Although this book is also written by the very busy Clive Gifford, it is quite different from his other one. It is one of the typical standard Virgin offerings of slim, very simple books of listings at a cheap price.

I suppose you can't expect much for £2.95 - and you don't get it. 126 pages containing four programs and lots of "useful" extras such as a bibliography, a glossary and introductions by the author and the editor (who both happen to be the same person!).

There are four adventure programs given here: The Swordsman Of Kraxis 7, The Labyrinthine Excursion, Magic Treasure Adventure and Lunatic Dreams. Each is preceded by instructions with further instructions in the body of the program and some illustrations are provided to give some atmosphere to the scenarios you are likely to find yourself in.

There is quite a difference between the games in length. If you are a beginner at keying in, the first two and the last would be better because they are only 11, 8 and 6 pages long. The other program, Magic Treasure Adventure, is for more dedicated folk at 67 pages long, but is probably much more sophisticated and a better game if you have all that time and energy.

There is a helpful section at the back giving hints on playing other adventure games, especially other ones in Clive Gifford's last Virgin book and some of the main commercial games, like The Hobbit.

I'm not terribly impressed with this formula book, but if you are hard up over Christmas it might make a cheap present to help your friends while away on holiday.