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I loaded The Island with anticipation - it is the first game I have seen written using Gilsoft's Professional Adventure Writer (PAW) and hence I was interested to see what the system could create.

I wasn't disappointed! The Island is a lovely text-only adventure. You start on board an old tramp steamer, returning to Britain after a long sojourn in the Far East. Unfortunately, while you were sleeping, the ship hit a mine left over from the Second World War and in the resulting confusion you lost consciousness. You awake to find the ship rapidly sinking and the crew disappearing over the horizon in the ship's lifeboats! So you must try to escape from the ship before it sinks to the bottom of the sea...

Once you escape from the ship you find yourself on a deserted island complete with a lagoon, a shipwrecked seaman, and abandoned German U-boat and a mysterious pyramid.

The adventure is well-written and demonstrates the PAW's power expertly. True, it's only disk-based and has no graphics, but PAW games are no doubt the closest thing to Infocom that Amstrad owners will get nowadays. Locations and descriptions are atmospheric and long; there is a complex parser supporting RAMSAVE and RAMLOAD, and even commands such as "Look under" and "Look behind"!

But, best of all. the game is free! Ken has decided to give the game away to anyone who sends him a disk and an SAE (or just a £3 cheque). In short, a great game that is well-written and is a giveaway. I hope Ken realises the response he is letting himself in for! I look forward to reviewing his next game. The Base, soon...