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Last month I looked quite favourably at Winter Wonderland from Incentive Software. This month I got caught up on the first of their Medallion series of adventures for Amstrad CPCs - Apache Gold. This has you playing a rather dozy cowboy by the unenviable name of Luke Warm. He dreams of finding the legendary hoard of Indian gold the Apaches are said to have buried in their secret burial ground.

You begin in Luke's covered wagon and may wonder just how to get things moving. If in doubt examine everything in sight and you should get the right ideas. Once old Dobbin has got under way there is nothing much you can do until you have been captured by the Indians. Once you have escaped you are on the path to future prosperity.

There are not that many locations but you will find yourself retracing your steps fairly often. The puzzles mainly revolve around getting an item from one location taking it to another to enable you to get something needed at the original location.

There are quite a few objects to be found and every one has some part to play in solving the adventure. The vocabulary is not that large and there are a few commands that I found frustrating. It was obvious what I had to do, but I could not get the program to understand me. The lack of any response indicating what might be wrong only aggravated the situation.

Most commands may be shortened to the first three letters but one verb - THROW - needs special care. On one occasion THR will work, on others you will need THRO or THROW.

The puzzles are on the whole fairly logical, and plenty of clues are to be found if you read the text carefully and also if you keep your eyes open and get into the habit of examining everything.

The graphics are drawn quite quickly, but as you often have to retrace your steps you may find it useful to turn them off with WORDS. PICTURES will turn them back on.

For all the frustration. I found Apache Gold quite addictive, probably because I thought I knew I was on the right track and only had to get the program to get over its dyslexia. This game should not tax the expert, and should prove enjoyable for beginners who are prepared to play with words.