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Both of the titles reviewed here are described by the publisher as 'bookware' in that they both combine together as a single package a book and a computer program (supplied on cassette). The Pen And The Dark is an adventure game based upon a science fiction short story which is part of the package, while My Secret File provides the means of storing lots of personal data on a computer, and is based upon the Puffin book of the same name, again included as part of the package.

As a science fiction short story this is indeed very short, and although it is based on an intriguing idea, the story lacks substance. The adventure game, which is broadly based on the book, seemed much more interesting once you accept the role-playing that it entails.

In the computer game, you act out the part of the book's main character. The edition of the book included in the package has clearly been specially produced for use with the adventure game, and contains full instructions for loading and running the game, including the facility of saving the game at any stage for reloading later. In general, I suspect that this package will appeal far more to teenagers than to adults, and this is particularly true of the story. The adventure game is quite extensive, and being written in Basic, you can search through the coding for additional clues if you get really desperate.

My Secret File was originally published as a Puffin book. The book is written for young teenagers and provides the space, and lots of ideas, for the youngster to build up an extensive personal database about himself, his family and friends. In this respect the book is admirable, provided that it is treated in the light-hearted way intended.

I was less happy about the computer version provided. The book is the original Puffin and thus the additional instructions for using the program cassette are supplied as a separate leaflet. In some cases the information supplied is inaccurate or incomplete, and the section on saving and reloading your datafile was particularly poor (as was the program's screen display at this point). Regrettably, the program more or less mirrors the book, providing the means to store and subsequently redisplay the information recorded, but there is no attempt to exploit the computer's capacity for information retrieval or for recording of the information stored. Although any data stored in the computer is easily changed I wonder how many children would continue to do this after the initial novelty has worn off.

With more thought and development, this particular package could have provided a really exciting bridge between home, education and the serious world of computing. Unfortunately, the opportunity has been lost by tying everything to the limitations of the original book format. Nonetheless, this is a good combination, apart from the less-than-adequate program instructions provided.