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At £2.99, Project X: The Micro Man looks too good to be true. Not only is it good - it's great! The final screen of this adventure is a real killer. To keep a straight face when you see it for the first time, you would need to be suffering from rigor mortis!

The storyline tells that in an accident in your lab you suffer a large dose of radiation and, realising the danger, you jump into your car and race off for help. Unfortunately, as you are speeding along a large object decides to step out in front of you and in the resulting pile-up you black out.

On coming to, you find you have strunk to about one inch in eight and you are on what seems to be a giant's car seat. You try to make your way to a friend's house hoping he may help or suggest a cure.

The game was written by C&VG reader Tim Kemp using The Quill and Illustrator, but as seem to have become customary now, the screen format has been changed and machine code sound effects have been added.

Thirty or so of the illustrations have been given graphics, and are some of the best I've seen using this method.

There is a new feature that I really like: STORE and RECALL. This enables the same position to be stored in memory and recalled at any time - so you can get back from a fatal move without all that mucking about with tapes.

While playing the game, it is vital to examine all the objects mentioned in the location text and to try all the possible exits. But seasoned adventurers do that as a matter of course anyway - don't we?

Having said that, there is one point that lets the game down slightly. After carrying out an action, the location description is not always redisplayed. This means that it is possible to miss an object that might have appeared as a result of that action - easy enough if you rush off before typing LOOK.

Project X: The Micro Man is a game I can recommend to all, and a must at just £2.99. It's for the 48K Spectrum - with versions due for the Amstrad and DBM464 - and is available by mail order from Compass Software, 63 Cozens Road, Norwich, Norfolk NR1 1JP.