Jacaranda Jim - author Graham Cluley
          (Shareware text adventure on PD 153)

              Dwarfed on a PC by Grimwold

"Howdy! My name is Jacaranda Jim.  I was on a routine
space-journey to Jupiter (Sol system, Mutters Spiral) when my
cargo-ship was taken over by a crack squad of homicidal beechwood
armchairs. Desperate to avoid one of those really silly adventure
games with words like "flip-flops" and "placid" in them I
crashlanded into the wacky world of Ibberspleen IV.  (Where the
most ridiculous word in circulation appears to be "plinth").

"I was rescued from the burning wreckage by a smug little Gribbley
called "Alan". This was just too much and I decided it would be
wise to call it a day and lose consciousness.

"At the moment I am still unconscious and this is all a dream -
you've just interrupted a game of tennis I was having against a
rhinoceros called "Hilda"."

- So the introduction to this PC adventure goes. Many of you will
already have heard of this game, it's been around for a while.
As far as I can tell, it's not been written by a 'popular'
utility, I've heard that Graham uses his own utility for writing
adventures and if this is so, he's very talented in general
programming, not to mention the adventure in question.  Jacaranda
Jim is a wild and frenzied trip through a variety of strange
locations, not to mention some strange creatures and characters.

The humour is a bit restrained throughout, despite the
introduction, but can afford a laugh on the odd occasion. I
personally think this is a good thing, the humour taking second
place to the puzzles. Some authors prefer to squeeze the puzzles
in amongst the jokes - it works sometimes, but often doesn't. With
JJ, however, the whole humour-puzzle interaction works very well,
each one complimenting the other.

Some of the puzzles are a little tricky, I would've preferred a
few more hints, but perhaps that's just me being dim. All in all,
though, this is a worthy game and a definite addition for anyone's
adventure collection.

                  Grimwold's rating: 8.5/10