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One of the features of the new Atari disc package is the inclusion of a new adventure game, The Pay-Off. Fortunately for this reviewer, who already owns a complete Atari system, the game is also available in its own right from "all good Atari stockists".

The game is a double first for Atari, being both their first disc game and also their first adventure. Based on this worthy effort, we can only hope that it won't be their last.

Despite the recent trend towards graphic adventures, Atari chose to launch a text-only game, billed in publicity as "an adventurer's adventure". This may be seen in some quarters as Atari once more swimming against the tide, but the train is mightier than the pixel, as any real adventurer will assert.

You start out as a small time hoodlum determined to stake your last few dollars on a hopeless nag, a rank outsider that only an out-and-out loser would back. Unfortuantely, as you quickly discover, Luigi, in whose seedy bettering shop you stand, is in no mood to extend your credit. In fact, he's calling in your market, and boy does he mean business!

Leaving the shop, forcibly if needs be, the threat of a quick trip to the bottom of the river ringing in your ears, you begin a search for some quick cash - 40,000 greenbacks to be exact.

The lack of immediate exits soon had me climbing the wall, but the writers were one jump ahead and the real route to success was nothing more than a pipe dream.

Once over these initial obstacles I soon found plenty of real life places to explore and objects to use. I also discovered a malevolent sense of humour lurking beneath the surface. Just try climbing the fence in the car park.

In fact, I found myself more and more saving my game position and deliberately "dying" in order to enjot the author's sense of humour.

The beauty of this adventure is that the more you think yourself into the character the easiest it is to solve the various problems. A desperate situation calls for desperate meeasure, and at least two of the obstacles which confront you require a degree of violence to overcome them. Not too much though, or you will provoke a swift reprisal.

The game has several distinct phases, ranging from "What on earth am I supposed to be doing?" which is not entirely clear at the outset, to a phase where everything is proceeding in a straightforward manner.

This leads the unwary adventurer to think that the solution to the game is a fairly obvious one. Many objects and places are found which lead the villain of the piece, you, to the rear of the Bank of New Jersey in search of a fabulous gem which, word on the street has it, could be the answer to all your problems.

Yet the greatest crime has been perpetrated (intentionally I might add) by the programmers, who have allowed the adventurer just enough rope to hang himself.

While it is possible to gain access to the bank - and to explore it, despite the dozy guard - one very important piece of equipment is secreted where only the most persistent adventurer will locate it without difficulty. In fact, you've been framed!

The problem with reviewing an adventure such as The Pay-Off is that the game revolves around solving problem after problem, each new success allowing more of the adventure to reveal itself.

It exudes a unique atmosphere so essential in preventing such games from becoming mere execises in problem solving, and yet to allude to solutions too obviously is to spoil that feeling. Suffice it to say that the game left this adventurer peering warily over his shoulder for any sign of Luigi and his boys as he crouched at the vault door, preparing his last drill bit.