The Adventurer - S.& D. Gray/Zenobi Software.    
                      (Text adventure)
            Price œ5.99 includes free blank disk.

                    Reviewed by Joan Dunn

Turning  on the TV  these days, you stand a good chance of seeing 
a game show or quiz programme.  You either love them or they bore 
you to tears with often  stupid questions  and inane answers. Now
the  computer  has  been  infected  with the  quiz  bug  and  The
Adventurer  starts  with Adam Venture's Adventurer  of  the  Year 
Quest. Who could resist that?
 
You are Jason KIrkwood and you have beaten all other  contestants 
in the heats. Now you have come to take part in the finals.

You  sit nervously on a chintz sofa in a small reception room  at 
the  TV  studio.  On  the  walls there are photographs of  famous 
personalities. Do  examine  them, not that they are any help, but 
the names are amusing. I particularly liked Werry Togan.  
A  young lady comes to show you the way to the stage and you  can 
hear the applause as you stand waiting to be called.

Then  Adam calls your name and you find yourself in front of  the 
camera. Adam will ask you a question and if you answer correctly, 
you  will be given the key to the door of your  quest.  When  you 
have  solved the problems you must return  and your name will  be 
inscribed on the roll of honour. Rather ominously, Adam says "Few 
have returned." Having played the game, I'm not surprised.

There are nine questions, all concerned with adventure games. You 
are  only  asked one,  and the sequence is random.  If  you  have 
examined the reception room, you will have found the answers.

When  you have answered correctly,  a curtain is drawn aside  and 
you are given a key to the door. You open it and step through....
no prize on the other side - you  find  yourself falling  through
space,  all your possessions are torn from your body and you land
heavily on a narrow track, no sign of a way to return and so your
adventure begins.

There  are a good number of locations and you need to do quite  a 
bit of back-tracking.  I lost count of the number of times I went 
through  the village - quite  a good  spot to drop  your  surplus 
objects.  There is plenty to find and it is as well to be precise 
with  your examination of locations.  There are sometimes two  or 
three items hidden in different parts of a room,  so it's easy to 
miss something.

The text is adequate but prosaic and I should have liked a little 
more  atmosphere.  The problems are logical but often quite  hard 
and  need some long and careful thought.  You can "take all"  and 
"drop all" which is always useful.  I have personally never  come 
across  the  words  used here to light your  lamp,  so  think  of 
something a bit out of the ordinary.

Your big problem at the beginning of the game is that,  like  the 
king  in  the  song,  you  are "in  the  altogether",  completely 
starkers!  Wherever you go, you are not the flavour of the month. 
You are thrown out of the inn,  hit over the head with a broom by 
the farmer's wife, and pounced on by the village bobby and put in 
the stocks. Once you find some clothes, life gets a lot easier.

I  found the scoring annoying - Arsenal 2,  Liverpool 1. The only
way to find your real score is to quit or get killed off.

The first half of the game was quite ordinary with houses, shops,
and a farmyard,  then suddenly it developed a more mystical  air,
and I should  like to have seen some of this fantasy in the first
half of the adventure too.

You  need to find several odd items to make a magic potion  which 
will  enable you to return to the everyday world.  There you  are 
welcomed back by Adam and congratulated on your success. You even 
plan to come back again next year ...... some people are gluttons 
for punishment!

The  game  is very enjoyable and will keep the player  happy  for 
many  hours.  At such a reasonable price,  and with a  free  disk 
thrown in, it is exceedingly good value for money.