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Bob Chappell gets to grips with a little delight called The Final Mission

If you're one of those Spectrum owners still recovering in the intensive car unit, having been mauled and maddened by Mountains Of Ket and tortured and tantalised in Temple Of Vran, prepare for instant relapse. Just when you thought it safe to go back to your micro, Incentive Software has released The Final Mission, the third part of its Ket Trilogy.

Incentive doesn't call itself that for nothing. To lure you out of your sickbed, it is offering a video recorder to the first person to score 100 per cent in all three parts. Just think - should you be the lucky winner, you can retire to your bed and watch reruns of The Magic Roundabout.

The Final Mission of the title has you seeking out and defeating the evil Vran Verusbal, and with a monicker like that he deserves everything coming to him. But first you must pass the five enigmatic Gate Guardians - you knew there'd be a catch, didn't you? The adventure starts as you wake up - stunned - in a cell (unpadded). Although you can't see anyone, you are not alone. Edgar is here to keep you company. If you don't know or had deliberately erased him from your mind, Edgar is your friendly neighbourhood assassin bug (Edgar the earwig?) - he's been planted on your neck to deter you from scarpering when the going gets rough.

In the cell is a wooden chair which has clearly been donated by the Ket Prisoner's Aid Society - a swift examination reveals a useful item strapped to one of the legs. An easterly glow is coming from a window above a door. No havanas for guessing that the door is locked. It is also 8ft high and made of oak to save your strength - you can't break it down. The window's not to tough though as you start chanting, "Easy, easy", you're out of your cell and... into another one.

The sarcastic chant withered on my lips when I discovered that this cell had no obbious exits. Worse still, I was unable to return to my original cell. The instructions warn of one-way doors so that must have been one of them - thanks a bunch, instructions. When I did eventually find the way out into a corridor and to the Hall of Pillars, I came face to face with the 'en' monster. No, I don't know what an 'en' monster is either except that it is capable of giving you a most severe duffing.

As with the first two parts of the trilogy, Final Mission goes into a combat sequence whenever you pick a fight. Should your energy fall to a fat zero during the struggle, your adventuring days are over - until you start again, of course.

The text is immaculately presented, and the vocabulary reasonable, though response to input is a wee bit on the slow side. A splendid adventure with a splendid prize for some lucky person.

Another Spectrum offering, Interceptor Micro's Forest At World's End is a tasty text and graphics adventure. Wouldn't you just know it - the local Princess has been captured by the evil wizard and you must rescue her. When are we going to have an adventure where the local princess incarcerates the evil wizard?

Although this is mainly a text adventure, some of the locations are shown graphically - attractive, and fast with it. On the subject of speed, the program's response to each command (which can include adjectives, adverts and prepositions) is instantaneous. This helps to keep the pace flowing nicely. The adventure is not played in real time so your adrenalin will not need to work overtime. The textual descriptions are fairly short; puzzles and mapping are the real meat in this game.

The adventure was written by one David Banner. Although you won't meet the Incredible Hulk in the woods, you will almost certainly encounter a pesky elf who attacks you at every opportunity. Once you have a weapon, you can dispose of the elf quite easily - but, because this adventure has a number of random elements, five'll get you ten that other members of the elf clan continue to pop up. You could easily find yourself in breach of the countryside code by littering the place up with a pile of dead elves.

One of my favourite sorts of puzzles is included - how to cross a chasm that is too wide to jump? Locating an object to help with this difficulty is no problem - finding the right words to manipulate it usefully is not so simple (hint - you need four words, one of which is a prepositin).

An enjoyable adventure but I could have done without the random attackers.

To round off this week's column, the Dungeon Master has at last condescended to take down his Bumper Fun Book of Hints and Tips, has brushed away the bats nesting therein and has truned to the chapter market Unzipping Zork. This unprecedented action is a result of a heartfelt plea from Mancunian K. James, a frustrated Zork 1 devotee. He's found the Jewelled egg but can't open it without damaging the clockwork canary inside.

And even if he could, what should he do with the canary anyway? The following (written backwards) should help:

1. GGE EHTN EPOT 'NOD 2'
2. U OYMO RFTI LAET SFEI HTEH TTEL
3. F EIHT EHTM ORFT IREV OCER
4. TSE ROFE HTNI PUTI DNIW

Happy Zorking is the only thing left to say!