The games in this series are described by the publishers as Electronic Novels, and at the same time, as "interactive adventures". Well, what's in a name, and what adventures aren't interactive? It's only the interaction that makes an adventure any different from a novel. What we have here, in fact, are adventures with a deal more of text than Infocom, that take a deal more time to interact with.

Having a lot of text is all very well but gameplay, sorry, novel play, on the C64, is painfully slow. It's not only the delay time to the next prompt, but the delay between the appearance of successive words, or parts of words, that frustrates. Summate all those delays, and with such a large amount of text, you're like as not in the land of nod before you know what's hit you.

Each game comes with two disks, tucked into a hardbook book. After a few pages of "novelette" and game instructions, comes a large section entitled "Adventure Diary" - in order words the pages are blank, for the player to write notes in.

Here are three promising adventures, that unhappily are unplayable except by those with infinite patience.

Lying on a table in Dr. Virgil's laboratory, with dozens of electrodes fastened to your body, you are about to be sent back in time through the minds of four ex-people, to find and return with the Wheel of Wisdom. Without it, need it be said, the civilised world is doomed. Your journey is through the deceased's thought patterns - that's what all the electrodes are for.

The first mind in question belonged to none other than Bobby Clemon, an assassinated rockstar, described as a cross between John Lennon and Janice Joplin (interesting). Your materialise on stage at a concert, and a very ugly one it is at that.

As you wander around the stage, the crowd's menacing behaviour is very effectively portrayed, adding a sense of urgency to your mission - find what you want, and get out quick! There are some cleverly worked lines of text that continue to maintain the suspense, without seeming too repetitive.

Mounting the staircase, you find your way blocked by a beautiful winged woman imprisoned in a case. The only way to free her, is to dissolve the bars by answering the riddle inscribed above them:

"The morning herald never was born, His very beard is flesh, his mouth is horn."

Articulate the answer, and you're on your way to the mind of the Generalissimo - dictator and war criminal. But only if you can answer more of the riddles, which seem to abound in this adventure.

You are about to go on a vacation aboard the Starship Essex, but as your shuttle arrives in the hangar of the vasts vessel, you feel distinctly uneasy. As you disembark with the rest of your tour party, you hear a scream. Going to investigate, you discover a man on the verge of death. He's been attacked by a Vollchon, and with great effort, he hands you some papers. "Professor Klein has only two days," he tells you. "Deliver these before it's too late." Sealed by Commodore Norton, they are addressed to Captain Dee of the Essex, and read "For Your Eyes Only".

Once aboard the Essex, you are greeted by your guide, and feel duty bound to slip away from the party in search of Dee. Here is where the fun begins - learning to operate turbo-lifts, getting a bit of exercise in the ship's gym, perhaps, or trying to enter a secure area in search of Dee.

To give you an idea of the response times, the three screens of opening text take and astonishing 50 seconds to display! A great pity that this system is so abysmally slow, for at a more playable speed this would, I am sure, prove to be an excellent adventure.

It is the Eve of All Hallows, and whilst the king's servants are busy preparing tomorrow's feast, you, Sir Gawain, find yourself lying on your bed, listening to the soothing strains of Sir Bedevere's lute. Your eyes close, and before you know where you are you are dreaming.

Walking over a ridge, you espy a castle in the valley beyond, and make your way down to it.

This adventure plays in a rather stilted way, for the messages are addressed to you in the past tense, and in the third person. For example, by going south, I was (eventually) told: "The knight strolled down to the low ridge..."

The problem really came with the first problem! Getting into the castle is not just a matter of opening the door and strolling inside. But trying many different approaches, as is often necessary in a problem of this sort, is as sleep-inducing as the sound of Bedevere's lute, with this sort of response speed.