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Any adventure buffs worth their salt just have to drool over the Infocom range of adventures. They are rarely easy, have no graphics, display reams of highly literate (if Americanized) text and are illogically logical all the way through. Starting years ago with the highly popular Zork Trilogy that were really enormous treasure hunts, they then progressed to more complex plots that include Witness, Suspect, Trinity and of course the incomparable Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. Sadly, all these marvels can only be enjoyed by disc users - if you don't have a disc drive, you had better go out and get one as soon as possible!

It is said that everything goes in cycles and one of Infocom's latest games is back on the theme of a pure treasure hunt - Hollywood Hijinx. Set in the glittering capital of the movie world, this game has all the atmosphere of a cinema spectacular of the thirties.

You play the nephew of two Hollywood idols, Buddy Burbank, the creator of hundreds of box office bonanzas and his wife Hildegarde. Buddy died some time ago and now, on the death of your Aunt Hildegarde, you stand to inherit a fortune. Nothing in this life is certain, and you have yet to earn your inheritance. You may be the favourite nephew, but in true Hollywood fashion the drama has only just begun. Aunt Hildegarde's will sets it all out quite plainly:

You will inherit - providing that you can find ten "treasures" in the next 12 hours. The treasures are all items made famous in Uncle Buddy's films and are hidden in or around their palatial home. You have a flashlight, a poem by Buddy, a letter from Hildegarde and it is night-time - you had better get moving.

There is very little I can say about the operation of an Infocom game that has not been said before. The packaging is excellent, with lots of background material to get you in the right mood, complex input commands are accepted, the text creates a great atmosphere - and has anyone ever found a bug in one of these games?

This one gives the impression of being easier than most of Infocom's previous adventures, even to giving you a rough map of a very novel but gigantic hedge maze that has nearly 180 locations. The Hollywood Spectacular theme is maintained throughout, with giant Rambo-type statues, hidden lifts, a field sized patio, doorbells that play movie themes and a loaded cannon that just has to be fired. Watch your mapping carefully as several locations are either bigger or further away than you may think. Moves in the maze vary from 10 to 70 feet, so keep your wits and pencil well sharpened.

Infocom's range of commands is slowly growing. We have had SCRIPT, the ability to create hard copy on a printer, for some time, but OOPS is a fairly recent addition. This is not the same as the Level 9 OOPS which takes you back one move. Infocom, like many other games from the USA, requires longer inputs, for example EXAMINE rather than the more usual British short form of EXAM. Therefore it is more likely that typing mistakes will occur - entering OOPS XXXXXX enables you to correct only the misspelt word. Clever stuff.

Sadly, Infocom games are never cheap, but on the other hand you always get good value for your money. The Amstrad games are run under CRM so will run on both PCW and CPC machines (with disc drive). PC 1512 owners are catered for by the IBM versions.