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This arrived in novel, colourful packaging which immediately caught my eye and my interest.

When run it displays a black and white title page and plays the Pink Panther Theme. You are Dan Diamond, an ex-cop, and a letter in the morning post says "Please come, you are our only hope!" You go to the address stated and there you find a large stone crypt looming out of the darkness. You slowly walk in and start falling further and further down, eventually landing in the entrance room. You light your candle with one of the burning torches and you set off on an exploration of a network of rooms (i.e. the aquarium and embalming room) and passages. Your final goal is to find and unlock the secret of the tomb. Throughout the game you find and use many objects which help you to explore and discover the catacomb of rooms.

In all the game has a vocabulary of 50 verbs and 80 nouns. The solutions to the problems require lateral thinking and sometimes the odd silly conclusion. Franklin's Tomb is a hundred percent BASIC program and I would have preferred it if it had been machine code, as response was about 3-5 seconds. It is one of the traditional text only adventures and comes complete with a 20 page booklet containing 24 well drawn illustrations of various unusual locations in the adventure.

It uses a formatted screen which constantly tells you the objects you are carrying (a maximum of six), the room descriptions and available exits. The save game facility is available and very useful.

If I had solved the puzzle quickly I would have considered £10 a lot of money to pay, but as it is I might be writing off to Salamander for extra clues.