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Adventure programs can often command children's attention for much longer periods than the average educational program, as they demand careful and logical thought on the part of the child. The Magic Sword is a very nice example aimed at six to ten year olds, with the package consisting of a book and a tape, one side of which is for the Electron and the other for the BBC.

The storybook tells of Princess Poppy, who is lonely because she has nobody to play with, since everybody else is too busy preparing for her birthday. Eventually, she meets Prince Fred and they play a game of hide and seek. In trying to find the prince, she is captured by Bad Bertha the witch and locked in a tower. Bad Bertha soon discovers Prince Fred too, and steals his magic sword before turning him into a frog.

Here the story ends, and the computer program takes over. The idea is to find your way around the witch's house, collect her magic objects, and then use them to rescue the prince and princess, ultimately banishing Bad Bertha for ever!

Since the program is designed for children I read the story to my "review group" of infants and juniors in my school. They listened with great interest because the story itself has all the ingredients children like and is colourful illustrated.

"Okay, everyone," I said as the story ended. "Off to your Acorns to deal with Bad Bertha!" The children set off enthusiastically, and I wandered from group to group watching their progress, though as there aren't any additional guidance notes for teachers or parents I was as much in the dark as they were!

The program begins with an introductory page giving instructions and outlining the object of the game. Though the direction moves, etc, are the standard adventure ones, the children found it best to make a note of them initially, since you can't get back to them half way through the game. The program is written in Mode 7 on the BBC, with large chunky lettering, good use of colour and simply but effective block graphics. At each stage you're told where you are and shown a picture together with a compass illustrating your next direction options. The sound effects are simple and perfectly adequate as you wanted into each room, and there are several nice touches of humour too. Try to pick up the frog, for example, and the computer responds with "Ugh... you wouldn't, would you?"

Initially, many of the children kept going back on themselves, and ended up being burned to a cinder in Bertha's oven. But more progress was made when they realised it would be a good idea to draw out a plan of the house as they discovered where each room was, and they soon began to collect some of Bertha's magic objects.

To date, nobody has actually managed to complete the game, and there is possibly an argument here for more comprehensive instructions to aid the teacher or parent, especially those new to adventure games. It can be very frustrating going round and round in circles, or collecting objects and not being sure what to do with them!

Nevertheless, the children haven't tired of the game, and the package is good value for money. We have bought a copy for our school software library, and it would be a worthwhile addition to the collection of any parents wishing to wean their offspring away from alien zapping!

Mike Kent