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Who are you, where are you, and how did you get to be on a deserted beach on a remote island? That is the question you ask yourself as you stroll to see what's around the corner and find a sheer cliff - impossible to climb.

But people have been to this island before, for there is a decrepit straw hut and the remains of an old boat. Unfortunately, the most interesting routes lead to the quicksand!

You are itching to get off the island - could that be a ship on the horizon, or is it just an illusion - or just wishful thinking?

These are some of the problems that confront you at the outset of Mindshadow, a graphic adventure on disc, for the Commodore 64 and Apple. Since all the pictures are stored on disc, there is an inevitably delay every time you take an action that results in a change of scenery, like taking or dropping an object, or moving to a different location. On the Commodore, on which I played, that can be frustratingly slow! How could they design a machine with such a slow loading system, I often wonder?

However, once read in, the pictures are fast to draw and quite detailed although, disappointingly, only in two or three colours.

The text responses are fast, and a chime announces the fact that there is more text to be read before you can start another input. Press a key and it will scroll up. Press RETURN and the picture will clear to reveal the last 24 lines of text, a novel and useful way of checking on your recent moves.

The problems are fairly well placed and the difficulty level provides for some hard thinking and experimentation with ideas, whilst at the same time not being too mind-boggling.

There is an unusual HELP command which features the wise Condor, a bird who talks in semi-riddles about your problem. Which he guesses, on most occasions, with uncanny accuracy. But the Condor will only answer three calls in a game.

After a while, I managed to escape the island, and found myself aboard a pirate ship with an ugly crew and a ship's doctor who looked like a halfwit and specialised in brain surgery. Don't think I'll use his services - or should I...? [Why not give it a try? - Ed]

Mindshadow is from Activision on disc only for the Commodore 64, IBM PC and Apple.