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The Golden Baton is Brian Howarth's first adventure program. It was originally written for the Video Genie about three years ago and has now been adapted for the 16/32K Colour Genie.

Since The Golden Baton is Brian's first attempt at writing professional adventure programs, it is not his best. It is, however, a very good teaching tool for the novice adventurer. Though some logical reasoning is required to solve the game, I found it to be mainly a "find the object" type of adventure. In other words, do a lot of searching and examining and it should be easy to solve.

The object of this adventure is to find "the Golden Baton" which has been missing for some years. Medusa, dark forbidding guards, a wolf and a giant crab are amongst the obstacles you will find along the way. It is worth remembering that the words SEARCH and EXAMINE have different meanings in this game and could pose a problem if you thought they meant the same thing!

Like The Time Machine, Brian's second adventure, I found The Golden Baton to be similar to reading one of Robert Heinlein's earlier novels. That is, after you have just solved a particularly difficult adventure, it is relaxing to solve a short, not too strenuous game.

Marc J. Leduc