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Fresh from its triumphs with Assassin and Isle of Xaan, Robico has unveiled the answer to Acornsoft's Acheton. With over 450 locations to explore, 80 objects to manipulate and 1,200 messages, Enthar Seven is a whole new dimension for Beeb disc owners. Happily, the problems contained within, are not as large as the game itself and so it was more the eventual dawning of the new day which finally made me release the keyboard and stagger back up from the dungeon to bed.

It is the distant future. You are on board a fragile 'Interplanetary Space Hopper' which orbits a small Earth-like planet known as enthar seven. Your task is to reach the planet's surface before the Hopper's orbit decays and the spaceship spirals into oblivion! Once on enthar seven you must explore the planet and find and board an escape vessel.

The enthar seven planet is a long abandoned Earth colony which is now kept ticking over by a small crew of robots who continue to clean and guard the various electronic whizz boxes. Their other main task is to blast the living daylights out of foolish adventurers who are to be found wandering around looking for such things as computer registration cards and sticking plasters!

My spell book defines a good adventure as one which allows me to wander throughout large sections of the terrain before finally having to face the nitty-gritty rather than a few concrete blocks as in Acheton! Enthar Seven has achieved this recipe rather well, in that the central feature of the game is the transporter room. Using the transporter dial you may select, at random, any of the seven main areas on the surface of the planet Enthar. This ensures that you won't sit crying over an expensive 'dragon in a poke' having been stumped by first mind boggling dead end.

The locations are generally given full screen descriptions wich give fairly obvious nudges when you are paying attention. The main areas feature forests, laboratories, space shuttle interiors, and various computer control centres. The obligatory dimming torch and maze is to be found but their solution is designed to slow you down rather than to cause apoplexy.

The puzzles posed by the game are intriguing and the solutions are moderately easy. In the main I knew a probable solution to each puzzle and a likely object to overcome it. However, the difficulty came when attempting to find the object! The typical command examples given with the game are an invaluable source of help when phrasing your inputs, thus avoiding the usual frustrating search for the winning phrase required to satisfy a stubborn command analyser.

The game is text only, but this is always plentiful, witty, and in colour. As the game is supplied on disc (as 200K of data), there is some spare room so I'm surprised that Robico did not guild the lily with a few pretty pictures.

The game's high price tag is unfortunate as it comes at a time when price decreases seem to be the norm. However, this can be partically offset by joining the Robico Club which entitles members to a discount of approx £1.50. In addition to the game on the program disc, there is a section of commercials. Screenshots from other adventures and graphic games are shown, along with reviewers' comments. This seems a painless way to view before you buy.

The true measure of this game is that I know I will continue to stumble through its corridors until I finish it, which is more than can be said for many other offerings I have peered into of late.