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The first in US Gold's series of All-American adventures, Exodus, went straight into my all-time favourite games list, so I was looking forward to their next release, especially as it came over from the States with a considerable reputation.

The Wizard And The Princess is a disk-based text and graphics adventure, originally released by Sierra On-Line. Written in 1982, it is beginning to look its age when compared to some of today's games but it's nonetheless a very challenging game to play.

The plot is one that has been used many times in adventures, namely rescuing the princess from the clutches of the evil wizard. During the course of your journey, you will come across snakes, scorpions, gnomes and giants. There are several mazes for you to get lost in, including one in the desert right at the start.

The graphics play an important part in the game, not so much because of their quality (which is fairly crude by today's standards) but because of the vital clues that they contain. Location descriptions are terse and you have to examine everything in the pictures very carefully. Progress in the game is unusual in that, once you move on, you can't go back on yourself. It is very easy to miss things, so searching every area thoroughly is of great importance.

Every picture and most commands require the disk to be accessed, which tends to be a bit slow. Also, there are a few logic problems which are extremely annoying, e.g. "You can see a scorpion." "Hit scorpion." "You can't see a scorpion."...! I also encountered a couple of problems with the disk hanging up on me for no obvious reason.

This is definitely not a game for beginners. The problems are tough and you cannot progress very far until you solve them (unlike, say, Zork where you can wander around huge areas with very little effort).

At just under £15. it would also seem to be on the expensive side, but adventurers who consider themselves to be a cut above the rest of us mere mortals should consider buying a copy. There are however many better games on the market.