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Merlock the Mede contains two adventures, forming the first two parts of an eight part challenge which, when completed, will enable you to claim a free Terminal Merlock Digital Watch.

The first adventure is The Deeds of Glengarry Hall in which you must find deeds and bonds concealed in Glengarry Hall, forming the bulk of the estate of a rich eccentric who had retired as a recluse with some loyal and long-suffering servants. The setting, despite the introduction, is modern.

Some of the rooms are illustrated in graphics, which fill about a third of the screen, and all the locations have a reasonable description, helping to build up the atmosphere. However, the game is very fussy about how you can refer to objects and to make matters worse there is no vocabulary list given, so that selecting the appropriate verbs is difficult.

The other game, The Ashes of Alucard, is best forgotten. Although predominantly text - there are miniscule graphics of some of the objects - no attempt at conveying an interesting description of the locations has been made, for example, "You are in a graveyard most of the graves are overgrown with weeds and things like that."

The most glaring mistakes in the text are the confusion between "here" and "hear" and the use of "piece" instead of "peace". The game is straightforward, provided you don't get randomly killed by wandering zombies.

Even though The Deeds of Glengarry Hall is easily the better game, it is let down by the poor command interpreter - at least the price is reasonable.

S.J.E.