One of the sad things about today's high turnover games market - in a game whch lasts more than six weeks is hailed as a long-running success - is that, inevitably, you miss a lot of games.

US Gold is rectifying this situation to a certain extent with the release of a number of best of games collections. This particular collection of older games by Scott Adams is an adventure special. Modern adventurers may think the games a little crude - they only accept two-word inputs and the parser is very unforgiving although it will give you a hint if you are close. Also the help section is minimal.

All the adventures are text only - not a bad move on the Spectrum - but unfortunately have rather short descriptions. I suppose this is because the games were written before text compression was properly developed.

The tape consists of four games: Pirate Adventure, Voodoo Castle, Strange Odyssey and Buckaroo Banzai. Pirate Adventure is only the second game Scott Adams wrote, yet it is a classic. The game revolves around a pirate's treasure island and your recovery of said treasure. The game is rated beginner but is quite challenging all the same.

Voodoo Castle is set in Transylvania. The poor count has been laid low by a curse and your job is to search out the castle - avoiding pitfalls - and remove the curse.

Strange Odyssey is set on a small planet. You are in a disabled space ship looking for a power crystal, to start up your ship. You're running out of air *and* there are marauding aliens. The usual stuff is all here.

Buckaroo Banzai is a previously unreleased adventure based on the film of the same name. It is quite a difficult adventure set in the world of sci-fi and pop groups!

None of these adventures would sell very well on their own nowadays but four on one tape is reasonably good value. The turbo loader is reliable and there are no boring loading screens which take up space so, all in all, the collection is worth a look.