It is comforting to know that no matter what is expected of you in an adventure, the worst you can do is to fall off your chair, although some adventures become so engrossing that your heart rate suffers at moments like these.

Something akin to magic separates the good adventures from the bad. Some of them have such an air of mystery and intrigue about them that you hold your breath before hitting the ENTER key, knowing that it may be the last time you are allowed to do so. The Curse of Camarc has all of these ingredients and more. There is 57K devoted to dynamic characters, bewildering locations and puzzles for you to explore and exploit. Killing the Bear may have been easy but was it the right thing to do? Maybe he could have helped you in your quest to save the Kingdom of Bailakin against the evil of the Wizard Camarc. That I am afraid is for you alone to find out.

Having spent many hours desperately trying to see as much of this adventure as I could before I reviewed it I must admit to being addicted. My highest score is only 35% and I feel as if I have spent a lifetime on it already. There are many things which are not obvious at first glance. It pays, as in all adventures, to be meticulously careful in examining your surroundings. Objects which seem to have served their purpose and have been discarded are sadly missed after travelling over mountains and rivers. It pays to know a littie about legendary events as some of them have rubbed off in certain places. The program allows a full SAVE/LOAD facility which is useful, especially just before you try something that may (or may not!) seem risky. Flex commands may also be accessed in mid-game provided that they only occupy the Utility Command Space ($C100-$C6FF). It is a shame really that this game is only available to us Flex users, but the sheer size of the program prohibits it from being cassette based.

It is difficult to give a fair appraisal of an adventure game without describing the events which take place in it, but that might spoil the game. Quite simply this is an unusually large and complex program which I found rivetting and I don't see why you shouldn't as well.