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A game that I thought was going to be very mundane turned out to have some very novel features and puzzles. In The Jewel Of Power, you find yourself in an ordinary house - except I couldn't find a bathroom! - but there is something most peculiar going on down in the cellar.

Here you get your clue as to what the adventure is all about, and this is done in an original and entertaining way, using graphics to great effect.

Leaving the house behind you in a mysteriously abandoned village, you make your way into the countryside, where there are some rather more unusual buildings.

One of these is a mysterious monument in the middle of nowhere - a red tower with a door at the base of all four sides. Inside, there are stairs leading up and down, but something very disorientating happens to you. Elsewhere you might be dish of the day for a giant, or become incarcerated in a prison cell. There is also the desert, with a very unfriendly oasis!

This is a machine code adventure with instant response, including graphics. To start, the graphics are rather crude and garish, but they improve as you move away from the house. Some are very effective and they all interact with the game. What is more, they form an integral part of the game, for many of the features depicted are not mentioned in the text, but require reference by the player.

The commands required are mainly two words, but occasionally three words are needed as in "open front door".

My one complain about the game is that on quitting or dying - which isn't difficult - the game cannot be continued without either reloading the program or data.

The end is somewhat inelegant, producing a STOP statement and Basic line number. But don't be fooled into thinking that listing this will give you any clues - all the text is hidden away in the machine code part! Fertile ground for peeking cheats, though!

The Jewel Of Power is for the 48K Spectrum, from Slogger Software.