Following hard on the heels of the Jewels Of Darkness trilogy, Rainbird has released the Silicon Dreams trilogy in a similar three-game pack. The games, they say, have been "totally rewritten to incorporate the latest innovations in adventure-writing technique".

The first in the trilogy, and my favourite, concerns the voyage of colonists in deep space, to the star system Eridani A. Since the journey takes 100 years, the crew and passengers are travelling in a cryogenic sleep, sealed in 'freezer coffins'. Something goes wrong on board, and you, as Kim Kimberley, a sort of unisex hero person, are awakened, and must put matters right before the Snowball crashes.

Things are not so simple, for there are deadly 'Nightingales' patrolling the corridors, and an awkward Waldroid to contend with.

Snowball dates back to those golden days when Level 9 produced text-only adventures. Thus, the new version is considerably changed from the original. RAM SAVE, RAM RESTORE, and OOPS commands have been added, the text enhanced, and graphics provided. Type-ahead has also been introduced, which should ensure that if you work faster than the computer your efforts are not wasted. However, as is true of most of Level 9's current graphics, these are a waste of time and space.

The text has had minor changes, but I doubt that this actually improves the atmosphere of the game - the more hinted at and less spelled out in an adventure of this nature, the better. And the parser remains as unintelligent as before.

Nevertheless, this is an excellent game, full of atmosphere and suspense.

This is the second of the bunch, and takes the story of the Snowball on a step. Still playing the part of Kim Kimberley, you have been wrongly accused (and found guilty) of murder. You manage to get to the surface of Eden, the only habitable planet in the Eridani system, ahead of the Snowball.

An advance party of robot machines has been sent ahead to make the planet habitable, but has overdone things with the vegetation. From here on, things get a bit ecological. Among other things you have to tame ants with a stalk, and pacify a Leviathan. Quite a mind-bending and rather abstract plot - not one of my favourites.

The original was one of Level 9's early graphic adventures, but again, the rest of the program has been brought up to the current standard.

This completes the trilogy. The colony on Eden is ruled as a benevolent bureaucracy by the Third Kim. There are problems; people are redundant, robots run the city of Enoch in which the action takes place.

This is a game that is easy to stroll through without doing too much with the result you get nowhere fast! The central problem features a system of travel disks, and to help unravel this problem, the official hint sheet for the game (not supplied, but available to bona-fide purchasers) offers a Basic listing.

There is hardly any noticeable difference between the new version of The Worm In Paradise and the original.

Silicon Dreams comes on three separate cassettes, or on one disk, in the standard high-quality Rainbird packaging, which includes a 48 page novella and Playing Guide.

These games are a must for any serious adventure player. If you've not played them before, they are a bargain at £14.95 for three.