The PC Games Bible - Robin Matthews and Paul Rigby
                    Sigma Press, œ12.95

Described on the back cover as 'The Good, The Bad and The Truly
Awful - a collector's guide', this book is aimed at anyone who
has, or maybe is considering getting, a PC. Games for that machine
are expensive and getting more so as they get more complex, with
more packaging, a greater number of disks and so forth. Whereas I
used to blanch at paying œ25 for an ST game, I seem to accept œ40
as being a fairly normal price for a commercial PC game (though
I'll always try to buy it as cheaply as possible). There are so
many games too, going back over the years, and more being added
every week. It's often hard to make a decision about which game to
buy. If you want to buy an RPG, which should you get? One of the
Bard's Tale series? An SSI Gold Box? A Might and Magic? Or one of
the 'one-off' RPGs?

There are several ways to find out. Check out the magazines and
read the reviews or ask other people what they think. However, you
only have to check out the last few issues of SynTax to see how
people's opinions vary on games such as Lure of the Temptress.
Even the glossies don't always agree and some seem wary of
pointing out problems with commercial games. How many reviews have
you seen that point out the bugs in Darklands? I rest my case.

What you want is an unbiased account of as many games as possible.
Not necessarily in great detail for each one, just enough to let
you know if (a) it's the sort of game that will interest you (b)
if there's a similar style game about that is better (c) if it
will work on your machine.

This is what the PC Games Bible aims to do, and to continue doing,
as the authors are planning to update it each year. Divided into
sections including adventures, RPGs, arcade games, strategy,
sport, simulations and wargames, it is a larger format paperback
which gives brief reviews for over 2000 games in 324 pages. In
each case you get the title, publisher, display needed, sound
support and a paragraph of descriptive text. This can vary from 2
lines to about 12 and will give some extra information and the
authors' opinion of the game, good or bad. For example (I loved
this one!):  they say about Final Day from Tension, which I've
never heard of (fortunately, by the sound of it), "A terrible
scrolling shoot-'em-up. Poor graphics, bad interface, simply not
worth a carrot. But someone has taken the time to write it so,
with respect, this is not worth loading up."

The book covers programs from the early 80s to the present day
and it's fascinating to see adventures listed that you've never
previously come across. The only problem is that once you've read
about them, you want to play them and don't know where to get them
any more. Ones that especially appealed to me included The Manhole
from Activision, a fantasy graphic adventure set in a surreal
world that owes a lot to Lewis Carroll and Salvador Dali; Voodoo
Island from Thunder Mountain, one of a series of text adventures
they produced; Talisman from Polarware, set in ancient Persia; the
RPG Icon Quest for the Ring from Macrocom Inc, written in 1984 and
based round the Germanic legends and is similar to Hack and Rogue.
If anyone has copies of those they'd like to sell, please let me
know!

The authors also give their awards for Best of the Year 1991-92 in
all categories (the overall Game of the Year was Civilisation), a
Hall of Fame for innovative games, and their personal Top 20 for
the year and all-time favourites.

All in all, an excellent book. Very useful for reference, but also
fascinating to just sit and read.

Sigma Press are at 1 South Oak Lane,Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 6AR.
Credit cards orders can be given on 0625-531035 which is a
24-hour answerphone. Add œ1.00 P&P.
                                                  Sue