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At long last a large, disc-based adventure has arrived. Cassette owners, eat your heart out! This game resides on two discs which hold the program and database respectively. Locating all the data on disc enables this game to have all the subtleties and power of a mainframe adventure. Those plutocrats among you who possess 80 track drives will be pleased to note that there is a command to reconfigure the disc to this format.

The game is text only and, although the instruction sheet mentions the user of colour somewhere in the game, I have not yet seen any.

The game is set in a vast cave system whose tunnels have more twists and turns than an Editor's mind! Being an adventurer of the old school, who scorns map making, I quickly became lost! The game has a 'Colossal Cave' feel to it, complete with the iron grating and black rod. The grating, however, is not all it initially seems; and, when waved, the black rod appears to have no effect. There are 350 locations to explore and 150 objects and treasures to find. If you are able to make enough progress you will be able to get through to the Master's section of the game (No, I haven't!). Once inside this section there is no going back! In many of the rooms, coloured stars are to be found hanging in mid air, very reminiscent of Philosopher's Quest. I trust they are there for a reason and not for the confusion of brain-weary explorers.

I have spent almost fifteen hours on Acheton so far and have enjoyed every minute. There appears to be little restriction to your movement in this game, allowing you to wander far and wide. Vast chambers with curious rock formations, an underground harbour swarming with piranhas and a wizard's garden containing live gnomes, all blend together in this intriguing puzzle.

The new policy of Acornsoft is to provide a Hint and Answer envelope with all their games. This move has obvious advantages for Acornsoft but the temptation to open the envelope can be overwhelming. In addition to the envelope, this game will respond to *HELP commands with a clue number which may be used to index the hint sheet.

My one criticism is that, as the room descriptions are held on disc, the drive is constantly being accessed during the game. I am surprised that a larger batch of descriptions are not transferred to memory at the same time, which would have meant many fewer disc movements and reduced my winces considerably!

As the disc drive is materializing in more and more dungeons of late, I suspect this game will be welcomed with open arms by many wizards. I have no reservations about this one; go get it!