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This program is really nine small adventures in one. The brave adventurer, described as a freelance programmer for Level 9, must search through eight time zones to recover certain objects to be used in the final battle with the timelords in a ninth zone.

The long program only just fits in a 32K machine, but a catchy little baroque style tune is played during the four-to-five minute loading time.

This is an all-text adventure with no trimmings such as colour or flashing effects. In place of these are very full descriptions of in excess of 200 locations. The trek starts from the comfort of your own house but eventually a time machine gives you access to any of the time zones you need to visit. The manual suggests you tackle the zones in numerical (not chronological) order to ensure you have the right equipment with you to combat difficulties. This rather depends on what you pick up and which puzzles you manage to solve. The various areas of history visited are the Ice Age, the Age of Dinosaurs, the Vikings, the Romans, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the present day, a possible future and somewhere that might be timeless.

Level 9 makes much play of its sophisticated command interpreter, but I still managed to get "You can't go in that direction" to my command PUT ROPE IN RUCKSACK. I also found it annoying to have to open ever door to get through.

Lords Of Time crams a very large adventure into a comparatively small amount of memory, gives lively and detailed descriptions and copes with quite involved commands. The scenarios are incentive and complex and even the seasoned adventure should be kept puzzling for a good while.