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St. Bride's is a real school for young ladies, says the prospectus. It is situated on the west coast of Ireland and offers short courses for women wishing to live the way a girl used to live at boarding school some 50 years ago.

That means wearing gymslips and, if you're lucky, you'll get a bottle of sarsparilla from the Tuck Shop and a chance to play the gramophone in the common room (providing you don't overwind it).

The Secret Of St. Brides is an adventure game set in the infamous school. You play the part of Trixie Trinian and must unravel some strange goings on there.

Finish the game and send the WORD that ended it to St. Brides and you'll receive a "genuine St. Brides certificate of merit". Finding the hidden Amulet will win you a coveted A-level in adventuring from the St. Brides' Examining Board.

After a warning about cribbing, you are up with the lark and probably disturb your dorm-mates Fiona and Cynthia.

Strange things are indeed afoot, since you soon discover that although the mistresses claim the year is 1931, everything else points to it being 1929. Other strange things are the north exits apparently going south and an adventure map so illogical in its directions that it is almost impossible to draw. Or is that a bug?

Some of the problems fit nicely in the historic setting - i.e. they are well-loved problems of yesteryear. The newspaper under the door gets you the key (Asylum and Zork II) and the elephant doesn't like mice (Sphinx).

What makes at least the key problem hard to crack is the wording: USE NEWSPAPER followed by UNDER DOOR. USE PENCIL and ON KEY. The solution is easy but you tend to have to grope endlessly for the right words - is that what adventure is all about?

The game is written using The Quill and The Illustrator. The graphics are fairly mundane and slow to draw. There are a lot of variations of rooms and corridors with windows and doors, in what can only be described as "monochrome in colour".

Time and patience prevented me from getting very far, battling against words and a peculiar bug concerning relighting and retaking the lamp, which made me want to QUIT, but I had, instead, to EXEAT. Rather a nice touch, I thought!

Lovely idea, not too sure about the game! The Secret Of St. Brides is available for the Spectrum and Commodore 64 from St Brides School, Burtonport, Co. Donegal, Ireland.