The world is in the grip of a series of apparently natural disasters. Earthquakes and diseases ravage mankind. A storm of meteors streak across the sky. A volcano has even put Edinburgh Castle into orbit! This in turn has caused untold civilian unrest. Riots have demolished entire areas. Only the odd wall still stands with Kilroy proclaiming his attendance at some previous occasion.

Only Kilroy happens to be an alien who has been trying to tell Earthlings for many years now that, in fact, all these accidents are deliberate and being generated by a bored but nevertheless extremely powerful alien race!

Naturally, an adventurer, a poor, unsuspecting fellow, a bit like you and me, is called upon to save the earth, taking extreme care not to demolish it as he goes for fear of losing a few points in the great game of life. Saving the home planet will require journeys through time and space and will involve several metamorphoses into other characters such as a brilliant Nobel physicist, cunningly disguised a a ninety year-old tramp and a jackdaw who must cultivate a deathwish if he/it is to succeed in their task.

Time Of The End is one of those computer rarities, a text only adventure. The author, Keith Milner despises the user of graphics (sentiments with which I entirely agree), and prefers the written word to evoke an atmosphere. The locations are a nice mixture of detailed descriptions, thought-provoking quotations and a dry humour.

The storyline, unlikely as it seems at first, is actually quite credible and logical when you play the game. The text also leads you into any slightly unusual vocabulary problems, so that you should not have too much trouble looking for the right word or phrase. Another nice feature is that the game has tried to take a leaf out of Infocom's book and anticipate as many typical inputs as possible so that there is very little "you can't do that" type of response.

Time Of The End sets quite a few interesting puzzles that will provide excellent stimulation of your grey matter. Nor will it require you to take a hammer to your piggy bank at just under three pounds. Should you get hooked, a sequel called The Bottomless Pit is planned. The game is only available by mail order and anyone interested should write to: Mandarin Adventures, 14 Langton Close, Woking, Surrey GU21 3QJ.