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If you've tried adventures but find they lack depth or restrict your movements, why not try a computer role-playing game?

They don't quite match up to the real role-playing action and atmosphere of games such as Dungeons and Dragons and Chivalry and Sorcery, but they do come close.

Wizard's Crown provides you with a massive world of magic, monsters and mayhem to explore. There are towns, dungeons and ancient ruins that SSI claims will take you 100 hours to complete.

Somewhere in the land lurks the evil wizard Tarmon who stole the Crown of the Emperor. Your quest is to get it back.

If you're to stand any chance of surviving - never mind solving - the game you must manage your party of eight adventurers so that the rangers and fighters are suppoted by magic-wielding sorcerers, healing priests and lurking, scouting thieves.

Each character has a rating for its strength, dexterity, intelligence and life (health points) as well as specific skills such as fighting, haggling or casting any of the sorcerer's 22 possible spells.

Play is controlled by entering single key commands to move your party around a wilderness map which then expands for combat.

In such a battle, each character and monster is moved independently, depending on its dexterity. Single key commands control moves, attacks loading and firing bows, casting spells, healing wounds, sneaking by thieves and evasive action such as ducking or zig-zagging.

As your characters survive battles and fight for plunder, they will gain in skills, experience and power, equip themselves with magical weapons and powerful potions.

This depth of character and gameplay make up for the elementary graphics and almost constant disc accessing. The result is an enjoyable game that will take months to solve.