Lastly there's The Pay-Off from Bignose Software, another company encountered at the PCW show. This is a very plain text adventure, apparently licensed from the Atari Corporation - I suspect at some time in the more remote past.

There's this hood Luigi, see, and you're into him for 40 grand in gambling debts. There's also a large and fancy gemstone deposited in a vault somewhere in the Big Apple - or New Jersey if that's any different. The rock is worth 40 grand too, so all you gotta do to stay cool is to find it and fence it. OK?

The location descriptions are slim, if not emaciated, and are more like names with a list of objects present. That might not necessarily be a big disadvantage if the screen display and response times weren't so slow. As it is, the presentation and speed are reminiscent of ZX-81 and very early Spectrum games. At the asking price of £5.95 that is simply not good enough - especially when you recall that you can pick up fast and complex bargain games for less than that.

Publisher: Bignose Software Price: £5.95 Memory: 48K

**