The player starts this adventure sound asleep aboard the deep-space prospecting ship Starcross. Suddenly, an alarm sounds, he jumps from his bunk and rushes to the bridge as fast as humanly possible.

So starts Infocom's first science fiction adventure. As is customary with Infocom adventures, the all-text descriptions and large vocabulary are impressive. The ability to type commands in full sentences, several at a time all on one input line is one of the many innovations that put Infocom adventures into a class of their own.

This adventure is set in the year 2186, when you have set off in your one-man ship in search of "quantum black" holes which could provide an inexhaustible source of power for man's ever increasing space civilisations. On arrival at what you hoped would be one such black hole, you find a very large alien ship spinning silently in space.

You land, or should I say arrive, on one of the alien ships' many landing pads with a severe loss of prestige and a bent ship. So there's nothing for it but to explore some of Infocom's most challenging situations to date.

Just finding your way around this huge ship has its own problems, but after a bit of mapping, you soon learn how to get from A to Z without getting lost. During these explorations you can expect to meet aliens - some helpful, other whose only goal in life is to try to impede you in every way possible.

A good sense of humour and a little working knowledge of science will come in handy.

The game comes packed in its own plastic flying saucer containing the disk, instruction manual and a large coloured star chart.

All this adds up to an adventure that should keep even the most hardened adventurers on their toes for many hours, whilst being light-hearted enough for the whole family to enjoy. Starcross costs £30.00 and runs on the Atari.