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The previous evening's boozing with your fellow wizards, down at the Duck and Plunger, did not do you an awful lot of good. Especially when you showed off by turning Mike into a pink spotted Salamander. When you eventually recovered the next morning, you found yourself locked up in his dungeon, your magic powers having almost faded away. To escape from his castle, you'll need help from your familiar, but for the life of you, you can't remember the damn thing's name to summon it.

This is the first problem you come up against in a humorous, tongue-in-cheek adventure, written by Charles A. Sharpe. Ol' Sharpe has written an adventure or two before, and let it be said that this is the first of his efforts that I have found interesting enough to play, enjoy, even, for any length of time.

Escaping from the dungeon, you find yourself wandering around the wizard's castle. Here, a number of mundane objects are scattered around. The close proximity of sausages, a frying pan, a bread roll and a pot of mustard, does seem to suggest something akin to the culinary solutions found in a Peter Torrence adventure. Remember cooking a pancake to blind a camera in Seabase Delta? Any sticking pieces of map together with yoghurt and toast scrapings, in Subsunk?! Could CAS actually be PT in disguise?

The adventure, although not credited as such, is written by the Graphic Adventure Creator - or, if not, Charles Sharpe has certainly come up with an adventure system that does a remarkable impression. The graphics are typical of GAC ('passable' is about the only work that comes to mind) and the input required is mainly two word commands.

Many of the replies are humorous "I'm getting pig sick of this, master," says your familiar when progress grinds to a halt) but some could be a little more helpful. The text, when there is a longer reply than will fit beneath the picture, does not fully scroll to the top line when called to continue, making it a little tiresome reading on from where you left off.

Other than that, this is an excellent little budget adventure, that should give much amusement and frustration. A free hint sheet is available from Alternative should you really get stuck, making the package a bargain for a mere £1.99.