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You're a frog! OK, it was the only way to escape the invasion of a horde of evil warlocks. You were the Sorcerer's apprentice and were attempting to concoct a potion to improve your looks but it all went wrong and now you're hopping mad.

As Mervyn the frog, you have to battle through a dungeon of eight levels, each consisting of between 50 and 100 rooms full of warlocks and their deadly minions. There are eight Warlocks on each level and by fighting them you aim to defeat them and steal valuable runes with which you can concoct spells that will help your survive the lower levels.

The screen shows an aerial view of each room that will remind you more of Dandy than Gauntlet, with the critters appearing in black on single-coloured room backgrounds but with one major difference. The rooms only appear when you enter them and even rooms you've already visited appear empty until you step inside them again but then it might be too late. Some rooms contain more than swarming minions and cowering warlocks that will run before they have to do their own fighting; tomb-shaped spell generators that can hurl munching mouths, spinning knives, glistening orbiters and energy balls to zap you and mysterious symbols embedded on the floor.

These symbols or glyphs are essential to your quest and survival as the glyph of power can wipe out a roomful of minions with a press of the fire button. The Glyph of Seeing puts up a map of the level (that you've explored so far), the Glyph of Travel takes you down to the other levels and the Glyph of Sorcery allows you to review your spells and create others if you've collected any runes.

Runes are won during honourable combat with the Warlocks once you've cornered them. This leads you to a sub game in which the letters of the word RANARAMA are jumped up and you have only a few seconds to unjumble them. Complete the puzzle in time and you have the opportunity to collect four runes before they evaporate. If you lose, you die. Tough.

You begin the game with the lowest spells in three of the four categories that decide your offence, defence and effect capabilities and two power spells that represent your energy (and lives). Using the runes you've collected you'll be able to replace these low level spells with stronger spells, such as MISSILE and PLASMA BOLT offensive spells, and SHIELD and WALL defensive spells based up by PSYCHIC and SYMBOLIC power spells. It's vital to keep these spells in balance as an eighth level offensive spell (the highest you can go) would drain the first level power spell (MORTAL) in seconds.

No amount of runes and spells will save you if you're ambushed and attacked by the hordes of minions that protect the warlocks. These increase in strength and power the lower they lurk in the dungeon. You can fight them off with your offence spells but you must ensure you've got a strong enough spell. It's pointless trying to take on a ghoul with a level one ZAP spell as this will only annoy it more.

Steve Turner is best known for his Spectrum games such as Avalon and Quazatron but this, the first to be converted for the C64, will find a new group of Turner fans waiting to delve into his latest chartbuster.