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The Temple Of Apshai has been billed as the "computer game of the year". I took a look at Epyx's new disk version for the Commodore 64.

This, and two additions to the Temple Of Apshai saga, Upper Reaches of Apshai, and The Curse of Ra, add up to a pretty fair sample of the new breed of adventure games for the C64.

The Temple Of Apshai was one of the first games to attempt to simulate the increasingly popular Dungeons and Dragons type of adventure, and used graphics displays to enrich the action.

The key point about D&D games is that the player must adopt a role, selecting the intelligence, strength, constitution and a name for their character. They then attempt to solve the particular adventure.

You can take the character that you define or use one selected for you by the computer. You then do battle against the enemy, who appear with monotonous regularity as you wander through the halls and chambers collecting the treasure.

You can use a wide range of first and second strike weapons, including arrows and shields, elixirs which heal wounds and armour, which comes in very handy in fending off... well, antmen and the like.

Temple Of Apshai comes in disk form, and comes with an excellent manual. Don't be put off by the size, because reading through will give you a thorough background to the game, and will also give you some valuable hints for faring well.

It also contains reasonably detailed descriptions of all the rooms you will find, the enemy that you'll come across, some tips about the kind of environment they favour and how they can possibly be destroyed.

The character set is changed to add to the "sword and sorcery" atmosphere, and everything is presented in medieval English. You can resurrect a previous character from disk, and games can be saved partway through.

One salient point about Temple Of Apshai will come as a shock, particularly if you've neglected to read the manual. It is played in real time, so if you sit back and try to solve a problem logically you may just find a dagger in your ribs.

The use of graphics, while an admirable concept, does little to enhance the game. On the right of the screen is a brief display of your current state, showing strength and fatigue. There is also a space used to reply to any questions you might ask, and one or two other little messages.

Most of the screen is devoted to a display showing you and the walls of the part of the temple that you're currently exploring. It is also used to show any enemy that might be about.

Descriptions of all the rooms are to be found in the manual, so no space (screen or memory) is wasted in repeating it.

When you start play, there are four levels within the Temple from which to choose, each presenting its own particular set of hazards, treasures and rooms.

On my first exploration of the Temple, I managed to kill a number of monsters before falling victim to one of the aforementioned antmen. Quite why, I'm not sure, but random swings of the sword I was carrying appeared to have no effect, although it had been sufficient to dispose of other monsters. Even my arrows, the subject of much bargaining earlier on, did nothing other than sail harmlessly through.

Progress can be singularly erratic, with even the manual telling you that rooms need a lot of exploring and examining.

The treasures to be collected look unnervingly like sand dunes on the screen. The manual usually tells you otherwise, so it's best not to worry about them. The treasures also have uses other than just being treasures, but I'll leave that to you to sort out. Clue: Forget sand - it's nothing to do with egg-timers or builders.

Upper Reaches of Apshai and the Curse of Ra are simple extensions to the existing game, taking you into hitherto uncharted territories, but still leaving you with a mass of treasures to sollect, enemy to kill and walls and corridors to explore. Upper Reaches promises you more than 150 new rooms, not to mention gardens, berry patches and caverns, cellars, Benedic's Monastery, and Merlis the Mage's cottage. And you may be lucky enough to get attacked by giant tomatoes or even killer chickens.

They require the Temple Of Apshai disk to be used to get the game running, and thus cannot be played by anyone who doesn't already own that program, but as they cost only half Temple's price they're a worthwhile buy if this type of game appeals to you.

An enjoyable and interesting romp, although hardly worthy of that title of computer game of the year. Better, non-graphical adventures exist, but one must remember that this is a character-epic game rather than a true adventure.

In terms of machine use, it scores quite highly. The graphics are adequate, without being brilliant, but the moody atmosphere created by the subtle use of sound is a strong plus factor. The ability to load and save previous games, characters, and even characters from other dungeon games, is another point in its favour.

Considering the hours of enjoyment (and frustration) that you'll get out of this game, ultimately it's well worth the purchase price.