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Taking the first syllable of Skegness and the last of Blackpool to create the title of this adventure was a mistake, the game would have been better described if the first of Blackpool and the last of Skegness had been used! The resulting word would have matched my inner feelings as I plodded through Skegpool.

The adventure is set in the distant future at a time when mankind has become totally dependent on machines (I thought you were already). One day machine decided that man was no longer a necessary ingredient in its plans and the nerve centre of the robot world - the Master Control Unit - set about reprogramming everything it controlled in an effort to destroy the human race. Luckily the Gent who created the MCU had included a failsafe device into the machine should anything ever go wrong. If the correct code can be found and input into the computer it will switch itself off. Obviously a code this powerful could not be written down for any Tom, Dick or Harlequin to find, and is therefore scattered around his home town. Unfortunately, the programmer and all but one of his friends have been killed by the rampaging robots (guess who the one surviving friend is) and it's now up to you to find the code and shut down the MCU before it's too late.

Mo's Guest House is the opening scenario, with your room adorned by the obligatory bed and chest of drawers, a quick search reveals a keycard. The key to the front door is to be found under the welcome mat and soon you will be wandering around the holiday resort of Blackness... sorry, Skegpool. The MCU itself is located very close to the start of the game and taking too close a look at it whilst not in possession of the code results in a deceased player. An Aquarium, Park, Hotel and Amusement Arcade are all there to be explored, with objects dotted about just waiting to be picked up and utilised. Several instant deaths await the unwary adventurer so be warned, the sea is not a safe place to be and the pool in the Aquarium can end the game very quickly if you're not prepared. Many unfriendly robots patrol the area and either demand answers to their riddles to allow safe passage or they simply blast you off the faceof the screen, there is no warning as to where these machines may be located (they appear at random) and they can become rather more than tedious when you have been killed for the umpteenth time. The locations (of which the game boasts 'well over a hundred') are not very well described, the usual 'YOU ARE IN... YOU CAN SEE' is used far too often, and brevity is obviously the style of the author. There are over forty locations within Skegpool which are depicted graphically, it would have better if they had not bothered with them at all - they are poorly drawn and (all together now) add nothing to the game whatsoever.

Skegpool has been written using the Graphic Adventure Creator and, although there appears to be lots to do within the game, it is boring. The one redeeming feature is the price, which I have taken into consideration for the overall percentage.