If you go by the number of locations, Snowball must be one of the biggest adventure games ever. It boasts over 7,000 of them, but fortunately you don't have to map, the complete set.

According to Level 9, the action takes place aboard a starship that could actually work. Not having the facilities to check this statement, I'll take their word for it.

The Snowball is an aptly-named interstar freezer ship containing two million frozen colonists. You play the part of Special Agent Kim Kimberley, woken while the ship is in transit.

The fact that you've been woken means that something is wrong. It's your job to find out what's happened and save the lives of the passengers.

Being based on a 'working model', the problems to be solved in Snowball are logical rather than magical. However, as the manual suggests, some of the technology used might be described as magical in 1980's terms.

You start the game in your coffin, and your first problem is to get out of it. Pretty soon you encounter the Nightingales, a lethal variety of robot that polices the starship mortuaries.

The game follows the classic adventure style in that you are awarded points for certain actions. There is a maximum score of 1,000, but you can complete the game with a less than perfect score so it's not like having to collect a given number of 'treasures'.

Level 9 have developed a powerful parsing system, so your input can be a bit more than GET SWORD or KILL DRAGON. You can even use IT to refer to the object of the previous command, which saves a lot of time in the long run.

Having said that, I noticed some anomalies. If you want a break from the game itself, find a safe location and try typing in the alphabet a letter at a time.

Some care has obviously gone into creating the character of Kim because even with a picture on the cover of the manual and a personality profile inside, it's not clear whether Kim is male or female. This means that no matter who is playing the game they can think themselves into the role.

I really appreciate this aspect - you've no idea how fed up I am of pretending to be a hairy-armed yobbo.

In fact, I really enjoyed playing Snowball and would recommend it to anyone who likes a good adventure and is fed up with dwarves and swords.

My only complaint is that BBC Micro owners get a better deal. Presumably by the use of some clever interrupt programming, the Beeb version of the tape plays a lovely tune while loading.

Given that the official Atari tape-deck has an audio channel as well - which the 'conversational' series of language tutorials put to good use - Level 9 could have included the tune without even needing the clever programming.

Snowball is the first of a Silicon Dream trilogy. The second in the series, Return To Eden is now available and it's as enjoyable as Snowball I'll be out of circulation for the next few weeks.