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The clock had just struck midnight as I reluctantly booted the drive of my 48K Apple. Then my problems started...

I awoke to find myself in a large mausoleum with marble floors and a dirt floor. The room was deathly silent. Before me lay an unlit candle. There was no way out.

The object of the game is to use logic and cunning to work your way through the maze and find the way out.

The program arrives in a book-sized box which contains a disc containing the program, a manual, various adverts, tip sheets and a warranty card.

The manual, like all of Sir-Techs, was well written and informative. Perhaps too much so in this case, as at the back there is a page headed "Do not read any further! The following information will reduce your enjoyment of the game!"

This is a bit like an adventure game in itself, as the whole thing is in a sort of code with all keywords numbered and scrambled and the sentences reading like #1 in the #7 with the #88. This is not one of them!

It also helps the first time adventurer through the first three rooms giving them some idea what is going on and how to get on in adventures.

The hi-res displays are good and give a perspective view of each room. However, to those who are used to certain sequences of rooms, the graphics can be turned off and this can help speed your way.

So can turning off the sound, which consists of a tune when the adventurer completes each minor goal.

Sometimes, this is accompanied by a small cartoon on the text screen to build up the suspense.

An impressive sounding, though untested, feature of the game (due to lack of hardware) is that it will generate speech responses if a Mockingboard is fitted. Luckily, this can also be switched off, for if my computer started to laugh at me because I had died for the nth time, I may be tempted to take a hammer to it.

The game itself is a slightly more gruesome adventure as almost every room has something dead or undead in it. Such is the stuff of which nightmares are made - it's not for the faint-hearted. Remember, this is a graphics adventure.

The Crypt Of Medea is a disk-based graphics, text and sound adventure for the Apple II, II+, IIe and III and is produced by Sir-Tech of Ogdensburg, New York, the creators of the phenomenal Wizardry series. Unfortunately, this is not up to that standard, but, it is a very good graphics adventure.