you at the time. Thus you will not see the open command unless there is actually a door to be opened. Many of theoptions lead into sub-menus and things can get quite involved.

For example, suppose you have found a scroll but before you can pick it up, you are attacked by two skeletons. You must decide how to attack them and which one you are going to attack first. When you have killed them, you see that they have dropped a shield and a ring. You may now decide to drop your weapon, pick up the scroll, examine it and put it in your backpack, pick up the ring and wear it, pick up the shield and finally pick up your weapon again.

There are many types of monster for you to battle against. These range from bats and spiders, through orcs, skeletons and vampires through to the final confrontation with a minotaur.

Some monsters will guard a particular area or treasure; others will give chase when attacked and some will even open doors and come and get you! Creatures can be attacked either with a weapon that you have picked up or with one of the spells that Thelric has seen fit to bestow upon you. These are three offensive spells - magic missile, fireball and energy drain - and one defensive spell - magical shield. Casting a spell uses up some of your mental energy and if that runs too low then you will no longer be able to use magic. Magic missile tends to work best against a single opponent whilst fireball is the better choice against a group.

One nice touch is that, when you kill a creature, its picture is overwritten with the word "DEAD". This clarifies matters when you are under attack from more than one opponent and is useful when you are back-tracking through the dungeon desperately seeking for a health potion and anxious not to pick another fight.

There are many items to help (or hinder) you as you try to find the amulet. Scrolls give you clues of a cryptic nature such as "The dagger of death" is a special kind when used on the minotaur it weakens his mind". Potions may heal your wounds or restore your mental energy. There are several magic rings to be found and, if you defeat certain monsters, you can pick up their equipment such as armour and helmets, swords and axes. Note that, if you are holding two weapons, you will attack with the one in your right hand. There is a SWAP command to change weapons over.

Master Of Magic is one of several role-playing games to have been released recently. Whilst it may lack the sophistication or depth of some of its rivals, it is considerably easier to play and get in to. It also possesses that prime requisite of all good games - it's great fun. All this, plus some good music by Rob Hubbard for only £2.99 - what more can you ask for?