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It was with great disappointment that I discovered US Gold's game wasn't an adaptation of the superbly camp film. No Doug McClure. No Peter Cushing. If it wasn't for the fact they told me it had pterodactyls in it, I'd've been too disheartened to boot it up. The game itself comes on two disks and there's the usual disk-swapping palaver to get going, but to give it is due it is reasonably swift to load up, unlike some other two disk games I could mention.

The first thing you have to do is to choose a character from one of four eminent scientists. Your choice will, I'm assured, have a discernible effect on your physical and mental qualities. You'll have to trust them on that one, I didn't detect any major differences.

From there it's up to the volcano Sneffels to begin your little outing. Flimsy scenario certainly isn't this game's weak point. It does after all have the Jules Verne novel to draw on. The introduction is a captivating series of screens in the classic adventure mode. The first mini arcade sequence is nice to look at but dull.

Into the game, and you're confronted with a screen which looks uncannily like the side of a sauna with its little dials and wooden panelling. This is what you're going to be staring at for most of the game, so you'd better get used to it. When you've chosen a compass direction a little text box pops up and tells you about the scenery and if anything happens to you. This usually seems to be either a sprained ankle or a bite from a bat, or variations on them. Fortunately you can repair their minor injuries with the aid of your trusty medical bag.

In trying to combine action and adventure, the programmers CHIP, have managed to combine the worst of both worlds: the tedium potential of adventure and the vacuity of the arcade. It is very nicely done, but I'm afraid that Journey To The Centre Of The Earth is boring. Something which the book never was.

Screens illustrating your surroundings are few and far between and the arcade games become repetitive. One to look forward to is the stampede of mammoths. Trying to avoid them is like trying to cross the M25 with a blindfold on. Being hit by a mammoth charging at full pelt [No pen here, surely? - Ed] is not something I would expect anyone to get up from, least of all your ageing scientist. Yet the old man with the sprained ankles, will. In fact only if you are hit half-a-dozen times, does a little text box appear telling you you've been bitten by a bat. But life's like that, isn't it? You survive being trampled to death by a rampaging herd of mammoths only to die soon after from a chronically sprained wrist. It's simply not fair and neither is Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. It should have been good, but it isn't really.