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In a fit of generosity (must be Christmas!), Hutch offered to review this swashbuckling pirate adventure game. He wears the eye patch, fake wooden leg, dodgy parrot, inane grin and ridiculous hat to this day...

They were mad old salty sea dogs, those pirate chaps, I mean, they put up with untold hardships like sea shanties, rats, death, mutilation, outside toilets, manning the mainsail, accordion players and Spanish idiots in absurdly large hats all for the chance of finding a bit of treasure. If they were around today they'd all be quiz show contestants.

Any road up, ever since the pirates hung up their cutlasses, misty-eyed adventurers the world over have been looking for their ill-gotten treasures. Every peculiar-looking rocky overhang has been checked out, every X-shaped tree has been hacked down and every mysterious skull-shaped cave has been investigated. Until now, that is.

Alright, seedy intro aside, Treasure Isle is an adventure game. Adventure games (to those of you who aren't in the know) are text-based problem solving games. By collecting various items, visiting assorted locations and 'interacting' with a select band off game characters, you meander slowly towards a long term goal which, in this case, is finding some buried treasure.

The primary difference between this kind of game and those which involve joysticks is that adventure games require a bit of thought and some extended Biro chewing. More often that not, you end up bashing your head repeatedly against the keyboard in search of the elusive phrase which will enable you to progress to the next challenge.

The success or failure of any adventure game rests wholly on the sophistication of the parser. This is the bit of the program which interprets your commands; the better the parser, the more sophisticated your sentences can be. Treasure Isle's parser is of a fairly sophisticated standard, meaning that while it can understand phrases like "Get all" or "Put lamp on table then go west", it'll have a bit of a problem with "Float lethargically towards the throbbing light while loudly reciting Macbeth".

The problems in Treasure Isle are all fairly logical. When you encounter a little girl who's blocking the way, for instance, you simply go and buy her an ice cream and she'll clear off. Thus, as you wander around the Canary Islands (the setting for the game) you come across sundry obstructions which you may not able to complete until you've done something else (like buying an ice cream, for instance).

Treasure Isle has got graphics in it. They even move a bit. But they serve very little purpose other than to spice the screen up a bit. There's also some music (adventure game purists wouldn't approve!) but this should be switched off at the earlier opportunity and replaced with some tunes on the old stereo.

I feel I can recommend this game for several reasons. Firstly, it has a comprehensive help system which offers golden nuggets of advice at just the right moments. Secondly, the parser is adequate, if a little reliant on exactly the right word. Thirdly, you (that's Weebles in the game) own a dog called Ruffles.

There's nothing overly taxing in this game. A bit of minor perseverance and you'll complete the vast majority of the puzzles. But when you do run up against a brick wall, simply have a sip of coffee, gaze out the window for a bit, pick your nose and then enter the most obvious thing you can thing of. It usually does the trick!

1. Good game for novice adventurers who are new to the genre...
2. ...though all you old hands might find it a bit easy!
3. Good all round text/graphic adventure.