The Great Fish Van Scandal is one of several adventures from the newly created Orange Software. If ever an adventure had a ridiculous storyline behind it, this game certainly does.

One day a strange thing happens to you: as you walk to work, you are jumped by two masked men, blindfolded, tied up and gagged and thrown in the back of what smells like a fish van. Then you are hit on the head, and when you regain your senses, you are in an even smellier damp cell. (Alternatively, negotiating the London Underground during the Thursday night rush after a brief spell of socialising, you unaccountably find yourself in Euston Station too without remembering how or even why you got there - One Of Our Correspondents).

It sounds as though somebody has a pretty overactive imagination! The game starts off in the damp cell, with water dripping from the ceiling and rats scurrying beneath a pile of straw.

The only visible object is a blanket. EXAMINE BLANKET reveals that there is nothing special about the blanket. With no exits apparent, the only direction is east to another part of the cell, where there is a grille in the ceiling. The only way out would be to but your way out, but as you have nothing sharp at the moment, you'll have to find another way.

Bake to the first locations, and I soon realised that the only way out was under that pile of straw, though quite how I still don't know!!

The game supports the usual verb/noun inputs with N, S, E, W, U, D for directions. Verbs include LOOK, EXAMINE, HELP, SCORE, BUT, KILL, etc. and the usual LOAD/SAVE commands.

However, despite the inclusion of verbs like KILL, the game will not tolerate violence - on receiving a violet command, the game will stop and the computer will cold-start. Don't panic - it's not a bug. As soon as you press a key the game will restart with a warning not to use violence.

There are a large number of locations in the game, and many of them contain elements of humour, though the game hovers precariously between humour and dodgy language in parts. (Mr. Morrison offered an example of a dodgy abbreviation here, but as I couldn't work it out, I wiil leave it to greater wits than myself - Ed)

The game operates totally in text, which hasn't been re-defined. Nevertheless, the author has mananged to keep his descriptions fairly detailed and the screen is quite well laid out.

Although the game operates in Basic, it plays at a reasonable speed. As with most Basic games now, it's well protected with the BREAK key being disabled as well as the LIST command.

There seems to be a slight bug in the game, as every time you type EAT you bite your lip and eventually die, regardless of whether or not you are eating anything at the time.

It's a good, well-thought out game with a totally original idea behind it, not one perhaps for the beginner, as it's fairly complex, but should appeal to the hardened adventurer.