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Those delightfully dotty damsels from Donegal, the St. Brides mob, have always had a reputation for eccentricity. But even they have surpassed themselves this time. Be honest, you never thought that you would see the day when a text version of Space Invaders was released, did you? Well, now's your chance to try your hand at typing left, right and fire. Ideal for those of you whose reflexes aren't all that they were.

Released by CRL, the Very Big Cave Adventure is a very funny spoof on the very first ever adventure by Crowther and Woods. All the old familiar locations and creatures are there, only changed somewhat to protect the guilty. The game starts with you outside a familiar little brick cottage although this one has a sign marked vacant and requires a penny in the slot.

So... it's off to the gully to see what you can find. Sure enough, there is a penny guarded by a ferocious-looking bull which won't let you pick it up. The bull however asks if you are still here and on hearing you answer "no", walks off believing you for it is a gully-bull (groan!). If you don't like jokes like that, then I suggest that you stop now as things soon get considerably worse. Instead of dwarves throwing axes at you, there is a tall, guant, bearded, bald gentleman throwing sharpened ZX81s. And so it goes on.

Caves has been written using Quill, Illustrator and Patch although you would be hard pressed to tell just from looking at it. Words that are not understood are greeted with the slightly worrying "? syntax error" and most other actions are treated to a flippant remark. It is difficult to say too much about the game without giving anything away or quoting things out of context.

Suffice it to say that I loved it. It matters not a jot whether you have played the original or not, if you have a warped sense of humour, then go and buy a copy.