The screen of my Atari lit up with "Welcome to Stone of Sisyphus", and I sighed with relief as my problems in loading the game were over.

This is number two in the Maces and Magic series of adventure games that for some reason rarely, if ever, get a mention in the popular computer press.

As the game starts, you find yourself in the general store, close to the Dungeon of Sisyphus. Here you are asked to create your own player and give him or her a name, as well as a weapon chosen from eighty different types. Armour is also available in 26 different varieties.

Having made your choice, there is a quick swap of disks and you enter the dungeon itself. The screen is now split in two and the top half displays some of the best colour graphics I have seen on any Atari adventure to date. Come to think of it, some of the best Atari graphics I have *ever* seen.

The lower half of the screen completes the picture and gives a text description of the room and any objects therein.

This is where the excitement begins and things really start to get different. Instead of the usual type of input, you are given a number of choices as to what to do next.

For instance, you may use either your knowledge of adventuring, skill at fighting, or sheer bribery. If it sounds fun, that's because it is and totally unlike anything I have experienced before.

There is, of course, the opportunity to use any objects you come across. You also have the choice of letting the screen go blank while a new picture is being drawn, or sitting back and watching the computer building up the scenes line by line.

I have been playing this game for some time now and have found well over fifty rooms. "That's not a lot," I hear you say, but in this dungeon you are only expected to last 25 minutes... that's if your luck holds out that long!

My trouble is I always try to pick a fight with a guy who is just that bit bigger. Eventually, learning by my mistakes, I started going around minding my own business, when out of the shadows would step a ghoul or stone giant, to splat me meticulously over the dungeon floor.

There were only two points about the game I didn't like. It took four attempts to get a working copy - but no doubt AI have that ironed out by now. Secondly, as the game is in Basic, the graphic drawing is a little slow, but then their quality is so good, perhaps it's worth the wait.

In conclusion - if you have an Atari with a disc drive and fancy something completely different - this is the game for you! It costs £19.95 on disc only.