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Now here's an adventure game with a difference. Instead of only allowing one or two word commands it allows sentences. These sentences cannot be in English but have to be in 'INGLISH'. This is a language that was developed for adventure gaming and allows adjectives and prepositions, such as "OPEN THE GREEN DOOR" or "PICK UP THE GOLD".

Also the program incorporates something called ANIMACTION. This means that every character is doing something while you are, so GANDALF will have probably moved off from where you last left him. It also has a feature called ANIMTALK which allows you to talk to other characters in the adventure e.g. "SAY TO GANDALF 'READ THE MAP'", and GANDALF might do so or not depending on what mood he is in a the time.

Included with the package is the book The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, on which this adventure is based, and a useful instruction manual. The instruction manual supplied mentioned that the illustrations that are on other versions are not available on the BBC version. Having seen the illustrations on another machine I feel that the lack of these does not detract from the enjoyment of the adventure. My only gripe is that it takes too long to load from cassette and could Melbourne House provide a disc-based version, perhaps including illustrations?

Some hints for those who can't be bothered to sit for evenings on end trying to figure it out; always be polite and try to keep with your friends. Remember you are a small weak Hobbit of the Shire.