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You are trapped in your dream and must awake; though this game is more likely to have sent you to sleep in the first place. Dreaming could be the theme for an excellent adventure, but Zzzz fails because instead of capturing the weird nocturnal atmosphere or outrageous imagination of the best dreams, the authors have used the scenario as an excuse to fling together random and uninspired ideas. Also lacking is the warped logic which makes the wildest dreams feel continuous.

And Zzzz has many other faults, which is a shame because there are some good ideas. The best of these is the presence of icons replacing common commands (directions, GET/DROP, etc) while text input is retained for rarer words. Unfortunately, a massive bug means these have a life of their own and automaticaly select random commands, even while you are typing, making the game virtually unplayable. Furthermore, the delete key won't function as it's used for icon selection!

John Wilson tells me that these faults disappear if a joystick interface is plugged in, but this is not mentioned in the instructions: besides, there should be no need. The instructions are dreadful by the way picturing non-existent icons - they were written for the C64 version.

The non-icon vocabulary is small, and you are required to enter ridiculously obscure commands like THUMB A LIFT. EXAMINE is usually unresponsive. The text is reasonable but some of the graphics are pathetic. The whole thing is horribly unfriendly and not worth your time or money.