From the start I had problems with Pyraventure - Amenophis III, but not of the usual type. I was unable to load it - so I found Andrew Hill's telephone number and he apologised and sent out another copy immediately, As this one also failed to load I tried a different approach and borrowed a Dragon 32 as I own a 64. Lo and behold both copies loaded first time complete with 'real speech', which turned out to be a recorded message on the tape played back during loading, very difficult to understand and also at a different level from the program so that you end up turning the volume up and then down.

When it is loaded you are told that you have to find the Mask of Amenophis III and return it to the starting point with other treasure that you will find on your travels. Directions cannot be input as a single letter and I think that this detracts from the enjoyment of the game. However, this is more than made up for by the plot and the challenges which you encounter on your travels. I liked especially the little touch of no deaths or serious damage caused despite your attempts at violence I do not like adventures which are made too complex by requiring completely illogical actions in order to complete them. This one is certainly not like that, although you do have to think hard about what use certain items have.

One of the tools that you require is in a seemingly illogical place but a clue is given to the hideout by an action you have to take in progress inside the pyramid itself. You are limited to the number of items you can carry so thought has to be given as to what item will be needed where. The cave complex is very difficult as mapping helps you to get in to find the objects, but then you seem to be in a different location when you try to retrace your steps, although it is quite possible to get out if you persist. I nearly missed one of the items in the caves as I appeared to be wandering aimlessly but carried on and suddenly came upon a different description to my surroundings which led me to a very important item. There are no 'red herrings' in misadventure and everything has its use. Take note also of the loading of the screen as there is at least one clue there.

All in all I really enjoyed it, as will every adventurer. It is slightly spoiled by having to type GO N at least on every location change. I have since tried this adventure on a Dragon 32 that will not accept the speed poke and the machine crashed. I have contacted Andrew Hill to inform him of these problems and he assured me that they would soon have it working for all machines, so if you wish to buy it, please tell him what your machine is so that you can be sure of a working copy.

I wish programmers would not put in the speed poke without a question about whether your machine can handle it or not at the very beginning, as I will not use it and I know of others who will not use it at all. It also restricts the number of machines that can run their software. I think that this is Tim Wheals' first commercial adventure and it is not presented as well on screen as some of the others we have treated to, but I rate the actual adventure as one of the best I have come across, and well worth buying when the problems are sorted out.