The Ket Trilogy is something of a Spectrum classic, consisting of three games entitled Mountains Of Ket, Temple Of Vran and Final Mission. The adventures were originally released separately, during 1984, and there was a modest prize of a video recorder for the first person to solve the series.

That, of course, is past history, for the prize was indeed won. However, the games were not played primarily for the prize, for they were good adventures in themselves, and the trilogy has now been revived for the Commodore 64. The three games come on one cassette - and without a doubt the Commodore owner gets the best deal! Not only is the C64 package £2 cheaper, the format has a decidedly original feature.

There are not, and never were, graphic adventures. But Incentive have added a graphic display showing the map of the game. This doesn't spoil the surprises at all, for the map starts off blank, and locations are only added as you enter them for the first time.

To keep track of where you are, a little 'man-icon' with a pointer, hops about to indicate your position on the map at any given time. Exits are shown open where they exist, so you can see at a glance the choices of movement that are open to you. So there is simply no need for map-making, sometimes one of the most tedious tasks in playing an adventure, for it is all done for you automatically! The map itself is not artistically spectacular, but the feature itself earns the high graphics rating.

You play the part of a framed murderer under the sentence of death. At the eleventh hour, you are given a reprieve by the Lords of Ket, provided you agreed to carry out a mission for them. To ensure you don't do a runner once released, a bug called Edgar has been implanted into your neck, and at the slightest sign of defection, he will release poison into you.

Edgar is also able to provide help in your task, which is to bring about the death of Vran and Delphia. These two head a feuding group known as the Man Monks, who are responsible for a serious of vicious attacks on the land of Ket. Vran is the Priest King and Delphina their High Priestess.

In Mountains Of Ket, you set out to pass through the mountain range from beyond which the attacks come. Temple Of Vran takes over as you emerge from the far side of the mountain, and from here you seek out the villains at their temple, and aim to kill Delphia. It is in Final Mission that you get to killing the powerful Vran himself.

The games have their original two-word parser, which is sufficient if a little annoying at times. EXAMINE is a command that it doesn't like, unless you are holding the object. I also found that if a space is inadvertantly typed onto the end of the second word, the parser thinks that you have, in fact, entered three words, and tells you not to!

The puzzles have a reasonable range of difficulty, and many are quite clever. The games also have a 'Combat mode' which is entered automatically when a foe decides to attack. The map screen clears, and energy and luck points are displayed and updated for both you and your opponent, as the battle proceeds. Attacks, lunges, and dodging is all shown in a commentary, accompanied by suitable sound effects.

During combat, the player is sometimes offered the option of escaping, and sometimes fails to do so! Adventurers might blanch at the thought of this interruption to their adventuring with random effects, but it is far less obstructive than it sounds, and usually the player wins.

It is pleasing to see there adventures have not been lost, and the plots and solutions have remained identical to the Spectrum originals. What undoubtedly makes the Ket Trilogy outstanding is the totally original idea of providing map-making graphics. A stroke of sheer brilliance, in a real value-for-money package!