The cassette packaging doesn't offer many clues about the plot, but the title does give away the fact that Vampires are involved!

The Count is a Scott Adams game originally written in 1984 so don't expect very user-friendly parsers or much in the way of location descriptions, but do expect an enjoyably challenging game! Waking in a large brass bed, I was presented with the first problem, how did I get out of bed?!

Much hair-pulling later, I resorted to the HELP option which advised GET UP would do the trick ... and it did!

After a brief wander around, I picked up various items such as the bed sheets and a strange pocket watch, which tells you how long you have until the sun goes down. When the sun finally does set, you must have found the No-Doz tablets or else you will fall asleep then wake up back in the brass bed with two holes in your neck!

The puzzles range from the blindingly obvious to the rather more difficult. When you get stuck the HELP option is usually worth a go, but use it too often and you will receive sarcastic replies!

All the same, if it wasn't for the HELP option, the limited parsers would make it very laborious to play - just try getting into the dumb-waiter (let alone using it) without asking for assistance!

Your position can be saved onto a blank tape for later play, which is an option all adventures should have in my opinion, so it was nice to see it in this game.

As far as I can tell, the game holds no illogical mazes (Hooray!) and for a mere £3.99 you get an elderly but very entertaining game, and what with Christmas drawing near, it would make an idea stocking-filler for all budding vampire hunters out there!

Christian Weber