Larkspur Waldorf Is Trapped is the first in a trilogy of adventures with the others presumably hot on its heels (Part two out now, review shortly - Ed). As your mission as Larkspur in this game is to free yourself from a castle, I suppose the next title will be 'Larkspur isn't trapped any more but has landed himself in more trouble'.

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The task - getting out of a castle - is not very original. The black on buff hi-res screen is divided into five sections: top left is a picture of Larkspur himself and the title, which remains throughout.

To free Mr. Waldorf you are told that you will need a parachute. Centre top is a view of your locations, although these are limited to certain points and even then one drawing is often used for several different locations - for instance, while swimming in the lake, despite moving in different directions, you get the same view.

Top right is the inventory - not much else to say about that apart from that you start off with a hat.

Below those sections is the list of accessible directions, and then the rest of the screen is devoted to location description and your response.

The starting point is a courtyard and you move through rooms such as kitchens, cells, an annex where there is a parachute which is typically out of reach. As per normal there are objects around such as a shield, radioactive radish and a herring which turns out to be a red one - I'm sure I've seen that somewhere else in an adventure!

Abbreviated entries such as N, E, etc. are allowed, although backspacing is replaced by the CLEAR key, which ignores the typed command.

Other standard adventure features include the maze which in this case is a complex of tunnels, and is as frustrating as normal. One thing that I thought would be frustrating was the fact that when you're fatally lacerated against an outcrop of rocks or whatever, you have to load in data from side B of the cassette. However, this is done so quickly that you hardly notice. Anyway, good players don't get killed.

All in all, I'm a bit undecided about this one, as there's nothing here that hasn't been done before. Humour is not as apparent as the title would suggest, and what there is is nowhere near as successful as say The Quest for Life or The Cricklewood Incident. Yet I've a feeling this little chap might grow on you as he progresses through his troubles, because his creators can certainly construct a good program, they just need a spark of real originality to turn it into a real adventure.